Miley Cyrus turns camera on paparazzo

Watch out, photographers: Miley Cyrus films back.

On Tuesday, the petite singer posted her own paparazzi shots, filming an unidentified photographer who was trying to get a quick snap of Cyrus and fiancé Liam Hemsworth as they strolled with her three dogs.

Cyrus posted the video to Pheed, slamming the paparazzi for harassment and parking in a handicapped space.

"He seems to be running quite fine," Cyrus narrated.

"[HE] doesn't look very handicapped to me, yet if I park in a handicapped spot because of these people I get reported on the news."

"But no one cares about this criminal that's running through a children's neighborhood, driving outrageously while I'm with my three dogs," she sniped.

"I've already lost two dogs this year, not trying to get another one hit by a car. "

Mr Paparazzi is back: Darryn Lyons to launch new online celebrity photo agency

Self-styled 'Mr Paparazzi' Darryn Lyons is planning to launch a new online photo agency after buying back the assets of his former company Big Pictures.
Describing the new venture celebstock.com as a celebrity stock photographic agency, Lyons said it will charge users to access an “enormous archive” of 25 million images.
“It may be used by a basic blogger at home for $40, to [the] biggest publisher, possibly $20,000…” he told Australian magazine The Weekly Review.
“Photographers can upload and see their sales almost instantaneously. It’s a different price-point from Big Pictures.
“Big Pictures was charging anywhere between $250,000 to $1 million a picture.”
Shortly after Big Pictures went into administration in October 2012 Lyons bought back the assets – including its picture archive – via a new company called BPGG Limited for £164,000.
“I didn’t see the future in the current dinosaur that was Big Pictures,” he told the Review in an interview earlier this month. He continued:

I decided I’d kind of had enough. The global financial crisis had hit the business hard; I needed to restructure (it) …
The changes in the business, from privacy (laws) to GFC (global financial crisis) to dealing with a lot of people in the industry – it wasn’t me.
There was a scourge in the industry, an underbelly of the industry which didn’t appeal to me.
I changed my perspective in what I felt was ethical. It’s like any business. You always get your bad eggs. The whole industry needed – and has had – a major shake-up. I got very depressed that the celebrities used their images when it was right for them and then the next minute they’d sue you …

Lyons went on to boast of his wealth but insisted it was “immaterial”:

“My dream was to be a millionaire by the time I was 30,” he says. “I’ve made plenty and lost plenty. My life’s a roller-coaster whether I like it or not. I can be as successful in my own heart and mind with 20 cents as I can with tens of millions. Money buys you nice things, but I’ll be honest with you, it becomes extremely immaterial after a while.
My dad’s the absolute opposite of me in relation to material things. He drives around in his Nissan that I think has done 425,000 kilometres, and he loves his car, more than I love my Ferrari or my Lamborghini or my Range Rover.
Don’t get me wrong, I like having them. I don’t look at them as motor cars, particularly the two sports cars. I look at them as works of art. I’m a really arty person as you can see by the house. Whether it’s photography, whether it’s Warhol or beautiful pieces of art, I’m a great collector. I love collecting things that are special.

He later described himself as a “huge gambler” before admitting that over the last few years he had “lost a lot”, adding: “but I’m also totally convinced that I’ll have the biggest business in the world again.”
According to The Guardian, Big Pictures entered voluntary liquidation earlier this month owing more than £82,000 to photographers and other pictures agencies.
In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry last year Lyons said the agency handled 3,500 showbiz pictures a day from 152 freelance or paparazzi photographers around the world, as well as 29 full-time members of staff.

Fugitive paparazzi turns up in Portugal

MILAN, Italy, Jan. 23 -- Fugitive Italian paparazzi Fabrizio Corona has surrendered to police in Portugal, sources close to the investigation said.

Corona disappeared hours before an appeals court in Italy confirmed his conviction and five-year prison sentence for blackmailing celebrities with compromising photographs, Italy's ANSA news agency reported Wednesday.

Police surveillance lost sight of Corona after he entered a gym and apparently slipped out a side exit.

Because he fled the country, two years and 10 months will be added to his sentence, ANSA said.

