Getty Images to Acquire Rex Features

Acquisition will Provide a Broader Selection of Compelling Entertainment Content to Meet Growing Demand for Celebrity Imagery

 Getty Images, the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content and other media, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rex Features, which includes Los Angeles-based Berliner Photography. The acquisition will benefit existing and potential customers by making even more celebrity content easily accessible.

“Growing our entertainment imagery business continues to be a key strategic focus. The real winners will be our customers, who can now expect to see greater choice and more easily accessible imagery.”

"Celebrity and entertainment content is a growing and vital part of the editorial imagery industry and this acquisition positions us to meet and exceed the demand for nearly instantaneous material," said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. "Growing our entertainment imagery business continues to be a key strategic focus. The real winners will be our customers, who can now expect to see greater choice and more easily accessible imagery."
Getty Images intends to maintain Rex Features’ brand and with the combined resources of Getty Images and Rex Features, Getty Images will continue to generate new imagery for their respective celebrity and entertainment collections. Additionally, Getty Images’ global distribution channels will increase international customers’ access to Rex Features’ products and services.
The acquisition of Rex Features was driven by the continually evolving celebrity imagery business and gives Getty Images more coverage capabilities for events and portraiture and will expand the entertainment and celebrity imagery segment.
“Over more than five decades, Rex Features has built a strong heritage and reputation that Getty Images will build upon to the benefit of customers worldwide,” added Klein. “Getty Images has always been dedicated to making strategic investments that will provide long-term value to our customers.”

Zombie killer Woody Harrelson prevails in paparazzi lawsuit

Woody 'I thought you were a zombie' Harrelson will not have to face off in court against a TMZ photographer who sued him over an alleged assault in 2006. All charges were dropped in addition to a counter suit Harrelson filed citing invasion of privacy.
According to paperwork filed with the Los Angeles County Supreme Court, the two reached a settlement agreement earlier this month, although the specifics were not released.
Harrelson allegedly broke Josh Levine's camera, choked him, and released the hounds on him, aka his bodyguards.
Last year, Harrelson freaked out on a couple of paparazzi trying to snap pictures of him with his daughter as they deplaned from Mexico. He later claimed he was disoriented from filming Zombieland and believed them to be zombies. L.A hates paparazzi and loves Harrelson this was accepted at face value.

Photog Sues Sean Penn Over Alleged Death Threat

Paparazzo claims actor broke his camera, menaced him

Sean Penn is already facing criminal charges in the wake of a run-in with a photographer in October, and the actor is now the defendant in a civil case about the incident as well. Jordan Dawes alleges that the volatile actor kicked him and broke his camera, then said, "The next time I see you, you will be in a box," reports TMZ. The criminal case is pending.

Sandra Bullock Paparazzi Feeding Frenzy Videos: Pure Chaos

What, you ask, is it like to be Sandra Bullock? Here's a video from her first public outing since Jesse James' affair, when she drove to her money manager's house on Wednesday. Warning: Camera flashes may induce epileptic seizure.

Deputies respond to Sandra Bullock home due to paparazzi disturbance

Sheriff's deputies were back at Sandra Bullock's Sunset Beach home today because a neighbor reported a disturbance by the paparazzi, who have flocked to the area in the wake of the Oscar-winner's recent marital strife, a sheriff's sergeant said.

``Someone in the media was reportedly yelling at the house,'' Orange County sheriff's Sgt. John Meyer said.
By the time deputies arrived, the disturbance was over. No arrests were made and no citations issued, he said.
On Friday, neighbors complained about about the swarm of photographers and reporters assembled outside the home of Sandra Bullock and Jesse James, but sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said that no laws had been broken and no violations committed.
The paparazzi and reporters have camped out in the area since James issued an apology for admitting an affair with graffiti model Michelle ``Bombshell'' McGee while Bullock was shooting ``The Blind Side.'' Bullock won a best actress Academy Award for her work in the picture.

What Journalists Should Learn From the Paparazzi

It took me years of searching, but I think I finally found the aggressive, audacious, uncompromising media our democracy needs.


