Paparazzi have been getting some bad press lately. They’ve been wrongly accused of making Lindsay Lohan plough her car into a van, they’ve been charged with bashing up a bunch of kids while trying to snap Reese Witherspoon, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to slap huge fines on paparazzi who assault moviestars.
But now the paparazzi might be taking on something more powerful than they could possibly imagine – Tom Cruise and the mighty Church Of Scientology.
According to reports, Tom Cruise (DVDs) managed to stop people from
scratching their heads and wondering exactly how Katie Holmes got by yesterday making a security guard do a citizen’s arrest on a
cheeky paparazzi.
MSNBC reports that a group of over-eager snappers were
crowding around Tom as he made his way to the Scientology headquarters
in Sunset Boulevard during a break from filming Mission Impossible 3.
Bodyguards were apparently instructed to take pictures of the
paparazzi in case evidence was needed in harassment charges – tactics
similar to those of Brad Pitt in his Canadian hideaway – when according
to Scientology Celebrity Centre spokesman Greg LaClaire:
“The
paparazzi were outside our property and our security guard went to
photograph him out of concern for the safety of our parishioners.
[Later] our security officer drove away and was at a stop light on a
corner. While he was sitting at the stop light, the paparazzi jumped
through the passenger window and started beating him. Our security
officer defended himself as best he could and then made a citizen
arrest on felony charges of battery. He held [the paparazzi] until the
police came.”
Guess that means there’ll be a strict ‘no camera’ policy on the
Mothership, then. But at least not every
celebrity hates the paparazzi. George Clooney has said that if you
limit the freedom of the paparazzi, you’re restricting freedom of
speech, even if he did manage to call the snappers "jerks," "rotten,"
and "a drag" while defending them.
Read more:
Cruising For A Bruising With The Paparazzi – MSNBC
[story by Stuart Heritage]