Italy's top paparazzo goes missing after being given jail sentence for blackmail

Fabrizio Corona was being hunted by police after blackmailing a footballer with compromising photographs

Fabrizio Corona, the "king" of Italy's paparazzi, was being hunted yesterday after a court ordered him jailed for five years for blackmailing a footballer with compromising photographs.

Corona, who is missing from his Milan apartment, was found guilty by Italy's top appeal court of demanding €25,000 (£20,000) in 2009 from David Trézéguet, the married French footballer then playing for Juventus, in return for not publishing photos of him leaving a nightclub with a woman.

The sentence tops a rash of other convictions for blackmail, fraudulent bankruptcy and even passing forged currency handed out to the photographer who is more famous than many of his subjects and who has dated Italy's top showgirl Belén Rodríguez.

Corona's scoops helped fuel the celebrity TV culture driven by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's channels and publications over the last decade, and his downfall matches the fate of key players from that era starting with his friend Lele Mora, formerly Italy's top talent agent, who was jailed on fraudulent bankruptcy charges and is now on trial for procuring prostitutes for Berlusconi.

Corona, 38, has claimed he never blackmailed celebrities he snapped, merely offering them first option to buy the photos at the rate he would have sold them to publications. But police tapping his phone during an investigation heard him tell his then wife: "Yes, it's true, I ruin lives, I am a piece of shit and I don't even feel guilty any more."

On hearing that an arrest warrant was out for Corona, one of his neighbours in Milan said: "I hope they arrest him soon, he only made trouble."

Corona was so bold he even demanded, and received, €20,000 from the Berlusconi family in return for not publishing photos of Barbara, the former prime minister's daughter, taken as she left a nightclub reportedly looking the worse for wear.

Corona photographed many of the starlets who passed straight from Berlusconi's soirées to plum roles on Italian TV dramas or coveted spots on reality shows. He had a starring role himself in Videocracy, the critical 2009 documentary about Italy's fascination with celebrity TV culture and the belief held by many Italians that getting on TV is the key to success. Berlusconi has appeared to prove that in recent weeks, bouncing back in the polls amid a campaign of TV talk show appearances ahead of February elections, after he had been written off thanks to his endless scandals.

Getty Hands Google Users Free Commercial Images, Photographers Get $12

On December 6th the Google Drive Blog announced that “5,000 new photos of nature, weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories are now available for your use in Docs, Sheets, and Slides” with no mention to how they were acquired or what type of license they come with. If you have a google drive account (comes with gmail and google apps for business) you can create a document and when you go to insert an image you can search google, life or stock. There’s a notice that the “results shown are labeled for commercial reuse with modification” but other than that you can insert the image results in your document and away you go.

It all seems quite mysterious, but luckily some istockers uncovered what’s really going on. In a forum post on January 10th an istock contributor is alarmed to find one of their images in the search results and once they place “it into my document at 1,066 x 1,600. No attribution. No meta-data. No license. No link.” This post is followed by 537 comments then the thread is locked.

On January 11th a forum post titled “Google Drive + Update” is made by mr_erin who appears to work for istockphoto with the following information:

    “This is a license deal arranged with Google through Getty Images”

    “There may eventually be additional content added to this pool/agreement”

    “Google licensed these images for use by Google users through the Google Drive platform; Users of this platform are granted rights to place this imagery in content created using Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Presentations, which end uses can be for commercial purposes.”
I haven’t really dug into the forum posts to see what else is being said or located other sources for the story. The photographer who emailed me about it (Don) says that Getty/Flickr photographers are being paid a one time fee of $12 for the deal.

I’m positive that Getty and Google will figure out a way to lower the bar even further at some point, but this is the lowest I’ve seen it. Gmail has 425 million active users worldwide according to Wikipedia. That’s some serious fractions of a penny for a license.

Are The Paparazzi Just Doing Their Job, Or Are They Overstepping Their Boundaries?

Recently on the train ride home, we overheard two men discussing the trials and travails of their work day. The men, both carrying camera equipment, bemoaned the people who objected to their line of work. "Then don't buy the magazines!" the men groused. It wasn't difficult to put two and two together: These men were paparazzi.