While channel-surfing the other day, I came across a fresh-faced, young reporter for a cable network aggressively following an important person around an airport and refusing to let up with his questions. The unwilling interviewee grew angry, suddenly snapping and shouting at the reporter to leave him alone.


“Do you think you’re immune to questions?” the reporter shouted back repeatedly.
I was speechless. “Do you think you’re immune to questions?” It was perfect—such a simple and powerful question.


This would have been the most hopeful piece of journalism I had seen in years if it weren’t for one small detail: This was not a journalist from CNN or Fox or MSNBC. In fact, this wasn’t even a journalist at all. And the important person? No, he wasn’t a politician or a Wall Street CEO or a government official.


The exchange was between an E! network reporter and a Hollywood celebrity.
And that’s when it clicked. Could the news media learn something from the paparazzi?


The paparazzi paradigm shift


Sounds ridiculous, right? But hear me out. Just a few seconds after I watched this exchange, my channel surfing landed me on C-SPAN, where I watched members of the press pool ask lame questions about President Obama’s smoking habits instead of probing ones about healthcare legislation.


I started to imagine that paparazzi reporter in the press pool, doggedly pursuing a line of questioning and refusing to take “no comment” for an answer. In an age of woefully tame media, old D.C. journos could learn a thing or two from reporters traditionally considered at the bottom of the news industry’s barrel. Imagine if Washington journalists were as aggressive and relentless as a paparazzo desperately trying to get a Brangelina quote. Imagine if the media demanded real answers from the Wall Street investment firms who tanked the economy, got a taxpayer bailout and then paid out exorbitant bonuses to executives.


If aggressive, unremitting paparazzi reporters were on Capitol Hill and Wall Street to hound our lawmakers and CEOs, we might finally get some answers—and persuade them to actually work in the public’s interest. Picture the paparazzi crushing our flabbergasted elected officials with cameras and questions as they leave closed-door meetings, asking over and over, “Who was in the room? What was said?”
The mortgage crisis might not seem as sexy as the sordid love life of the Twilight casts, but with continually aggressive questioning of the bankers, policymakers and lobbyists who wield so much power, we might actually avoid future financial disasters, foreign wars and corrupt elections.


Media twilight zone


The news media should collectively be a watchdog for the public interest, but they seem to have lost their bite. Has it really gotten so bad that I’m left wishing that Los Angeles’ finest trash-talking shutterbugs were on Capitol Hill?


It’s starting to feel like we’re stuck in the Media Twilight Zone. Mainstream media are increasingly using cost-cutting measures like slashing jobs and reorienting their newsroom staff to cover the kind of “soft” and cheap-to-produce entertainment and gossip stories that the paparazzi specialize in. Today it seems that journalists aren’t celebrated for publishing a hard-hitting story—they’re celebrated just for asking a few hard-hitting questions. In other words, we have come to expect journalism that doesn’t actually challenge those in power. When journalists actually do, we start handing out awards. But asking hard questions shouldn’t be an award-winning feat: it should be the norm.


But it’s no use to blame the journalists. Consolidated media has meant only a certain kind of journalist makes it to the top and gets press credentials: the type who ask softball questions that politicians can hit with their eyes closed – and that don’t compromise the media companies’ own interests. I’m ready for a new media era where reporters have bosses who actually want them to get the story, and where the news isn’t run like a corporation, by and for corporations.


What I want will take big structural changes – the kind that will put reporters back to work, pump more money into our public media system to pay for journalism and ensure that those who ask the tough questions aren’t denied the benefits of an open Internet.


Still, with CNN’s homepage regularly plastered with celebrity “news”—will the Tiger Woods saga ever end?—it doesn’t seem unfair to ask journalists to learn a basic lesson from the paparazzi: Don’t take no for an answer.


This was first published by InTheseTimes.com

Cloak Camera Bag Hides Your Camera Until The Last Possible Moment

Paparazzi or no paparazzi, if you’re carrying an SLR shaped camera you’re gonna get some looks.  If it ain’t the wannabe celebs sneering at you it’s the locals rolling their eyes at your benign tourist interests.

