Pay me big bucks but stay out of my personal life
Jennifer Garner and Halle Berry testified yesterday before the Assembly Judicial Committee about a bill that would require paparazzi to get permission before taking photos of a child.
Sadly, it is almost a certainty that this bill, even if passed, will be swiftly and decisively overturned by the courts. It flies in the face of the First Amendment prohibition against laws that limit the freedom of the press.
Now in the case of Ms Garner and Ms Berry, I know they make at least some effort to keep their personal lives private; difficult to do when you are a major celebrity. My problem is that they have no problems with the good stuff about being famous, like getting the table you want at the restaurant you want, not really having to look at price tags, big homes with elaborate security systems and so on.
The real reason that the paparazzi exist is because a large segment of the audiences who pay to see the movies of these actors, or buy the music of these singers, or watch the games of these athletes; wants to know more about them. A good portion of the fans involved in any activity that can elevate a participant to celebrity are so unfulfilled by their own lives that they escape their dreary reality by knowing how good someone else has it. Some of them live vicariously through the celebrities they follow obsessively.
When you are in a public place, there is no real expectation of privacy. Unless someone lives in a gated community where the residents have taken control of the streets and maintain them on their dime, those streets and sidewalks in front of their homes remain public property. If you don't want someone camped outside your home, move to private property where anyone doing so can be cited for trespassing.
What if a person sees an unattended child being "taken" and they want to pull out their smartphone and snap a photo to give to the police? Would they be liable for prosecution under this law, should it not be struck down? I would think so.
Bottom line is that this is a bad idea. We have a law already about harassment. When what a "pap" does crosses the line from "newsgathering (using the term very loosely)" to harassment, prosecute them under that statute.
* * *
I wrote yesterday about the ups and downs of my fatigue level. Today is one of those days where my energy level is near its lowest level. That doesn't go well with my stated goal for the week of taking at least 2,000 steps per day. Even thought I'm exhausted and really don't want to go to work, even for just two hours, I can't not go. I can and will be leaving as early as I can though.
Not wanting to miss my daily goal of steps (I'm actually trying to make it to 2,250 per day but 2,000 is acceptable), I took two walks this morning and I'm nearly halfway to my goal before 7:00 a.m.
Two weeks from tomorrow is my appointment with the doctor who will make the final decision on whether or not I'm going to have a defibrillator implanted. I've already decided that if I'm approved to have the procedure, I will get it done. My cardiologist recommended it and he's one of the few doctors I have implicit trust in.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Is Mayor Filner upset that he can no longer patronize any of the four Hooters sports bars in San Diego? Should Hooters be lecturing anyone on showing respect to women?
Ron Burgundy is going to pen a "tell-all" book. Now that's fiction. A fictional character writing a book about his fictional life.
I understand grief makes people do strange things, but to release a statement that your somewhat famous daughter died from a suicide attempt? Or is it that anyone trying to commit suicide is attempting and only those who fail to survive actually succeed?
If you found an envelope with $7,000 in the DMV parking lot, would you turn it over to the police?
Even though I've never watched any of them, of the current talk shows being tried out, I would predict that the one with least chance of survival bears the name of the "Queen of the F****ng World".
A UC study claims that people think BMW drivers are jerks, just because of the car they drive. Blue Beemers were most frequently cited as being jerks.
That Yahoo shows searches about who will replace "Ziva" on CBS's "NCIS" indicates how popular the show is. Is that surprising, or does it make sense that the #1 rated show in primetime might trend like that?
If two would-be robbers showed up and they were asked to come back in an hour, would they do it? In Chicago, apparently they would. They did and got busted.
The psychologists aiding the defense in the court-martial of Army PFC Bradley Manning tried to argue that his gender identity disorder, intensified by the hyper-masculine environment in the Army is partly to blame for his giving classified material to WikiLeaks. Doesn't fly.
Did Christian Bale really get offered $50 million to appear in the next "Batman" film for what will wind up only being 20 minutes of screen-time? What did he say (we don't know yet)?
This Date In History:
29 BC – Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan (traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
1288 – Count Adolf VIII of Berg grants town privileges to Düsseldorf, the village on the banks of the Düssel.
