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Pimparazzi
How an unscrupulous Frenchman invented the U.S. pap menace
When X17 paparazzi photographer "Dano" describes the night an outraged Britney Spears attacked his Ford Explorer with an umbrella, it's with an almost child-like glee.
"She was breathing like a bull," the Mexican-American Angelino told writer David Samuels in a recent cover story for The Atlantic magazine. "It was like smoke was coming out of her nostrils. Then she leaps out of the door screaming ‘Motherfuckers!'"
Ironically, her rage-fueled lapse in judgment (perhaps spurred by being denied visitation with her sons minutes earlier) made Dano a star. His net profits from sales of the photos totaled $400,000.
According to the Atlantic story, Britney-related photos/videos/etc. bring the celebrity-stalking industry over $100 million in proceeds annually — and that's just Britney. With Paris, Lindsay, TomKat, and Brangelina in the mix, along with hundreds of other movie stars and socialites, we're talking astronomical sums of money. Once a highly specialized business, it's now a piranha pool roiling with opportunists.
Because it is so profitable, chasing celebrities has become a bloodthirsty game. And it may surprise you to know that its most successful players are former pizza delivery drivers, valet parking attendants, and other service industry rejects. The modern paparazzi are not professional, lone wolf photographers, hauling expensive camera equipment from location to location. They are mostly packs of immigrant kids, armed with simple digital cameras and camcorders, who are willing to risk life, limb, and incarceration to bag a "big money" shot.
"She was breathing like a bull," the Mexican-American Angelino told writer David Samuels in a recent cover story for The Atlantic magazine. "It was like smoke was coming out of her nostrils. Then she leaps out of the door screaming ‘Motherfuckers!'"
Ironically, her rage-fueled lapse in judgment (perhaps spurred by being denied visitation with her sons minutes earlier) made Dano a star. His net profits from sales of the photos totaled $400,000.
According to the Atlantic story, Britney-related photos/videos/etc. bring the celebrity-stalking industry over $100 million in proceeds annually — and that's just Britney. With Paris, Lindsay, TomKat, and Brangelina in the mix, along with hundreds of other movie stars and socialites, we're talking astronomical sums of money. Once a highly specialized business, it's now a piranha pool roiling with opportunists.
Because it is so profitable, chasing celebrities has become a bloodthirsty game. And it may surprise you to know that its most successful players are former pizza delivery drivers, valet parking attendants, and other service industry rejects. The modern paparazzi are not professional, lone wolf photographers, hauling expensive camera equipment from location to location. They are mostly packs of immigrant kids, armed with simple digital cameras and camcorders, who are willing to risk life, limb, and incarceration to bag a "big money" shot.
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