Paparazzi Facts:* In the last 15 years, the number of paparazzi in L.A. has increased more than tenfold
*On any given day, 300 to 400 paps roam the streets of L.A. on behalf of 20 or so agencies
The evening of March 13 was just another Tuesday night for Lindsay Lohan. She spent a few hours at Butter in Manhattan—where the line for nobodies stretches around the block and blood orange Bellinis go for $14—sporting a brave face on the eve of her ne'er-do-well father's release from prison.
Around 3 a.m., she and some friends hopped in her mother's white 2004 BMW as the paparazzi gave chase. Pursued by at least two cars, she careened through lower Manhattan, putting the Beemer's famed facility for cornering to the test. Pulling into the valet lane in front of Hotel Gansevoort in the West Village, she found herself blocked in and surrounded by photographers.To judge by video aired by Access Hollywood, the scene rapidly devolved into mayhem, with gawkers and paparazzi shouting Lohan's name as she sat trapped in the driver's seat. Then, depending on whom you ask, one of two things happened: Either Lohan decided to run over a paparazzo named Giovanni Arnold, or Arnold, who was perched on the hood of Lohan's car snapping pics, smelled a lawsuit and took a dive in front of her BMW as she edged forward.
"Oh my God! Lindsay, you hit somebody," the photographers shouted, addressing the starlet like concerned friends.
Arnold wound up at St. Vincent's Hospital, where he was treated for a bruised knee, and clips of the incident were on the Internet within hours. Days later, Lohan's mother, Dina, told Harper's Bazaar that "Diana will happen again" (referring to the Princess of Wales' death during a paparazzi car chase), and hinted darkly that her daughter might be next.
The Hotel Gansevoort incident was just one in a seemingly endless series of confrontations in recent months between the paparazzi and the celebrities whose every move they chronicle.
Just this past November, Lohan suffered cuts and bruises after being rear-ended by a paparazzo in Los Angeles at 2 a.m. on her way home from a night of clubbing.
In February, Britney Spears had a well-documented breakdown, the highlight of which was her umbrella-swinging rampage against photographers from the X17 photo agency. According to X17, Spears had just been prevented by Kevin Federline from seeing her children when she went after a photographer's car, spitting and screaming, "Go fuck yourself!"
Just hours before, while stopped at a gas station, an obviously distressed Spears had sat passively in the passenger seat of a Mercedes as a photographer snapped half a dozen shots through the windshield while attempting to console her: "How you doing?" Click. "You doing okay?" Click. Click. "I'm concerned about you though, okay?" Click.And in March, in a Los Angeles church parking lot of all places, a security guard leveled a pistol at another X17 photographer on Britney detail after the cameraman ignored a traffic cop's instruction to stop and wait for Spears's vehicle to leave before exiting the lot.
That same week, Princess Di's son Harry allegedly lunged at a photographer while leaving a London nightclub and wound up sprawled on the pavement. Lohan's mother is right: Someone will likely be killed again. And when they are, the shot will be priceless.
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