But now you can move freely amongst the elite in a discreet fashion thanks to the cloak bag.  This handy bag – it’s actually more of case – snugly holds your camera and when that time arrives for a quick snap shot, you just flip open either end, stuff your hands through the side inserts and start shooting.  So you see, you never have to remove the camera from the bag, and when you’re done with your snooping you just sling it back over your should like any everyday bag.

50 Cent bodyguard scuffles with paparazzi?

50 Cent's bodyguard has reportedly got in a fight with photographers.

According to TMZ, the man was taken into custody after he scuffled with several paparazzi outside a hotel in Copenhagen.

The police are holding the suspect for 24 hours pending a decision on whether they want to bring the incident to trial.

A rep for 50 Cent has yet to comment on the matter.

'Bachelor' Wedding Paparazzi Sue ABC

Two paparazzi tossed out just before last month's taping of "The Bachelor" wedding have sued for battery and false imprisonment.
     Eric Brogmus and Maximiliano Lopez Jr. say O & R Protective Services, Disney/ABC Television Group and the show's producer, Next Entertainment, "breached their duty of reasonable conduct by attacking and detaining or authorizing the attack and retention" of the two men who say they were "lawfully on a public place."
     The two were taking pictures of "Bachelor" couple Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney before the couple's Feb. 27 wedding near the Tarranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. A video clip
     The lawsuit doesn't describe the incident, but says guard Jose Antonio Revilla "and several of his agents ... attacked, detained and made false claims" against the two photographers.
     Lopez and Brogmus were arrested by Los Angeles officials on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and unlawful blocking of a sidewalk, according to the Los Angeles Times. Prosecutors decided there wasn't enough evidence to charge the men.
     The two seek unspecified damages for medical expenses and lost earnings. posted on X17online.com shows a security guard choking one of the photographers and taking him to the ground.

Robert Pattinson shares his paparazzi nightmare at “Remember Me” premiere

The Robert Pattinson starrer “Remember Me” release is just around the corner as we are less than a fortnight away from the highly awaited movie. And why is it highly hyped? It’s hyped because the vampire from Twilight who melted millions of heart throughout the world with his role of Edward Cullen will be appearing in his first major movie outside the Twilight banner.

Robert Pattinson and co-star Emilie de were seen on March 1st at the premiere of Remember Me held at the Paris Theater in NYC. In an interview at the premier Robert was asked about how it really felt when all his fans crazily run after him and cause trouble.
The Twilight stud who plays an everyday young guy who falls in love with a sweet girl at the same time coping with family tragedies in “Remember Me” said it’s not the fans that trouble him, but it’s the paparazzi.

Why is that? The star justified by saying its not the fans who make money out of chasing stars, they just like to catch a glimpse of them, root for them and maybe me get an autograph but it’s the paparazzi who would go to any extent to intrude in their private lives and cover moments which are meant to be private.

Getty Acknowledges Photo Setup With Tiger Getty Acknowledges Photo Setup With Tiger

Last Wednesday, two days before Tiger Woods statement, Getty Images released a photo of the golfer jogging near his Florida home.

When asked about how the photo — which dampened hopes of the paparazzi getting the first clear picture of Woods — was arranged, the folks at Getty had no comment.

Today, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and I asked Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein on "Power Lunch" how it all worked out. 

On how the deal came together: "Over a long period of time, Getty Images has established itself as the gold standard in terms of not only the image quality, but the way we behave. As a result of that, we don't do paparazzi images and as a result of that, we often get a called in either for a non-profit basis like we do all the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie photos entirely non-profit...We were approached and Tiger happened to know the photographer (Sam Greenwood) and has known him for a long time."

On how much Getty made on the photo: "Very little because the deal that we did with them was we would make them available to the other wire agencies."

Gossip Girl Filming Disrupted By Paparazzi Scuffle

Production on hit TV show Gossip Girl ground to a halt on Wednesday (24Feb10) after a fight broke out between a set security guard and a paparazzo.
Gossip Girl star Blake Lively was shooting a scene in Midtown Manhattanwith guest actor William Baldwin when a group of photographers began gathering around the set.