The previous day, a paparazzo had been killed near Justin Bieber's vehicle in L.A., and celebrities like Miley Cyrus were making statements against the intrusive nature of these photographers. But the paparazzi on the train had a point: There's a demand for the photographs, as is evidenced by the sheer amount of tabloid magazines available in any supermarket, yet we vilify the men and women who are just doing their jobs. So who's right?

The term paparazzi was coined in the 1960 Federico Fellini film "La Dolce Vita." One of his characters was named "Paparazzo," which is an Italian word used to describe the annoying sound made by a buzzing mosquito. The word itself is pejorative, and these photographers have been stereotyped as being aggressive and intrusive. The most notorious example of paparazzi badgering celebrities is, of course, the case of Princess Diana, who died in a Paris car crash that was blamed in part on paparazzi.

We interviewed two photographers to get their take on the role that photographers play in modern culture. Jennifer Graylock, a professional photographer who has been in the business for more than 20 years, was quick to point out that there is a difference between red carpet photographers and paparazzi.

The main disparity, she said, is that red carpet photographers are credentialed and are invited to photograph events. Paparazzi, on the other hand, are not invited and generally shoot their subjects on the street without consent. There is a difference in decorum as well: Red carpet photographers maintain a respectful distance, whereas paparazzi are known to "get in the celebrity's face without any respect for the celebrity's personal space," Graylock said. The paparazzi do the chasing and the stakeouts that result in Britney Spears-like meltdowns, she added.

These days, it seems like stars have less and less personal space. But is it manufactured by the celebrities and their handlers to further their own publicity? A celebrity like Jackie Onassis or Princess Diana would never "plan" shoots, telling photographers where they'd be to ensure photos. But Graylock told us that current celebrities will stage paparazzi shoots to garner publicity for their upcoming projects, or even to promote a certain brand of clothing.

"I've been hired by celebrities and businesses to do fake paparazzi shoots," she said. "For instance, a celebrity will have a certain piece of clothing and the publicist wants the shot of the celeb in the clothing, but not on a typical red carpet." Stars will even go so far as to bring photographers on vacation with them, she added. Their reasoning is that rather than be hounded, they invite the photographer to join them, and then they get a cut of the money that the photographs generate.

The stakeouts and high-speed chases that paparazzi are notorious for sound despicable, but there is a market for these photos. If people didn't read the magazines or didn't care about celebrities, there wouldn't be a demand, and the paparazzi may disappear.

We spoke to Lawrence Schwartzwald, a photographer who has been in the business since 1993. His breakthrough was one of the first shots of Madonna's daughter, Lourdes. Schwartzwald was walking home to the Upper West Side past the superstar's building when he spotted Lourdes' nanny holding her and looking out the window. He hid behind a tree and snapped a photo. We asked if he felt guilty about intruding into a private moment and he replied, "They were at the window and everyone on the street was looking at them. I wouldn't shoot into their home. I don't feel guilty about taking a picture of something that is visible for all the world to see."

It's clear that the industry has changed in the 20 years that both Graylock and Schwartzwald have been working in it. For one, there are many more photographers than there used to be, thanks to the ease of shooting digitally. As a result, the rates that photographers charge have gone way down, and by the time magazines run the pictures, they have often already hit the Internet. Paparazzi are more frenzied than ever to get a great shot, and the more experienced photographers complain of a "dumbing down of the business, where the pursued celebrities are famous for being famous."

It is a vicious cycle. Celebrities want publicity and press, and many of them have opened their lives to the public with social media and reality TV shows. The public has gotten used to this unprecedented access into celebrities' private lives, and the appetite only continues to grow, thus feeding the desire for photos that paparazzi can provide. So where does it end? The men on the train are right: If people want to end the intrusive behavior of the paparazzi, they should stop purchasing the magazines that feature their work. But will that ever happen? Doubtful.

Judge says news organizations infringed on copyrights of photographer

Agence France-Presse and The Washington Post shouldn’t have used photographs by Daniel Morel, a U.S. District Court judge has ruled. Erin Geiger Smith reports:

    While AFP had argued that once the pictures appeared on Twitter they were freely available, the judge said that Twitter’s terms of service did not give the news agency a license to publish the images without Morel’s permission.

