By: Anita Hofschneider, The Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) — Rock legends Steven Tyler and Mick Fleetwood convinced a Hawaii Senate committee on Friday to approve a bill to protect celebrities or anyone else from intrusive paparazzi.
HONOLULU (AP) — Rock legends Steven Tyler and Mick Fleetwood convinced a Hawaii Senate committee on Friday to approve a bill to protect celebrities or anyone else from intrusive paparazzi.
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| Associated Press/Oskar Garcia - Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, center, sits with his attorney Dina LaPolt, left, and Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood as they listen to testimony on a celebrity privacy |
The state Senate Judiciary Committee approved the so-called Steven Tyler Act after the stars testified at a hearing, saying they want to fiercely protect the little privacy they have as public figures.
The bill would give people power to sue others who take photos or video of their private lives in an offensive way.
Tyler said he asked Sen. Kalani English to introduce the measure after paparazzi took a photo of Tyler and his girlfriend in his home, and it was published by a national magazine as part of a report saying the two were getting married.
"It caused a ripple in my family," Tyler told The Associated Press after the hearing. "I hadn't told anybody."
The Aerosmith frontman and former "American Idol" judge says his kids don't want to go out with him in Hawaii because of the threat of photographers who sometimes get on boats to take photos of him from the ocean.
"That's what they do, they are just constantly taking from us," Tyler said.
Fleetwood, the drummer from Fleetwood Mac, says he's gotten used to the constant attention but realizes that it's a "grim reality."
"The islands shouldn't represent this to people coming here," Fleetwood said.
Tyler addressed Hawaii senators briefly during a general session following the hearing and received applause from lawmakers.
Senate judiciary committee chair Clayton Hee scrapped the bill's original contents during the hearing and replaced them with a related California statute.
Senators added an amendment to exempt law enforcement authorities.
Hee said he wants to move the bill straight to the Senate floor and to the House "in deference and in agreement with" Tyler.
English says the bill is necessary to protect privacy in the digital age.
He says that while the constitution protects news publishing, it doesn't protect news gathering.
Stirling Morita, president of the Hawaii chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, said he disagrees.
He says even with the bill's amendments, it's still too vague.
"You have to be pretty definite to limit First Amendment rights," Morita said.
The bill was also opposed by the National Press Photographers Association, which submitted testimony on behalf of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press Media Editors and the American Society of News Editors, among other media groups.
More than two-thirds of the state Senate co-sponsored the measure. Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne were among more than a dozen celebrities who submitted testimony supporting the bill along with the rockers.
The stars say paparazzi have made simple activities like cooking with family and sunbathing elusive luxuries and the bill would give them peace of mind.
Courting fame in sometimes disgraceful and desperate ways and then demanding to be protected against the downsides of it on the public dollar is despicable to me. Typical Mick. Typical deluded celebrities. Hire your own private security detail if needs must, Mick. You chose and choose to be at the center of attention. No need for the taxpayers to subsidize your indulgence. Yet of course it's YOU demanding the curtailment of individual rights. You who no one really cares about. As if Stevie, who lives in L.A., concerns herself with such nonsense.
ReplyDeletePeople wonder why Mick is so unpopular - well this is why. What a pretentious phony. No one knows who you are, Mick, and nobody cares too much. Stop trying to curtail individual freedoms on the ashes of your obscurity.
ReplyDeleteMick looks very foolish here. With Steven Tyler? This skeletal drug addict who runs around half naked? He's a total exhibitionist!!! His "privacy" has been impinged? Really? Why is this a problem peculiar to exhibitionists? Dylan, Springsteen, Petty, Henley et al seem to have no problems keeping private. Mick does? Give me a break! You suck, MIck. You really, really do.
ReplyDeleteNow that the Fleetwood Mac publicity engine is firing on full pistons to ensure that the massive world tour is a success, it's also about time that Mick attempts to compete with Stevie and Lindsey for some press. Cut to this exceedingly shallow and stupid endeavor. Mick - no one knows you, your (soon to be) 5th ex wife or you kids. We know you have expenses and that you beg, coerce and plead with Stevie and Lindsey to tour every few years for the "debt" they supposedly owe to you, but don't fuck with American law please. What an idiot.
ReplyDeleteLindsey - who is much more famous and accomplished than Mick - has a beautiful wife and three children and lives right smack in the middle of Los Angeles. There has never been an incident with Lindsey, his wife (Kristen), or kids in terms of an invasive press. Mick, who's a naturalized U.S. citizen living on the outskirts of the country on a remote tropical island, feels besieged by the press, even though few people alive actually know who he is. Mick is a legends in his own mind and deserves to be ignored. What an ass.
ReplyDeleteMick Fleetwood... Who is he? Better known in his home at lunchtime.
ReplyDeleteFleetwood is a profiteering sellout, and way past his sell by date, none of the current band have a quarter of the talent of Peter Green
ReplyDeleteThat little thumbnail should be entitled Grumpy Old Men.
ReplyDeleteI wish to add to my unapproved comment:
ReplyDeleteWhat's with all the deluded little hipster rabble whining about Mick Fleetwood not being famous? That their generation is comprised largely of ignorami doesn't excuse their laziness in not bothering to even look it up.
Outside of spoiled little brats, Fleetwood Mac, named in part after Mick Fleetwood, is more famous than Lohan ever will be. More importantly, they're famous for actually being a contributing member of society, not some bimbo who hasn't even made a movie whose name is worth my knowing, whose primary source of fame is being a celebritard who amuses reality show-watching nitwits.
everybody deserves some privacy
ReplyDelete