1352 – War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.
1370 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Carlsbad (subsequently was named after him).
1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385: Battle of Aljubarrota – Portuguese forces commanded by King John I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King John I.
1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta.
1592 – Imjin War: Battle of Hansan Island Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese Navy at Hansan Island.
1598 – Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.
1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.
1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
1897 – Franco-Hova Wars: The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Entente in World War I
1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).
1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2).
1935 – Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
1937 – Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases.
1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).
1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
1971 – Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.
1972 – An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
1973 – The Pakistani Constitution of 1973 comes into effect.
1974 – The second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins; 140,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots become refugees. 6,000 massacred, 1,619 missing.
1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens at the USA Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
1987 – All the children held at Kia Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, are released after a police raid.
1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal," is captured.
1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
2003 – Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Catherine of York
Pope Pius VII
Ernest Thayer
Frank Oppenheimer
Paul Dean (his brother was dizzy)
Wellington Mara
Alice Ghostley
Lina Wurtmuller
Gene Scott (died in 2005 and yet his religious broadcasts are still on the air in reruns)
Earl Weaver
John Brodie
Lynne Cheney
David Crosby
Steve Martin
Wim Wenders
Antonio Fargas
Susan Saint James
Bob Backlund
Mark Fidrych
Marcia Gay Harden
"Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert
Susan Olsen
Brannon Braga
Catherine Bell
Spencer Pratt
Tim Tebow
Today we're going to have movie quotes from two films, one for Steve Martin and one for Catherine Bell. Steve Martin was in "The Jerk" while Bell appeared in "Bruce Almighty". First, from The Jerk:
#2
Mother: Navin, it's your birthday, and it's time you knew. You're not our natural-born child.
Navin R. Johnson: I'm not? You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?
#3
Navin R. Johnson: Why are you crying? And why are you wearing that old dress?
Marie: Because I just heard a song on the radio that reminded me of the way we were.
Navin R. Johnson: What was it?
Marie: "The Way We Were."
#4
Grandma Johnson: [reading a letter from Navin] My dear family, guess what? Today I found out what my special purpose is for. Gosh, what a great time I had. I wish the whole family could've been here with me. Maybe some other time as I intend to do this a lot. Every chance I get. I think next week I'll be able to send more money as I may have extra work. My friend Patty has promised me a blow job. Your loving son, Navin.
From Bruce Almighty:
Bruce: So tell us mama, why make Buffalo's biggest cookie?
Mama Kowolski: Well, man from health department say he find rat pellet in pastry but I say no, is big chocolate sprinkle, but he shut store down. So we clean up, make big cookie for to bring customers back.
Bruce: Let's try that again, shall we?
Bruce: [New take] So tell us mama, why make Buffalo's biggest cookie?
Mama Kowolski: So all the children in the neighborhood will be happy?
Bruce: And isn't it nice to see all their smiling faces?
Vol Kowolski: I work in back. I see no smiles.
#2
God: [reading from a manuscript of what Bruce said the previous evening] "The gloves are off, God.", "God has taken my bird and my bush.", "God is a mean kid with a magnifying glass.", "Smite me, O Mighty Smiter." Now, I'm not big on blasphemy, but that last one made me laugh.
#3
Grace: It's weird. I woke up this morning and I swear my boobs felt bigger. Do they look bigger to you?
Bruce: Bigger?
#4
Hood: You want me and the homies to apologize right?
[Bruce nods]
Hood: Okay Cool, man, the day a monkey comes out of my butt is the day you'll get your sorry.
Bruce: What a coincidence, because that's TODAY.
Sadly, it is almost a certainty that this bill, even if passed, will be swiftly and decisively overturned by the courts. It flies in the face of the First Amendment prohibition against laws that limit the freedom of the press.
Now in the case of Ms Garner and Ms Berry, I know they make at least some effort to keep their personal lives private; difficult to do when you are a major celebrity. My problem is that they have no problems with the good stuff about being famous, like getting the table you want at the restaurant you want, not really having to look at price tags, big homes with elaborate security systems and so on.
