Paparazzi

I'm from Los Angeles; I have lived here all my life (except the French interludes). 

Until today, I've never seen paparazzi in action.  I've seen them on the news, chasing someone famous.  I know that Princess Diana's car was being hounded by some very persistent paparazzi when her driver hit the wall in the tunnel in Paris. 

To be chased by paparazzi you have to be famous, new, hip.  I doubt that the paparazzi chase Regis Philbin around town, but you never know.

I was walking up the street this afternoon in Beverly Hills.  A bit early for an appointment, I was strolling, window-shopping, enjoying the warm, sunny day.  I first noticed that there were several guys standing on the sidewalk in front of me with very large lenses on cameras.  I shrugged it off at first, thinking they were over-equipped tourists.

In a whoosh, about five cars pulled up on the street, double-parked, people jumped out.  All of them had large, expensive-looking cameras with long lenses.  Then it dawned on me -- paparazzi!  Someone famous must be in the neighborhood.

Even though I was dressed and coiffed nicely, there was no mistake.  I was not the target.  I easily walked by all of them, the cameras remained at their owners' sides.  I kept walking even though I wanted to ask them who they were tracking.

I never found out who it was.  I went about my business and perhaps even passed the person without recognizing him or her.  I'm not very current on these things and often movie stars and personalities don't look quite as good as on the screen.

I did notice a couple of interesting things.  The paparazzi have spotters.  These are people in the street with nothing more than a phone.  They look innocent (no camera) so the star won't notice them as they walk by.  There were two of these spotters on the street.  They had obviously called their partners.  I also found out that if the star is in a building, they cover every entrance and exit, just to be sure they don't miss their target.  They don't seem to get parking tickets for double-parking on a busy street in the middle of the day in Beverly Hills.  Maybe they get a ticket once in awhile, but not today.   I guess the fine is just part of the cost of doing business.

I wonder how much money a paparazzi makes for a good photo?  It must be enough to keep them all running.