Cops: No Shutterbugs Involved in Madonna Mishap

Was Madonna just horsing around?

Despite her rep's claim that a pesky paparazzo was to blame for Madonna's weekend fall from a horse in the Hamptons, the officers who responded to the scene said the Material One made no mention of any shutterbug involvement.

"She was a victim of a fall from a horse. We have no mention of the paparazzi," Officer Chris Brenner, a spokesman for the Southampton Village Police Department, tells E! News. "We got a call that the subject fell off the horse and treated it as an aided case.

The call came in at 4:24 p.m. Saturday and, per standard operating procedure, Southampton's finest showed up to assist emergency medical personnel.

"Above complainant was a victim of fall from horse. Unknown injury. Bridgehampton Fire Department/ambulance responded and transported to Southampton Hospital," said Brenner, quoting the police report.

That directly contradicts the statement to E! News from longtime Madonna spinmeister Liz Rosenberg, who said a photographer "jumped out of the bushes to photograph the singer," spooking the horse and causing the spill.

Madonna was treated for "minor injuries and bruises" at the hospital and released later Saturday, the publicist added.

Rosenberg did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment on the contradiction between her account and the official record.

Also begging to differ with Rosenberg is the freelance photographer who was snapping the scene. Thomas Hinton told the New York Daily News, "I arrived more than 10 minutes after she fell, and I was shooting from the street," he said. "I don't know what [her rep] is talking about."

And according to the New York Post, which published exclusive photos of the immediate aftermath, the 50-year-old Madonna was jumping hurdles prior to the fall.

Perhaps Rosenberg was just trying to cover for Madonna's questionable equestrian skills. After all, the entertainer fell from her mount on her 47th birthday in 2005 and wound up breaking her collarbone, cracking three ribs and fracturing her wrist—and nary a photog in sight.

Sigma introduces the APO 200-500mm F2.8 lens

Sigma introduces the new APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG super telezoom lens for Nikon. The lens has already been available for Canon. Though a weapon permit is not required, it could easily become a lethal weapon in the hands of over-anxious paparazzi. Even more impressive is the lens' specification, it covers the 200 to 500mm range and maintains its fast F2.8 aperture. The length of the lens is 726mm, the diameter is 236.5mm and the weight is 15.7 kg. The lens will be available next week and sells for about 90. Per kilogram that is...

The original Sigma APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG press release

The world's first Ultra-Telephoto Zoom Lens that offers a fast aperture of F2.8 at 500mm Focal length

The APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG is the world's first Ultra-Telephoto Zoom Lens that offers a fast aperture of F2.8 at 500mm focal length. It covers the widely used 200 to 500mm focal length range, and maintains its fast F2.8 aperture over the entire zoom range. Four SLD (Special Low Dispersion) glass elements provide excellent correction for all types of aberrations and produce a high level of optical performance throughout the entire zoom range.

Shooting distance and focal length can be viewed on the lens' LCD panel, which is an additional convenience for the photographer.

A filter can be inserted towards the rear of the lens, and a Circular polarizing filter can be used with its ingenious rotation mechanism.

A dedicated APO TELE CONVERTER 2x EX DG II is supplied as a standard accessory with the APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG.

Its exclusive design minimises image degradation usually associated with teleconverters. When this dedicated teleconverter is used with the APO 200-500mm F2.8 EX DG lens, it becomes a large aperture 400-1000mm F5.6 AF Ultra-Telephoto Zoom lens.

Suri Cruise’s Birthday Party Crashed by The Paparazzi

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were forced to call the cops last night — after the paparazzi crashed their daughter Suri’s third birthday party.

Cruise, 46, called the Beverly Hills police around 3:00 PM yesterday to complain about the airborne snappers, who were in a helicopter overhead. The LAPD did flyby, but the helicopter was gone by the time they arrived.

Britney Spears' Trespasser Was Playing Paparazzi

Miranda Tozier-Robbins, the woman arrested on Thursday after allegedly peeping in the windows of singer Britney Spears' Calabasas, California, home, tells the Associated Press that she was attempting to make a paparazzi documentary.

Tozier-Robbins, a former American Idol hopeful who sang Spears' "Everytime" during her audition, was wearing camouflage fatigues and carrying a backpack and a camera at the time of her alleged trespassing incident.

The Fitchburg, Massachusetts native, 26, says that she wanted to document the efforts that paparazzi go through to obtain their photos, and picked Spears as her target because it "might as well be someone I'm interested in."

She goes on to claim that she didn't expect the "Womanizer" songstress to be home at the time—and it's believed that she wasn't—but if she had snapped photos of Spears she would have sold them.

