Las Vegas Weekly

September 11, 2008 · 10:07 AM

Hollywood paparazzi invasion rattles Britney, Paris

By Robin Leach

Britney was baffled and bewildered. Paris was, quite frankly, simply pissed!

Insiders from both stars’ camps told me they are angry and upset at the swarm of paparazzi cameraman that stalked them through casinos here on recent simultaneous visits. At one point, Paris felt so threatened for her safety that she and her sister, Nicky, and her beaufriend, David Katzenberg, fled into a fashion boutique for safety to “hide out” until their limo arrived! Britney was irate that spy photos of her in a skimpy bikini at a topless pool were posted on one photo agency’s website.

Plans for a private one-on-one photo-shoot of Britney with Siegfried & Roy at The Mirage dolphin pool attraction were delayed two hours, and then aborted at the last moment as a phalanx of out-of-town photographers “crashed” the private event -– and she fled. Roy had spent considerable time getting ready for the lunchtime rendezvous, only to see it ruined by the paparazzi invasion! Siegfried told me: “It was really disappointing that it was all for nothing.”

The Hollywood “bad boy” stalker paparazzi were rude and aggressive according to several people I spoke to. “ They don’t abide by anybody’s rules. They are invaders and they stop at nothing to annoy the stars, get into confrontations with them and get shots where they shouldn’t even be” said one person who was shocked by their behavior and watched it close-up.

By comparison our Vegas celebrity photographers are a small contingent of familiar friendly faces who are well-known to our hotel pr staffs and who abide by casino rules. They wait patiently behind ropes of red carpets for “ step and repeat” portrait shots – and often times two or three photographers are admitted separately for a few polite and hassle-free moments to capture candid shots inside theaters, clubs, restaurants or parties. Many of those photographs appear here at Luxe Life and the celebrities pose comfortably knowing that after five-minutes or so they will be able to relax without further flashes.

Not so for Paris and Britney’s visit. A small army of LA based freelance fotogs, equipped with Secret Service walkie-talkies ran circles around casino security – and in a well-orchestrated plan ran through back hotel corridors, kitchen and service passageways to pounce on the unsuspecting celebrities being walked ‘backstage’. “ They were everywhere. Its almost as if they knew in advance the layouts of the celebrity movements” said one of Paris Hilton’s friends who was livid at what happened. “They leapt out of doors they shouldn’t have even been in. They were waiting to pounce on them.”

I witnessed firsthand a wild pack of them break loose to encircle Paris and Nicky just after we’d chatted as they left the Yellowtail restaurant at the Bellagio. They even stalked Leonardo DiCaprio when he visited Bank nightclub. They ignored other patrons as they ran helter-skelter through the casino crashing into a couple of them. In all my years of being in Vegas, I have never witnessed such casino privacy being violated! It was disgusting, disgraceful and I was ashamed. This simply is not what we should tolerate here -– and its not how respectable members of my profession “play by the rules.”

One cameraman complained to me: “Any semblance of order went out the window. It’s been getting worse over the weeks, but this was the worst. If this gets out of hand any further it will simply not be worth our while coming out. They have completely cheapened our marketplace.”

Stars and their friends who visit Vegas often at weekends tell me that one of the reasons they jet here is for “privacy” away from the ever-present intruding street paparazzi, who in Hollywood have been lasted big-time for their rude, pushy, shoving attacks. One told me: “You don’t want them doing that in Vegas. If they pounce in Vegas like they do in the never-ending Hollywood war against them you’ve got a real ugly situation developing.”

So this columnist goes on record as saying “THIS HAS TO STOP.” Resort officials, hotel public relations executives and casino security staff not only have to protect our valued visiting players, customers and stars -– but they must stop this ever happening again. Aggressive rude paparazzi photographers should stay in Hollywood and not bring their bad manners to Vegas! We have been proud of the privacy, politeness and discretion we provide to all guests and we simply don’t want that reputation ruined by them and their out-of-control bad-boy behavior!

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