When will it end?

Yesterday a friend and I were discussing the "Octo-mom" and the subject of privacy and the stalkerazzi came up. It steams me to no end that the stalkerazzi get away with hounding, chasing, and basically stalking everyone they want, and all for the sake of "news".

Several questions came to mind. Is it really news that woman took two children home from the hospital? Should we care? Does someone cross the line from private citizen to public figure by having a litter of children? Is there a line any longer?

So I did a little research and this is what I found...

The right of privacy is restricted to individuals who are in a place that a person would reasonably expect to be private (e.g., home, hotel room, telephone booth). There is no protection for information that either is a matter of public record or the victim voluntarily disclosed in a public place. People should be protected by privacy when they "believe that the conversation is private and can not be heard by others who are acting in an lawful manner." Am.Jur.2d Telecommunications § 209 (1974).

and then there's this. ....

• unreasonable intrusion upon the seclusion of another, for example, physical invasion of a person's home (e.g., unwanted entry, looking into windows with binoculars or camera, tapping telephone), searching wallet or purse, repeated and persistent telephone calls, obtaining financial data (e.g., bank balance) without person's consent, etc.
• appropriation of a person's name or likeness; successful assertions of this right commonly involve defendant's use of a person's name or likeness on a product label or in advertising a product or service. A similar concept is the "right of publicity" in Restatement (Third) Unfair Competition §§46-47 (1995). The distinction is that privacy protects against "injury to personal feelings", while the right of publicity protects against unauthorized commercial exploitation of a person's name or face. As a practical matter, celebrities generally sue under the right of publicity, while ordinary citizens sue under privacy.
• publication of private facts, for example, income tax data, sexual relations, personal letters, family quarrels, medical treatment, photographs of person in his/her home.
• publication that places a person in a false light, which is similar to defamation. A successful defamation action requires that the information be false. In a privacy action the information is generally true, but the information created a false impression about the plaintiff.

So if I'm reading that correctly, how DOES the stalkerazzi get away with all that they do?? Why don't people sue more often?

Yes, I understand that there are differences between how “public figures” and private citizens are treated, or there are supposed to be. Is the Octo-Mom public because she went on tv to talk about her life and children? She was being vilified in the press by even her own mother, so wasn’t it really in her best interests to tell the world her side? Plus, well since she was broke, the money she’s making from interviews and her website can really come in handy raising those poor children.

That said, did Octo-Mom give up her right to privacy by going on TV? I’m not so sure. And even if she did, does that excuse the behavior of the stalkerazzi when they followed her home and INTO HER GARAGE when she brought those children home ???? Shouldn’t those people have been arrested for at the very least trespassing? I don’t understand why no one seems to feel this is a problem. If it happened to you, wouldn’t you want those people arrested?

Everything I’ve read leads me to conclude that even though Ms. Octo-Mom has been thrust into the public eye, and even placed herself there, she has not given up her right to privacy.
I just pray that someday people start taking all of this type of behavior seriously.

Sooner or later someone is going to be killed again, just like Princess Diana, by the stalkerazzi. I wonder how many bodies its going to take for people to wake up and protect the right we all have to be left alone.

An atmosphere of mean...

I’ve been a “celebrity-watcher” for the greater majority of my life. I don’t know if it’s my natural curiosity about people and their lives, or my interest stems from the fact that I love music, music and television and want to know more about those who create those art forms.

Lately I’ve been watching how the world “relates” to celebrities and it’s really very sick and scary.

First you have the paparazzi, you know the scum who claim to be journalists, but who are really just stalkers who make money off of other people’s lives. Recently one of those scum was arrested on the property of a famous Hollywood couple. The cockroach (which I read is what paparazzi means in another language by the way) and his female partner were dressed in camouflage and were trespassing in the woods around the couple’s estate. The oh-so-smart pap had the nerve to say he was doing nothing wrong by trespassing in the “woods” because “the woods belong to everyone.” HUH? Not if it’s not public land honey. He went on to say he couldn’t understand why he was arrested because it wasn’t like he was “in their garden”. The even-more scary thing is that the police supported the scum. ??? What??? So now celebrities have even less recourse when someone invades their private lives and land and homes so they can sell pictures.

Next we have the public who demands pictures and video and dirt on anyone who is on a stage or a screen or even just dates someone who is on a stage or a screen. On one hand the public devours every bit of information, no matter how untrue and ridiculous it is and laps up ever word and image. On the other hand that same public says they “love” the artist and supports their work. They revel in the tragedies (real or imagines) of those in the public eye, while at the same time saying they love their work. HUH? How can you truly care about an artist yet tear him or her down at every turn? How can you believe that YOU have the right to privacy, but because someone is an actor or musician, they don’t have that right? I just don’t get it.

There are tons of blogs, and websites, TV shows and magazines whose creators print, broadcast or write whatever they want and no one seems to care whether any of it is true, or really has any real meaning in the scheme of things in this world. People, there are wars, and death and famine and joy and love and GOOD in this world, why focus so much on the lives of other people? Why not try to focus on the good and the happy and the ways we can make this world better????

I recently read some of a blog by people who seem to actually truly detest an actress simply because ….(and this is the only reason I can truly glean from their mean, tasteless and hate-filled writings) ….because she married one of their favorite musicians and they are just plain jealous. On one hand I’m saddened, yet not surprised to see how seemingly intelligent people spend their days. On the other hand I guess I’ll just never understand that type of nastiness and hate.

What makes people think it is okay to spew viciousness and cruelty to someone like that? Is it because they truly don’t know the people involved (and never will)? Is it because of the anonymity of the Internet? Why hate someone YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW so much?

Maybe I’m a Pollyanna, or maybe I was just taught to be so much kinder that those sad bloggers, but I don’t understand why they are so mean and cruel. I guess I never will.