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This way. Thanks.
Guys, please. This way.
I think we can all agree that paparazzi
are some of the lowest forms of life on planet earth.
The ever-growing business of invading public person's privacy
in the seemingly insatiable appetite for such garbage
proved that more than ever
people are looking for glimpses in the lives that seem more interesting than their own.
I love you!
[PAP SMEAR: STALKING THE PAPARAZZI]
When Vice asked me if I wanted to write a story about this profession
I jumped at the opportunity.
I had to know
[STEVEN RANDOLPH VICE] were they just trying to get by?
I decided to go directly to the source.
We're going down Melrose here
where we're going to meet the photographers.
I don't know his last name and it's probably better that way.
After asking various contacts I was put in touch with
[PETER PAPARAZZO] Peter, a profesisonal and somewhat jaded paparazzo
who agreed to give me all the pertinent details
I would need to capture my prey in exchange for his anonymity.
What is it? What is the paparazzi?
To get a good shot you need composition.
You need the right lighting.
If you're out of focus, you're ***.
You're not selling that photo.
He also said there are a select few freelance photographers
such as himself, who adhere to a moral code of sorts.
Here, I 'll give you a few rules.
If you're not a paparazzi, if you're not a photographer or videographer
you should probably stay away from calling us paparazzi.
You're not going to do what we call "jumping."
OK, you jump on our story, that means we lose money.
If you don't even ask you're looked at as like, a degenerate punk.
That's kind of the code. You don't jump on anybody's stories, unless you ask.
What did you do before this?
Before this career as a path?
Dude, just don't call me a pap, man. I prefer you call me a phtographer.
It sounds like a stripper being asked to be called a dancer.
You're not really dancing.
What the world doesn't know is that we probably have the only right to do that.
It's like a cop pulling you over. You're not going to pull over for anybody else.
We are photographers, we are paparazzi in a sense.
I'm wherever the celebrity will be, man.
Wherever you are, I 'll be there.
He also schooled me on the paparazzi circuit in its respective territories.
Any place that requires a valet. Any bar or club. You know...
My Studio, Supperclub, BOA.
Go outside of BOA and you will see a gangload of paparazzi.
With this information at my disposal, I was ready to start my rampage of invasiveness.
Gonna post up and try to hunt the hunters.
My photographer and I headed straight for the guitar statue outside BOA,
a popular nightclub on Suset Boulevard frequented by celebrities.
You're gonna go out and step into another world, man.
Like you're gonna go out and try to take money from people.
So, people are going to be a little defensive.
When we see a huge guitar and there's these two shady looking dudes in beanies
do they look like the kind of guys that are ready to fight?
We pulled up two blocks away. I'm starting to get nervous.
We parked and went over our plan
which basically amounted to getting in their faces
and asking increasingly personal and judgemental questions.
You know, I'd be careful. Don't get too close.
A paparazzi is telling me to not get too close to the story.
That's funny.
Hey homey! How are you? How are you?
Please tell us what are you wearing right now?
Who are you wearing?
Who are you wearing?
What does your underwear look like?
Please tell us. Who are you with?
Do you feel bad when you go home at night doing this to people?
Do you like a pinky in the butt during sex?
Sir, sir, sir.
When you're getting a *** do you like one single pinky in your butt?
I'm not getting the scoop from you dude. We wanna know.
Just one question, sir. Just one question.
Do you smell the toilet paper after you wipe, sir?
Do you go 'number two' in the work place?
Somehow I think in this interview
that you think you're holding on to one last tread of
"Woah, you're doing this job." It's not.
You're taking pictures of celebrities at vulnerable moments without their permission.
They don't know who you are.
You guys interview other people.
How come I'm not allowed to interview you?
Does this make you feel weird?
If you do this for a living, why are you so pissed off that we're doing it to you?
Just get out of my face, bro.
I'm not in your face.
I just have a quick question. Why are you hiding?
Why is there so much shame behind what you're doing?
You don't like your own medicine bro.
If you don't like the way it feels to you, then why would you do that to your fellow man and woman?
You're getting mad at me following you around trying to get the hot scoop
and that's what you're doing.
That'd be like a butcher who's afraid of eating meat.
Why hide in bushes at a restaurant
for Paris Hilton's *** to fall out
if you're such a photographer, why don't you go and shoot waves in Maui...
You want to *** question my legitimacy?
Let me ask you something. Do you have kids?
No.
You ever try to get a job and you couldn't get it?
I went to places to try to get hired as a photographer and they wouldn't take me.
OK.
You want to *** question my integrity?
Hire me then. *** get me a *** wedding gig.
Do that for me, man!
This is all I have!
*** this *** interview. *** you okay.
This is Steve from Vice Magazine.
I thought we were gonna have a really crazy story here.
I heard stories of Brazilian guys that love to fight.
I thought we were gonna encounter that.
What we encountered was a bunch of cowards.
Most of these guys are just *** and they're not down to scrap or do anything like that.
It was kind of a fun story but it was anticlimactic.
Like who these guys really are, that you see the pictures on TMZ
they're a bunch of scared guys who...
I'm sitting here solo kind of like a *** myself
and they don't even want to make eye contact.
So they feel bad about what they're doing
and it's kind of like grinding someone into the ground at this point.
I'm gonna take off. I feel bad.
Later guys. Thanks for playing, man.
Thank you. Goodnight.
[READ MORE ABOUT STEVEN'S ADVENTURES TERRORIZING THE PAPARAZZI AT VICE.COM]
[KEEP IT ROLLING, RICK SUBSCRIBE NOW!]