Morel tweeted his photos of damage from the Haiti earthquake in 2010; an AFP editor found them and distributed several through Getty Images. The Post, a Getty client, then published some of them. (The British Journal of Photography published a more detailed chronology last year.)

Morel had applied for summary judgment in his case against AFP, the Post and Getty. Judge Alison Nathan partially granted that motion with this ruling but said that the press agencies “would only be liable, at most, for a single statutory damage award per image infringed.” Nathan “refused to grant Morel’s motion for summary judgment on whether AFP, Getty and The Washington Post acted willfully,” Smith reports.

Morel won a similar victory in December 2010. AFP originally sued Morel, claiming that Twitter’s terms of service gave it the right to rebroadcast his images; he later filed this countersuit.

As Smith explains, “the case has garnered wide interest because it is one of the first to address how images that users make available to the public through social media can be used by third parties for commercial purposes.”

Jennifer Aniston describes her fear of paparazzi in new film, 'Sellebrity'

Jennifer Aniston is one of many celebrities interviewed in the new documentary, "Sellebrity", which premieres today in selected cities across the country. The film, directed by Kevin Mazur, explores the current "free-for-all press and paparazzi frenzy" which has permeated our culture.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, Salma Hayek, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are among the celebrities who discuss their experiences with the paparazzi in the film. Three words by Jennifer Aniston sum up most celebrity encounters with the paparazzi: "It's high stress.”

“It's a really weird, scary feeling," Aniston explains. "You’re disoriented. You can’t see in front of you... I can't get out of a store because these guys are blocking the door. I can't get to my car. When I’m in my car, they’re surrounding my car. I can’t see. They flash light bulbs; it’s nighttime, and my vision is impaired."

The first feature-length documentary by Rock & Roll photographer Kevin Mazur was a hit at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. D&E Entertainment says that "Sellebrity" gives the viewer "unparalleled insight into the view of celebrity and how it has changed through the years... it also addresses freedom of the press, the degradation of our hard news, and those caught in the camera's eye."

Charlie Sheen donates $12K for funeral of photographer killed shooting Justin Bieber's car

Charlie Sheen has donated $12,000 for the funeral expenses of a photographer killed while taking pictures of Justin Bieber's car on New Year's Day. TMZ.com said Thursday that Sheen is a friend of a friend of Chris Guerra, 29, who was struck and killed by a car as he was crossing a Los Angeles highway.

"A tragic incident like this erases the line between the photographer and the subject," Sheen told TMZ in a statement.

People Becoming Paparazzi Photogs in the Presence of Celebrities

For those of you who can’t stand what paparazzi photographers do with their cameras, know this: it’s not just the professional celebrity photographers who do such things. When a celebrity is spotted in public, ordinary people all around pull out their cameras and do exactly the same thing.

The video above shows what happened recently when Tom Cruise and his daughter Suri tried to watch a show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida.

People all around wanted their own photograph of the Cruises. Even though most of them were capturing exactly the same image, and though there are plenty of photos of Cruise online, everyone wanted a personal piece of photographic evidence that they saw the man with their own two eyes.
Here’s a strangely similar video showing the same thing happening to actor Jim Carrey. However, it’s not from a 3rd person point of view: Carrey filmed this video himself:

Lindsay Lohan 'shoots paparazzi' in InAPPropriate Comedy trailer

She's already taken on one Hollywood legend over the last year, portraying Elizabeth Taylor in Liz & Dick.

And it seems Lindsay Lohan has managed to take on another legend in the guise of Marilyn Monroe for another movie.

Although the scandalous star has taken a rather more controversial slant to the role of the iconic beauty.

Scroll down for video...

Changing roles: Lindsay Lohan dresses as Marilyn Monroe as she appears in controversial movie InAPPropriate Comedy

A trailer for upcoming film InAPPropriate Comedy shows Lohan in her cameo alongside Adrien Brody in the eyebrow raising picture.