The real reason that the paparazzi exist is because a large segment of the audiences who pay to see the movies of these actors, or buy the music of these singers, or watch the games of these athletes; wants to know more about them. A good portion of the fans involved in any activity that can elevate a participant to celebrity are so unfulfilled by their own lives that they escape their dreary reality by knowing how good someone else has it. Some of them live vicariously through the celebrities they follow obsessively.
When you are in a public place, there is no real expectation of privacy. Unless someone lives in a gated community where the residents have taken control of the streets and maintain them on their dime, those streets and sidewalks in front of their homes remain public property. If you don't want someone camped outside your home, move to private property where anyone doing so can be cited for trespassing.
What if a person sees an unattended child being "taken" and they want to pull out their smartphone and snap a photo to give to the police? Would they be liable for prosecution under this law, should it not be struck down? I would think so.
Bottom line is that this is a bad idea. We have a law already about harassment. When what a "pap" does crosses the line from "newsgathering (using the term very loosely)" to harassment, prosecute them under that statute.
* * *
I wrote yesterday about the ups and downs of my fatigue level. Today is one of those days where my energy level is near its lowest level. That doesn't go well with my stated goal for the week of taking at least 2,000 steps per day. Even thought I'm exhausted and really don't want to go to work, even for just two hours, I can't not go. I can and will be leaving as early as I can though.
Not wanting to miss my daily goal of steps (I'm actually trying to make it to 2,250 per day but 2,000 is acceptable), I took two walks this morning and I'm nearly halfway to my goal before 7:00 a.m.
Two weeks from tomorrow is my appointment with the doctor who will make the final decision on whether or not I'm going to have a defibrillator implanted. I've already decided that if I'm approved to have the procedure, I will get it done. My cardiologist recommended it and he's one of the few doctors I have implicit trust in.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Is Mayor Filner upset that he can no longer patronize any of the four Hooters sports bars in San Diego? Should Hooters be lecturing anyone on showing respect to women?
Ron Burgundy is going to pen a "tell-all" book. Now that's fiction. A fictional character writing a book about his fictional life.
I understand grief makes people do strange things, but to release a statement that your somewhat famous daughter died from a suicide attempt? Or is it that anyone trying to commit suicide is attempting and only those who fail to survive actually succeed?
If you found an envelope with $7,000 in the DMV parking lot, would you turn it over to the police?
Even though I've never watched any of them, of the current talk shows being tried out, I would predict that the one with least chance of survival bears the name of the "Queen of the F****ng World".
A UC study claims that people think BMW drivers are jerks, just because of the car they drive. Blue Beemers were most frequently cited as being jerks.
That Yahoo shows searches about who will replace "Ziva" on CBS's "NCIS" indicates how popular the show is. Is that surprising, or does it make sense that the #1 rated show in primetime might trend like that?
If two would-be robbers showed up and they were asked to come back in an hour, would they do it? In Chicago, apparently they would. They did and got busted.
The psychologists aiding the defense in the court-martial of Army PFC Bradley Manning tried to argue that his gender identity disorder, intensified by the hyper-masculine environment in the Army is partly to blame for his giving classified material to WikiLeaks. Doesn't fly.
Did Christian Bale really get offered $50 million to appear in the next "Batman" film for what will wind up only being 20 minutes of screen-time? What did he say (we don't know yet)?
This Date In History:
29 BC – Octavian holds the second of three consecutive triumphs in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Dalmatian tribes.
1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan (traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
1288 – Count Adolf VIII of Berg grants town privileges to Düsseldorf, the village on the banks of the Düssel.
1352 – War of the Breton Succession: Anglo-Bretons defeat the French in the Battle of Mauron.
1370 – Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, grants city privileges to Carlsbad (subsequently was named after him).
1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385: Battle of Aljubarrota – Portuguese forces commanded by King John I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King John I.
1415 – Henry the Navigator leads Portuguese forces to victory over the Marinids at the Battle of Ceuta.
1592 – Imjin War: Battle of Hansan Island Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese Navy at Hansan Island.
1598 – Nine Years' War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
1816 – The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
1842 – American Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by act of Congress.