The paparazzi were persistently ignoring the security and production staff, and the scene erupted. I clearly saw an exchange of verbal and physical blows

Tension grew between the bodyguards and the snappers as they ignored repeated requests to step back to avoid ruining the take.
But cameras had to stop rolling altogether when one stubborn photographer directed the racist 'N' word towards a member of security, sparking a violent confrontation which left the offending snapper nursing a bruised forehead.

An eyewitness tells , "The paparazzi were persistently ignoring thesecurity and production staff, and the scene erupted. I clearly saw an exchange of verbal and physical blows".
Police were called to the scene but neither party decided to press charges and filming resumed on Wednesday afternoon.

George Clooney is driven out of Lake Como villa by paparazzi

The actor George Clooney is reported to be selling the villa on Lake Como that he shares with his Italian girlfriend after their privacy was invaded by paparazzi and fans.
Potential buyers of the 18th-century Villa Oleandra at Laglio on Lake Como, which Clooney bought in 2002 for a reported $8 million, include the footballer David Beckham, who plays for AC Milan.

Beckham and his wife, Victoria, who are living in a hotel in Milan, are said to have fallen in love with the villa while staying with Clooney last spring. Beckham later told team-mates that it was “quiet and peaceful, and not far from Milan”. The Corriere della Sera newspaper said that lawyers from Milan had approached the Swiss property company dealing with the sale on the Beckhams’ behalf.

Italian media also reported that Roustam Tariko, the Russian vodka and banking tycoon, was another prospective buyer. His company, however, insisted last night that he had not seen the villa and had never expressed an interest in purchasing it.

The villa complex, said to be on sale for 20 million euros (£18 million), includes a jetty, a botanical garden, tennis courts and an annexe. A short drive from Milan, Lake Como’s crystal-clear waters and mountain setting have long attracted the rich and famous. Other VIPs with properties at Lake Como include Sir Richard Branson, Donatella Versace and José Mourinho, the manager of Inter Milan.

Clooney’s girlfriend, Elisabetta Canalis, a former Italian showgirl and television hostess, was reported to be “furious and exasperated” last summer when the villa was staked out by paparazzi. The couple were particularly angry when photographers climbed over the villa wall and took photos of an under-age girl while she was changing clothes in one of his guest rooms, as well as photos of Clooney and Canalis.

The actor said at the time: “I don’t know about the law in the United States but in Italy it’s illegal for photographers to climb over my wall and to take long-lens pictures of a 13-year-old girl in her bedroom. I draw the line of privacy at that.”

Guests at the villa have included Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and scenes for the film Ocean’s Twelve were shot there. Property prices in the Como area have risen since the actor’s arrival.

Clooney and Canalis are said to be looking for “somewhere more private”, possibly in Le Marche or Sardinia.

One local paper reported that they were thinking of staying at Como but moving to a castle on a small island on the lake owned by a businessman from Bergamo.

Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker clashes with paparazzi

Travis Barker  got into a scuffle with paparazzi while on his way to breakfast with his daughter and pals in Calabasas, Calif.

Footage on TMZ.com shows Barker and his friends allegedly spitting at two photographers and videographers and then striking a camera.

A videographer claimed a member Barker's posse took his cell phone and another paparazzo said his tires were slashed.

Cops were called by an unidentified man who says he saw the fight on Sunday begin outside a theater. No arrests were made, but a vandalism report was taken.

According to MTV.com, Barker later tweeted his version of the incident, "When I'm out at breakfast at 8 a.m. in the morning the last thing I appreciate is some photographer threatening me 2 fight while he's 3 deep.

"When I defend myself/my kids that don't make me a tough guy.

"I was outnumbered and threatened so I did what any man would," he wrote.

Sean Penn News Faces JailSean Penn News Faces Jail

Latest Sean Penn news reveals he could face 18 months in jail for battery and vandalism. The actor has a history of attacking photographers and the paparazzi.