And it seems she's up to her usual controversial antics as she's seen wearing a white dress like the one worn by Monroe during her iconic moment when her dress blows up in The Seven Year Itch.

Lindsay mimics the moment by standing on a pavement with her similar halterneck white frock blowing up in the air to almost reveal her modesty.

Get ready: Lindsay makes her cameo by pulling a pair of guns out of her dress ready to shoot the photographers

She even completed her look with platinum blonde hair and lashings of lipstick to emphasise her pout.

And then she can be seen facing a row or paparazzi before taking a gun hidden from behind her dress and shooting the photographers.

A description for the movie details Lohan's moment as her character living out 'her fantasy of taking an ultimate revenge on the salivating paparazzi who haunt her.'

Lindsay appears alongside Adrien Brody in the comedy, which lives up to its name if the new trailer is anything to go by.

$ellebrity: Photographer Kevin Mazur Discusses His New Film About Gossip, Paparazzi and the Cost of Fame

It's possible that the price of fame has never been higher -- and not just in the tried-and-true Hollywood storylines of fame, fortune and the tragic falls from grace. In his new documentary $ellebrity, seasoned celebrity and event photographer Kevin Mazur looks at the money-making machine that is the world of paparazzi photography, tabloid magazines and reality television and how it's changed through the years in Hollywood.

Out January 11, the film interviews rumor mag stables like Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony about their worlds under microscopes -- as well as some people who helped put them there, like former Us Weekly/current HollywoodLife.com editor Bonnie Fuller.

We talked with Mazur about the film, how his own career as a photographer and as the co-founder of red carpet and event photography database WireImage (now part of Getty Images) relates, and what he thinks it will take for the paparazzi to relent.

Why did you decide that now would be a good time to make this film?

I wanted to make this film because we wanted to create a roundtable discussion about the business that would start a conversation about our culture's obsession with celebrity. And I wanted to give our audience a behind-the-scenes look at celebrity gossip, tabloids and fame. I wanted to take people through the history of fame and through the present day ... from the moment you take a photograph and how it works through this billion-dollar industry machine.

You co-founded WireImage. How do you think websites like that have fueled the need for this content?

There's a big difference between me and the paparazzi. I am a hired photographer. I'm invited to all these major events and to photograph celebrities in their homes and musicians backstage at concerts, on their private jets. I am totally different from those guys.

I use this analogy of [the documentary about the food industry,] Food, Inc.. I love documentaries and I love when you learn something from a documentary. [Because of] Food, Inc., every time I go to eat something I think about what I'm eating. With our film, I wanted people to understand and think about where are all these images are coming from that they see in magazines and websites and on their cell phones.

You got your start smuggling in cameras and doing unauthorized photos at rock concerts and moved up the line to be more legit. Do you think that idea of a fan snapping a picture -- on the street, at an event, etc. -- would that be considered too personal today?

In our film, Salma Hayek says there are just ordinary people today being paparazzi. Our culture is so obsessed with celebrity right now, they want to be around celebrities, they want to take pictures of celebrities; they want to be celebrities. They want to be reality stars.

Kevin Mazur with Madonna

Do you think the paparazzi helped create the reality star or do you think the reality star helped create this generation of paparazzi?

I've been in this business for 30 years and I've seen the ups and downs of it. I saw after Princess Diana, it died down. The paparazzi in the United States weren't crazy at all.

And then the magazines started competing with each other. You had OK! magazine come over here. You had Us magazine and People magazine all competing with each other. They were all jacking up the prices and getting photos. All the big stars were going to People magazine ... and all the other magazines were using paparazzi shots. So we interviewed Bonnie Fuller because she changed that whole concept with Us magazine.

What do you think about social media tools like Twitter and Instagram -- or even a star's personal website -- that change this dynamic? Do those help control an image or does it just make it worse?

In the film, we talk about how technology has changed the landscape of fame. Back in the day, publicists really controlled what was going on with the images of celebrities. The movie companies controlled what images were going out there; what magazines were using what images. Now, publicists have a really hard time because it's hard for them to control their celebrities. They Tweet stuff, they call the paparazzi. It's so out of control. Right now, it's like the wild, wild West out there because of the Internet, blogs, cell phones and Twitter.

