May 31, 2007

Blur reflective spray: A messy way to outmaneuver paparazzi


Alex Rodriguez, take note: The latest anti-paparazzi invention making the rounds is a reflective spray dubbed Blur, which purports to neutralize camera sensors with reflective nanoparticles. Once sprayed on a subject's face, photos of that person will be rendered as a white flash, thus protecting the A-Rods of the world from themselves.

Conceived by designer Kok-Chian Leong, this awkward-sounding innovation (I can't imagine that an application of Blur augment's a celebrity's appearance) reportedly comes from the British design firm Troika, although good luck finding any mention of it on Troika's site. Even if Blur does find its way to market, the rich and famous would have to pretty much cover themselves with it around the clock if they want to avoid shots from paparazzi wielding high-power telephoto lenses. In which case, it better not react to Botox.

May 30, 2007

Listless Lohan gives paparazzi the money shot


X17 cashes in on its photos as demand raises the stakes

The photograph showed apparently soused starlet Lindsay Lohan passed out in a car, mouth agape, oblivious to popping flashbulbs.

That image, with everything it says about Hollywood excess and youthful indiscretion, ran on the front pages of yesterday's New York Post and its rival Daily News, accompanied by headlines that yelled "Smashed" and "Party Pooped."

For X17, the paparazzi photo agency that owns the picture, it was a good day in L.A.

"We are overwhelmed," X17's founder and president, Frank Rohmer, said yesterday from his Beverly Hills, Calif., office as he fielded phone calls from media outlets clamoring to buy photos of the party girl's unconscious visage, snapped by X17 photographer Roberto Maciel early Monday. Lohan was caught slumbering in the passenger seat of a car at a gas station. Lohan's publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, later released a statement that said Lohan had checked into "an intensive medical rehabilitation facility on Memorial Day."

By midafternoon yesterday, Rohmer said, he had sold the image about 100 times, to CNN, MSNBC and magazines, newspapers, TV outlets and Web sites, not only in the United States but in England, Australia, Sweden and Germany. In New York, the Post and the News each paid about $10,000 for the picture, he said, although smaller news organizations were not required to pay that much.



May 22, 2007

UPFRONT AND IN THE CANNES

Upfronts are over... everyone and their mother is in Cannes...

Things have drastically slowed down in the city... feels nice...doesn't it?

May 14, 2007

IT'S UPFRONT WEEK!


Happy Upfronts Everyone!

I know how we are all so looking forward to hundreds of known and unknown talent passing in front of our lenses this week.

The hours of editing, hours of captioning....

And the sheer joy of the whole experience!

May 9, 2007

Lindsay's Gun-Toting Message to Paparazzi


Lindsay Lohan, actress and darling of the paparazzi, strikes a controversial pose on the cover of the June issue of Radar.

The 20-year-old Georgia Rule star agreed to be the cover girl for the mag's story about the dangerous world of celebrity photography.

“Lindsay wants to send a message," the mag's editor-in-chief Maer Roshan proclaims in his editor’s letter.

However, Lohan’s rep Leslie Sloane-Zelnick assures Radar that Lindsay’s beef with the photographers isn’t personal: "This whole thing is just spinning out of control. Sooner or later, someone's gonna die."

Over the course of the photo shoot, Lohan gamely brandished a flamethrower, a Glock and a Thompson submachine gun to ensure she made her point. Before she departed, someone asked why she had agreed to such a provocative shoot.

"I want people to pay attention," she said.

Clearly.

In the latest issue of Nylon, the fickle starlet confesses that she actually enjoys all of the attention she gets from the shutterbugs.

“I obviously like it,” she said. “I wouldn’t ever want them to not take my picture. I’d be worried. I’d be like, ‘Do people not care about me?’”

May 8, 2007

THE BEST 90 MINUTES OF SHOOTING...EVER!


Costume Gala
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5:30pm press call

Ok..Ok..I don't know if this truly the best 90 min. ever... but it comes really close!

Like in years past, the arrival area is a huge tent over the main stairs that lead to the museum entrance. Still are set up on either side of the stairs up to the third landing.

About 6:30pm some of the talent begin to arrive. Sparse, even paced... non chaotic.

Then...something strange happens.

At about 7 pm, Eastern Standard Time, on this day, the seventh day, of the fifth month, of the year 2007, it seems as if all the planets align in a cosmic dance. Man, nature and space all join together in one harmonious song...

and every A-List celebrity that matters arrives to this event in amazing fashion, without stop for 90 minutes of pure adrenaline driven chaos.

Whenever you find yourself in a position that you're shooting Cameron Diaz, Gisele Bundchen, JLo and Marc Anthony, Mary Kate Olsen, Rosario Dawson and Rihanna within a five minute period... followed by Misha Barton, Scarlett Johanson, Mick Jagger, Jennifer Garner, Renee Zellweger, Kate Moss, Naomi Watts, and Jessica Simpson IN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES... you're in a good place.

It becomes so loud and frantic in that tent for 90 minutes, it is a spectacle to behold.

I've said it before... this event is the OSCARS OF NEW YORK!

May 4, 2007

ABC UPFRONT NEWS

On 5.15.2007 ABC entertainment is holding their annual upfronts. What contrasts this year from the previous ones is that ABC is turning down all photo and media requests to cover the event. All photo agencies are being told that photos will only be made available through the Wire services which include (AP, Reuters, Getty, Wireimage and Filmmagic)

Several concerned individuals are attempting to launch a protest as soon as the denials reach critical mass.
The contact numbers at ABC are:

PHOTO EDITOR- ETTORE ZUCCARELLI ettore.zuccarelli@abc.com
VP PHOTOGRAPHY DAN RICHARDS 818 460-7407 dan.richards@abc.com
VP PUBLIC RELATIONS KEVIN BROCKMAN 818 460-7756kevin.brockman@abc.com

I would like to escalate this matter to the AD-SALES dept of ABC headed by MIKE SHAW 212 456-7272 mike.shaw@abc.com to inform them and ABC's advertisers on the potentially devastating effect this decision will have on the weeks publicity.

May 2, 2007

Boo's For DREW Turn Into BARRYMORE and more and MORE!


Drew Barrymore on David Letterman
May 2, 2007

The general mood at today's Letterman was quite frenetic.

Drew arrives late for Letterman and makes a mad dash for the stage door. Jeans, sneakers and hand over her face. This leads to all the Paps to start yelling "Boooo, Boooo!".
Or as Dennis put it, "We weren't saying Booo, we were saying Drewww, Drewww!"

Now we have about an 2 hour wait till she exits. And in this free time...
A family of Israeli tourists start taking pictures with Dan...
Darla almost get a summons for loitering...
The police were quite stern about photographers in the street and on Drew's SUV...

That being said, Drew leaves close to 7pm in a beautiful red dress and poses up a storm. Not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! Every time she went to sign for fans, we would call her back...and she would pose even more! It was truly astounding the amount of time she posed for us.

We even applauded her when she drove away...

There's A Light At The End Of The (Holland) Tunnel

Tribeca Film Festival is almost over!