Tozier-Robbins is due in court on June 16 to face trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

The PAPARAZZI Reform Initiative

http://www.paparazzi-reform.org/

Mission Statement

A safer environment for the public and the restoration of the right to privacy and a more hospitable environment worldwide for celebrities (artists, sports figures and corporate leaders) and others in the spotlight through education, legal action, lobbying and other effective methods.

Kanye West's Arraignment In Paparazzi Case Delayed

Lawyers for Kanye West and his road manager will have another month to prepare for the rapper's arraignment on misdemeanor assault charges after a Los Angeles judge granted a delay in the case. During a hearing on Monday, West's attorney, Blair Berk, obtained a delay in entering a plea in the case until May 20, according to The Associated Press.

West was charged with misdemeanor counts of vandalism, battery and grand theft stemming from the September 11, 2008, incident at Los Angeles International Airport, in which video shot by TMZ appears to show both West and road manager Don "Don C." Crowley grabbing TMZ employees' cameras and throwing them. In video posted on TMZ, West is shown smashing a photographer's flash on the ground. Crowley has been charged with two counts of vandalism, two counts of grand theft and two counts of battery. If convicted on all counts, West could face up to two years and six months in jail, while Crowley could face up to five years in jail.

Both men were free to go without bond until the next court date because they do not have prior criminal records and promised to appear for their arraignments, according to TMZ. West was not required to appear in court for Monday's hearing.

West's lawyer reportedly told a court commissioner that Monday was the first time she had been allowed to review the police report and that she is waiting for prosecutors to turn over any additional evidence they have.

Tom Brady And Gisele Bundchen's Bodyguards Fire Guns At Paparazzi!!!!

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen's armed bodyguards opened fire on paparazzi at the couple's nuptials in Costa Rica, blasting out the windows of a pho tographer's SUV, and just missing the shaken lensmen, the fotogs said yesterday.

Just moments after they talked their way out of an argument with Brady's irate buddies and hired goons, a bul let smashed through the rear window of the SUV and then through the front windshield, just missing the heads of the two fleeing photo journalists on Saturday night, they said.

"Thank God I'm all right. At that moment, I thought I was going to die," lensman Rolando Aviles told The Post.

"The bullet went between us, missing our heads," Aviles said. "If the bullet been a little more to the left or right, it would have killed one of us.

"I said, 'They're going to kill us,' and that's when I hunched down to cover myself."

"When the glass broke, that's when my friend started driving really fast."

Aviles said he and colleague Yuri Cortez, both veteran photographers hired by the INF photo agency, had permission from Gisele's neighbor in Santa Teresa to shoot the wedding ceremony from a vista about 300 feet away from the ceremony.

Brady and Gisele were married in Los Angeles County in February, and were renewing their vows on Saturday. Just as the photographers started snapping, the couple's bodyguards spotted them and chased them, according to Aviles.

The pair ran back to Cortez's Suzuki SUV, parked about 500 feet away in dense brush.

They split up as they ran away, and by the time Aviles said he reached the SUV, his colleague was already there speaking to a Brady bodyguard.

Aviles quoted the guard as saying, "Tom Brady just wants to talk to you. It's OK, nothing's going to happen.

But when the photographers accepted the guard's invitation back to Gisele's house, they were swarmed by three members of the wedding party and five hired goons dressed all in black.

The New England Patriot quarterback's best man berated the photographers and wanted to provoke a brawl, the lensmen said.

"Take a picture of me now, you f- - -er! F- - - you," Brady's righthand man, whose name was not immediately known, screamed, according to Aviles.

"He was very angry. It looked like he wanted to attack us," Aviles said. The photographers lied their way out of the tight spot -- saying they hadn't taken a single frame.

The QB's reps said Gisele had an exclusive picture deal with a Brazilian magazine.

As the lensman drove away, Aviles said he spotted one of Brady's men pull a pistol.

Seconds later, a bullet shattered the back of Cortez's SUV, struck a front windshield wiper and then bounced back into the cabin, landing in between the terrified shutterbugs.

"I thought this was going to be my last job," Aviles said.

The fotogs said they found a .38-caliber slug in their SUV's front cabin.

Both cameramen were still in disbelief yesterday that they almost died for snapping wedding photographs.

"I couldn't believe it when I realized what they had done," Cortez told the photo agency's Web site, INF Daily.

"I could have lost my life for the sale of some pictures that Gisele didn't want published. Are they insane?"

Reps for Brady and Bundchen did not immediately return calls for comment.