Your film happens to coincide with the unfortunate timing of the death of paparazzo Chris Guerra, who was killed chasing Justin Bieber on January 2. Do you think we're about to see a change in the way paparazzi cover celebrities?

It's very sad and unfortunate that a photographer lost his life chasing down a photograph of Justin Bieber ... [but] do I think things are going to change because a photographer died? It's sad to say, but I keep comparing this to gun laws right now. Automatic weapons, nobody cared about. But children got killed. Now it's an issue. So what do we need to happen with the paparazzi in L.A. or New York or somewhere? Does a child have to get killed to make some laws? Something has to be done before something else gets hurt.

The thing I don't understand is how come the paparazzi photograph children? And how can magazines put children on the cover? Celebrities' kids are not celebrities. So why can't they start there? ... It's really sad that you can't do something to prevent a tragedy.

But it's really hard to pass laws against this because you're treading on the First Amendment, which also protects celebrities who go on stage and perform and do what they want and the press that go and cover that event. It's a really tricky area right now.

But Why Doesn’t the Photographer Try to Help the Man on Fire?

The other day, Lightbox did a 105 photo slideshow titled: “A Year of Photographers in the Picture.” Uncategorized, it’s filled with all kinds of pictures of people taking photos: citizen paparazzi snapping away at campaign events; civilians photographing disasters or police actions with their devices of choice; professional photographers at work in all kinds of settings, from war to satellite launches to celebrity affairs on the red carpet.



Because of the variety, however, what is unusually striking are those photos interspersed in the larger grouping of photographers doing their job amidst horror or chaos.



Recently, discussion lasted for days over the front page photo of the subway death of Ki Suk Han and the role of the photographer, R. Umar Abbasi, who captured him on the tracks. One thing that seemed to crystalize out of those discussions and debates is just how detached the consumer is from the role, process and terms of procuring the common, if not common news image, so much so that these images become suddenly bizarre, morally ambiguous and perhaps even a little embarrassing (for their consumability) when you suddenly see them with photographers inside of them.



For the general public, I think many of these photos represent less a revelation than a provocation, able to easily set off the subway-type argument all over again over how the journalist could possibly just take a picture of a man on fire.



Because the role of the photojournalist is hardly ever a zero sum game, however, I believe it is worthwhile to extract some of these photos from the larger slideshow to help pull back the curtain a bit. With imagery collapsing the distance between viewer and subject in so many ways right now, it only makes sense to make the public a co-witness to the reality of the chaos and to the emotional demands and internal negotiations the shooter lives and makes on a second-by-second basis.

Still though, that’s a pretty complicated challenge. If there’s a sense that every little thing seems to be more revealed and more deconstructed these days, its seems just as true how much our news continues to come in neat little packages.

(photo 1: Manish Swarup—AP caption: Mar. 26, 2012. A Tibetan exile man, identified as Jampa Yeshi, runs engulfed in flames after self-immolating during a demonstration in New Delhi, India.photo 2: Orlando Sierra—AFP/Getty Images caption: Relatives of inmates awaiting outside the perimeter fence throw stones at soldiers and policemen on guard, who fire warning shots into the air, at the National Prison compound in Comayagua, Honduras, on February 15, 2012, where at least 272 prisioners were killed and scores injured when a fire overnight tore through the prison in central Honduras, the Central American country’s prisons director said. The prison held around 850 prisoners. photo 3: Tony Gentile—Reuters caption: Sept. 10, 2012. Alcoa Inc’s workers throw plastic bottles as they protest against their dismissals from employment in front of the Ministry of Employment building in Rome. photo 4: Hazem Bader—AFP/Getty Images caption: Feb. 24, 2012. A video journalist films an Israeli soldier firing tear gas towards Palestinian protesters demanding the reopening of a key street in the West Bank city of Hebron. photo 5: Vincent Yu—AP caption: June 25, 2012. Members of the media take pictures and videos of the home of Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying in Hong Kong.)

White House 'quashes use of pictures of Malia and Sasha Obama on the beach'

Paparazzi shots of Malia and Sasha Obama have been quashed by the White House after a photographer reportedly stumbled across the girls on a public beach in Hawaii.