Sean Penn has not learned that you cannot attack another person with physical violence. Repeated incidents are always involving the paparazzi. The Oscar-winning actor has been charged with two crimes that occurred last October.
Penn, 49, could face a jail sentence if he's convicted. He was charged with misdemeanor battery and vandalism after allegedly kicking a photographer in the leg and breaking his camera last October. The incident took place at an upscale shopping center in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.
He will make his first court appearance on March 22. Los Angeles County prosecutors had earlier declined to file charges against Penn. At first, they didn't believe the case merited felony charges. However, the incident happened on tape and that was evidence used to file the charges.
He recently won best actor Oscars for his performances in "Mystic River" and "Milk." He was also nominated for his work in "Dead Man Walking," "I Am Sam" and "Sweet and Lowdown."
Violence Towards Paparazzi
Penn could face up to 18 months in jail if he's convicted. This isn't the first stint he's had with a photographer. In 1987, he served more than 30 days in jail for assaulting an extra on a film set.
In 1989, he also faced a domestic assault complaint during his marriage to pop star Madonna. The marriage ended in divorce. That incident was also caught on camera.
In 2006, he attacked a paparazzo at his brother's funeral (that is just wrong is so many ways). Penn is also facing a break up with his wife Robin Wright Penn. However, they briefly reconciled, then he served with divorce papers in August 2009.

Alec Baldwin Fights with Paparazzi After Hospital Release

Alec Baldwin exchanged unpleasantries with a member of the paparazzi Thursday night, hours after being released from the hospital.
 
Video footage of the incident shows the 30 Rock star going after New York Post photographer Tim Wiencis in a heated exchange outside the actor's New York City apartment building. Baldwin was quickly pulled away from the snapper by several policeman, who were positioned nearby.

Wiencis told police, "He just assaulted me." He did not file charges, however.
Baldwin, 51, was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital early Thursday after his 14-year-old daughter, Ireland, called 911, claiming that her dad was "unresponsive" in his West Side Manhattan apartment.

"This was a misunderstanding on one person's part," Baldwin's rep, Matthew Hiltzik, later explained in a statement. "Alec was quickly released from the hospital, he's completely fine and will be at work today."

Baldwin is due to co-host the Academy Awards next month with Steve Martin.

“King of Paparazzi” Dies

Photographer Credited With Molding Modern View of Celebrities

The man credited with launching the era of the paparazzi photographer has died.

Felice Quinto, 80, succumbed to pneumonia at his Rockville, Md., home on Jan. 16, according to his wife.

Often called the “king of the paparazzi,” Quinto pioneered aggressive techniques for taking pictures of celebrities.

Quinto launched his career in his native city of Milan, Italy. He would loiter in cafes and hide in bushes, waiting to get the perfect shot of an unsuspecting famous person eating dinner. He went to great lengths, including disguising himself and racing his motorcycle alongside cars carrying celebrities.

Quinto is believed to be the basis for the character Paparazzo in the 1960 film, “La Dolce Vita.” The term “paparazzi” was coined from the film.

The director of “La Dolce Vita,” Frederico Fellini, asked Quinto to play a photographer in the movie. Quinto turned it down. He said he made more money in his real-life role.

Quinto met Geraldine Del Gioma, an American schoolteacher, at an art gallery in Venice in 1958. They married five years later.

After moving to the United States in 1963, Quinto began working for the Associated Press. He work turned more serious, with assignments including the funeral of President Kennedy and civil rights marches.

In the 1970’s, Quinto covered celebrity nightlife at the famed Studio 54. In 1997, he published a book about club.

He was also Elizabeth Taylor’s personal photographer.

Quinto retired from professional photography in 1993.

Sundance films turn cameras on the paparazzi

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - In a celebrity culture that turns the spotlight on its heroes to uncover their flaws, it seems only natural, at some point, to return it to the people who take the pictures -- the paparazzi -- to see if they can live up to their own scrutiny.

Two films at this week's Sundance Film Festival have taken on that cause. One examines the career of one of the industry's icons, Ron Galella, and the other is a turn-the-tables effort by paparazzi target, actor Adrian Grenier of "Entourage" fame.
In "Teenage Paparazzo", Grenier picks up his own camera to pursue Austin Visschedyk, a 13-year-old paparazzo whom Grenier met after he was ambushed by the young photographer.