1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1888 – An audio recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's "The Lost Chord", one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, England.
1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration.
1897 – Franco-Hova Wars: The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
1900 – The Eight-Nation Alliance occupies Beijing, China, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
1912 – U.S. Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
1916 – Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary, joining the Entente in World War I
1921 – Tannu Uriankhai, later Tuvan People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Soviet Russia).
1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km2).
1935 – Social Security Act, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
1937 – Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases.
1941 – World War II: Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).
1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Empire and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
1959 – Founding and first official meeting of the American Football League.
1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
1969 – Operation Banner: British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
1971 – Bahrain declares independence as the State of Bahrain.
1972 – An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
1973 – The Pakistani Constitution of 1973 comes into effect.
1974 – The second Turkish invasion of Cyprus begins; 140,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots become refugees. 6,000 massacred, 1,619 missing.
1975 – The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the longest-running release in film history, opens at the USA Theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
1987 – All the children held at Kia Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, are released after a police raid.
1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal," is captured.
1996 – Greek Cypriot refugee Solomos Solomou is murdered by Turkish forces while trying to climb a flagpole in order to remove a Turkish flag from its mast in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.
2003 – Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
Famous Folk Born On This Date:
Catherine of York
Pope Pius VII
Ernest Thayer
Frank Oppenheimer
Paul Dean (his brother was dizzy)
Wellington Mara
Alice Ghostley
Lina Wurtmuller
Gene Scott (died in 2005 and yet his religious broadcasts are still on the air in reruns)
Earl Weaver
John Brodie
Lynne Cheney
David Crosby
Steve Martin
Wim Wenders
Antonio Fargas
Susan Saint James
Bob Backlund
Mark Fidrych
Marcia Gay Harden
"Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert
Susan Olsen
Brannon Braga
Catherine Bell
Spencer Pratt
Tim Tebow
Today we're going to have movie quotes from two films, one for Steve Martin and one for Catherine Bell. Steve Martin was in "The Jerk" while Bell appeared in "Bruce Almighty". First, from The Jerk:
Navin R. Johnson: For one dollar I'll guess your weight, your height, or your sex.
#2
Mother: Navin, it's your birthday, and it's time you knew. You're not our natural-born child.
Navin R. Johnson: I'm not? You mean I'm gonna STAY this color?
#3
Navin R. Johnson: Why are you crying? And why are you wearing that old dress?
Marie: Because I just heard a song on the radio that reminded me of the way we were.
Navin R. Johnson: What was it?
Marie: "The Way We Were."
#4
Grandma Johnson: [reading a letter from Navin] My dear family, guess what? Today I found out what my special purpose is for. Gosh, what a great time I had. I wish the whole family could've been here with me. Maybe some other time as I intend to do this a lot. Every chance I get. I think next week I'll be able to send more money as I may have extra work. My friend Patty has promised me a blow job. Your loving son, Navin.
From Bruce Almighty:
Bruce: So tell us mama, why make Buffalo's biggest cookie?
Mama Kowolski: Well, man from health department say he find rat pellet in pastry but I say no, is big chocolate sprinkle, but he shut store down. So we clean up, make big cookie for to bring customers back.
Bruce: Let's try that again, shall we?
Bruce: [New take] So tell us mama, why make Buffalo's biggest cookie?
Mama Kowolski: So all the children in the neighborhood will be happy?
Bruce: And isn't it nice to see all their smiling faces?
Vol Kowolski: I work in back. I see no smiles.
#2
God: [reading from a manuscript of what Bruce said the previous evening] "The gloves are off, God.", "God has taken my bird and my bush.", "God is a mean kid with a magnifying glass.", "Smite me, O Mighty Smiter." Now, I'm not big on blasphemy, but that last one made me laugh.
#3
Grace: It's weird. I woke up this morning and I swear my boobs felt bigger. Do they look bigger to you?
Bruce: Bigger?
#4
Hood: You want me and the homies to apologize right?
[Bruce nods]
Hood: Okay Cool, man, the day a monkey comes out of my butt is the day you'll get your sorry.
Bruce: What a coincidence, because that's TODAY.
posted by me at 5:19 PM
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