The images of the President's daughters were taken last week while a paparazzo was actually waiting for singer Jessica Simpson to leave her vacation home.

Secret service agents, who were accompanying the girls on their walk, immediately approached the photographer and asked for identification.

They allowed the man to keep his camera but gave him a stern warning to stop photographing the first daughters.

However when the paparazzo later sold the images to picture agencies, he was slapped with a warning letter from the White House telling him to stop their release.

A source told Celebuzz that the White House sent the photographer an official letter stating that 'Sasha and Malia’s privacy should be maintained as they were on a private holiday... and that other media had been respecting these requirements'.

ailOnline was awaiting a response from the White House on the incident.

The Obama family spent the holidays in Hawaii, flying out from Washington for their beachfront property at the upmarket Kailua Resort on December 21.

The first family stayed at a 7000 sq ft rental home with five bedrooms and a lagoon pool.

The president's annual end-of-year visit to his native state was disrupted just after Christmas when he was forced to return to the capital to help broker a solution on the fiscal cliff.

He returned to Hawaii on New Year's Day - less than an hour after Congress reached a deal.

Obama was back in Washington with his wife and daughters on January 6.

The Obamas have a strict policy when it comes to their daughters' exposure in the media. The general rule is that Malia, 14, and 11-year-old Sasha are not to be photographed in their private lives, only in an official capacity.

The unofficial agreement between the White House and media outlets has generally been followed - however there have been breaches.

Last year, the White House made a rare decision to discuss Malia Obama's school trip to Mexico after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in the region. Officials released a statement saying that the teenager was safe and not harmed during the natural disaster.

They usually ask for the teenage girl's privacy when she is not with her parents if there is no relevant news interest in her whereabouts.

Several publications, including MailOnline, were aware of Malia's visit to Mexico prior to the earthquake, but chose not to report it at the White House's request.

Celebrity and Paparazzi Altercations

The recent tragedy that claimed the life of paparazzo Christopher Guerra has led to some celebrities, including Justin Bieber, to call for stricter legislation protecting them from the sometimes rabid photo-journalists.

"Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves," Bieber said in the statement released by Island Def Jam Music Group.

Guerra was killed after being struck by a vehicle while trying to nab a shot of Bieber in Los Angeles.

The relationship between celebrities and the paparazzi who photograph them has been a tumultuous one at times. Here are 10 altercations that highlight that chaotic relationship.

Justin Bieber-chasing paparazzi struck and killed by SUV told friends he was trying to photograph star smoking weed

Chris Guerra was killed when he was struck by a car trying to photograph Justin Bieber's Ferrari in Los Angeles on New Year's Day.

A Los Angeles paparazzo who thought he spied Justin Bieber smoking weed was struck and killed by a car as he rushed to photograph the pop star’s Ferrari after it had been pulled over by cops.

The teen pop sensation was not even behind the wheel — the relentless shutterbug died chasing a bad lead that later reignited a debate about paparazzi culture in the celeb-mad City of Angels.

The fatal sequence of events began Tuesday at the Four Seasons hotel, where freelance photographer Chris Guerra, who had been dogging Bieber’s clique all day, thought he saw the singer smoking marijuana and staked out the building.

“If it takes me all night, I’m staying out here, I’m getting this story,” the 29-year-old told a friend, according to TMZ. “He was smoking weed. I hope something comes of this.”

The photographer, who had only moved to L.A. in March, likely thought he was on a huge story, another friend told the Daily News.

“He was probably in the rush of thinking, ‘I’m getting an exclusive story,’ ” said Thibault Mauvilain, 32, who works in celebrity marketing.

When the ostentatious vehicle left the hotel, Guerra gave chase, not knowing the car was being driven by Bieber pal, and Lil Wayne protege, Lil Twist.

At 5:50 p.m., the California Highway Patrol pulled over the $200,000 ride for speeding on the 405 freeway, LAPD spokesman Chris No said. Cops then ordered the driver off the freeway and onto nearby Sepulveda Blvd.

Guerra arrived and crossed Sepulveda to get a shot of the moment, still thinking he was about to capture Bieber in an embarrassing — and possibly explosive — moment.