Initially motivated by curiosity and concern for the teenager -- who routinely stays out until 2 a.m. on school nights jostling for shooting position with men twice his age -- Grenier broadens the focus to the relationship between paparazzi and the celebrities who are their targets.

"One of the reasons I made this film was to diffuse the tension that's so apparent between the paparazzi and the celebrities," Grenier told Reuters at Sundance.
"There's this one-way street, a one-way conversation. They're firing at you, but there's no real exchange."

Grenier, who calls his film a "big, fat kiss to the paparazzi," has a resume perfectly suited for the task. He is, after all, someone who became a star by playing a star on TV -- heartthrob film actor Vincent Chase on "Entourage."

For "Teenage Paparazzo," Grenier dips into his celebrity connections to strike interviews with targets such as Lindsay Lohan, Eva Longoria and Paris Hilton, who eventually becomes a co-conspirator with Grenier in manufacturing a "photo op."
Visschedyk, meanwhile, is clearly ambitious beyond his years, hopping into cabs to chase fleeing starlets and selling his pictures for thousands of dollars.

TURNING THE TABLES

At first, Visschedyk is somewhat awe-struck by Grenier's attention. But when he learns he is the focus of the film, he begins to wield his own power and thrusts Grenier into the role of pursuer, vying for time with Visschedyk to finish the movie.
Ultimately, Grenier confronts the notion that the film itself could be doing damage to Visschedyk. "It becomes a slippery slope when you think you're helping, but you're becoming part of that negative influence," he said.

At the other end of age and experience from Visschedyk is Ron Galella, a 50-year veteran of the trade and widely considered the original Hollywood paparazzo.
Galella, 79, whose life is examined in Leon Gast's "Smash His Camera", is old enough to have been working when the term "paparazzo" -- the sound in Italian made by a buzzing mosquito -- was coined to name a celebrity-chasing photographer character in the 1960 film "La Dolce Vita".

He operated in a time before it became normal for hordes of photographers to wait outside restaurants for celebrities, and he saw himself as an artist, first -- a claim backed up by having five of his pictures housed in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

"Smash His Camera" gets its name from an order Jacqueline Onassis -- Galella's top target and subject of his most famous pictures -- gave to her bodyguard after he followed her and her children into New York's Central Park as they rode bikes.
Such events led to a lawsuit by Onassis that earned Galella some negative, but hardly unwelcome, publicity of his own.

In fact, Galella reveled in being portrayed as a villain, although he considers himself a breed apart from the armies of paparazzi that stalk celebrities today.
"A lot of paparazzi today are not trained, they're not serious. I was a serious student of art, and that's what makes great photographers," he said.

Lindsay Lohan's Driver Hits Paparazzo With Car

Lindsay Lohan may be facing another lawsuit -- although this time it's not her fault.

The actress' driver ran over a photographer early Sunday morning, with Lohan in the car, TMZ reports.

The paparazzo injured his hand and was treated by EMTs at the scene. The victim intends to sue. "Of course I'm going to sue them ... but I don't care about the money," he told TMZ.

Lohan's driver is now being investigated for criminal assault with a deadly weapon.

Paparazzi have become more aggressive, says Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz thinks she is pursued more "aggressively" by the paparazzi now than she was when she first shot to fame in 1994.

The actress insists she accepts people will always be interested in her life while she is in the public eye, but thinks photographers have become more aggressive in their pursuit of her since she first shot to fame in "The Mask" in 1994.

"Some people say that being a celebrity I should just deal with things like the paparazzi but, honestly, 10 years ago it wasn't like this," contactmusic.com quoted Diaz as saying.

"I don't know what happened to America society, but all of a sudden this pack of really aggressive people emerged. But I guess you have to make peace with it. It is part of what society wants and expects from people in my position."

The 37-year-old says she has learned to take steps to be more cautious about the attention she receives.

"I'm very aware of my words and who I say them to. I'm aware that what I said gets overheard, and people can take it and twist it, and I have no control over that."