Teenage Paparazzo (film)

Teenage Paparazzo (film)

So I've never seen Entourage, which means I had no idea who Adrian Grenier was until I saw this film. Yikes, I feel a bit out of touch tonight. However, watching Grenier's film about this 14-yr-old paparazzo (Austin) was a powerful experience. Adrian decided to start learning more about the paparazzi life by spending time learning from a teenager who photographs celebrities. Adrian becomes a paparazzo himself for a while to see what the life is like. He tries to encourage Austin to expand his horizons into something more meaningful, perhaps photo-journalism. His guidance is quickly interrupted by another celebrity siting, so Austin has to leave to get photographs of another star. Throughout the film, Austin grows up and begins to reflect on his life and his actions. Adrian becomes sort of a mentor to him as well as a friend. Both learn a little bit about each other and are able to accept the relationship they have.

I can't imagine being a famous person. I would hate to be followed by people who think it's okay to stalk a person every moment of the day or night and take photographs. I would also hate to be the person taking those photographs. Even though there is a lot of money at stake, is it really worth it? I used to be a royal watcher and bought magazine after magazine to find out everything possible about Princess Diana. Then she died in a tragic wreck that was most likely caused in part by the paparazzi. It was only then that I realized how much of an invasion of privacy celebrities experience. It took the death of a woman who was trying to make the best of her situation to cause me to wake up. The photographs of Princess Diana comforting land-mine victims made headlines, yes. But they were nothing compared to the photographs of her dancing with John Travolta or sulking at a dinner after a fight with her ex-husband. I am embarrassed to admit that I wanted to know all the lurid details about her life, and the good things she did such as touching an AIDS patient when that was considered really taboo in the 1980s weren't even on my radar.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm guilty of feeding the paparazzo culture myself. A lot of us are. I don't watch the celebrity sighting talk shows anymore, nor do I read the gossip magazines. I am sad that it took the deaths of three people to get my attention too. This film, Teenage Paparazzo, shows how quickly and easily we can become obsessed with celebrity, and how much we have begun to feel we have a right to be involved in these people's lives.

Watch the film. You won't look at the magazines in the checkout aisle the same ever again.