Cops instructed Guerra to return to his car. He eventually complied, and was struck walking across the four-lane road.

The singer put out a statement Wednesday calling the death “tragic.”

“My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim,” he said.

“Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders, and the photographers themselves.”

The driver of the vehicle that struck Guerra was released without being charged, the LAPD spokesman said.

Bieber wasn’t the only celebrity calling for changes in laws governing the omnipresent photographers.

“Paparazzi are dangerous! Wasn’t Princess Di enough of a wake up call?!” tweeted Miley Cyrus, referring to the 1997 death of Diana in a Paris tunnel.

“This was bound to happen! Your mom teaches u when your a child not to play in the street! The chaos that comes with the paparazzi acting like fools makes it impossible for anyone to make safe choices,” Cyrus added.

More restrained voices also called for reform, decrying the “Wild West atmosphere” in pursuit of candid moments of celebrities.

“We have warned that unless reform is enacted regarding the collision of celebrity vs. paparazzi, someone else would be hurt or killed,” wrote the Paparazzi Reform Initiative in a statement.

Guerra’s friend Mauvilain recalled him as a photographer who relished the adrenaline of chasing celebrities.

“I could see the sparkle in his eye. He was like, ‘Wow, man this is so cool,’” said Mauvilain. “There was always the possibility he could make a lot of money. . . . Chris was obviously fascinated by all the celebrities.”

Paparazzi makes Emma Stone paranoid

The 24-year-old star is so wary about being caught on camera doing something embarrassing that she acts differently to how she would if there was no one following her.

She revealed, "It's weird in Los Angeles - [paparazzi are] hiding out everywhere. The hardest thing is that it makes me act like an a**hole because I now have this weird level of paranoia that I never had before.

"It feels like having a private investigator on you or something. You find yourself walking around holding your head up like you're looking in the mirror - and your friends are wondering what's wrong with you.

"Then I feel like a jerk because half the time there's nobody there ... still, I really don't want to be caught with a burger all over my face."

Emma, who is dating her Amazing Spider-Man co-star Andrew Garfield, always wanted to be an actress and was so determined to reach her goal that she once told her mother Krista she would "die" if not given the chance to act.

She added to the UK edition of Glamour magazine, "My parents knew that there was something a little off about me. So it made sense when I asked, aged 11, if I could take acting classes.

"Apparently I said to my mum, 'If I can't act, I'll die.' And then she knew - she knew that only an actress would say something like that."

Miley Cyrus bashes paparazzi, defends Bieber

"Paparazzi are dangerous," she tweeted.

Miley Cyrus is outraged by the death of a photographer who was taking photos of Justin Bieber's white Ferrari on a Los Angeles street Tuesday.
"Hope this paparazzi/JB accident brings on some changes in '13," she wrote. "Paparazzi are dangerous! Wasn't Princess Di enough of a wake up call?!"

She went on to say, "It is unfair for anyone to put this on to Justin's conscious as well! This was bound to happen! Your mom teaches u when your a child not to play in the street! The chaos that comes with the paparazzi acting like fools makes it impossible for anyone to make safe choices."

Bieber, meanwhile, who was not in his car at the time, has issued a statement to E! about the incident. "While I was not present nor directly involved with this tragic accident, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victim."

He added, "Hopefully this tragedy will finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent public bystanders and the photographers themselves."

Justin Bieber Paparazzo Killed Trying to Snap Singer’s Ferrari: Reports

A paparazzo was fatally struck by a car in Los Angeles on New Year’s Day while attempting to take pictures of a Ferrari belonging to Justin Bieber.

The singer’s vehicle had been reportedly stopped by police on Tuesday evening, and the unidentified photographer stepped out of his own car to take pictures of the situation.

He was later struck by a passing vehicle and died, according to reports.

Bieber was NOT in the Ferrari at the time of the accident, having loaned the car to two friends, says TMZ.

The photographer was said to have been trailing the Ferrari prior to the traffic stop.

Bieber has been recklessly chased by photographers on several occasions, sparking an attempted anti-paparazzi law.