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California Governor Arnold Scharzenegger, once a movie star himself, has signed a law protecting celebrities from overzealous paparazzi.

New law protects celebreties

Laura Dickerson NGU02002@BYUI.EDU Campus Assistant Editor

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law on Sept. 30 that “dramatically increases the civil penalties for assault with the intent of taking a photograph or recording video or audio,” according to California’s offical Web site www.ca.gov.

Under the law, celebrities can win triple damages from paparazzi if assaulted during a photo shoot and deny profits from any pictures taken during an argument.

Lindsay Lohan and Scarlett Johansson were both involved in car accidents earlier this year because of unrelenting photographers.

Cindy Montanez, a California assemblywoman and democrat representing suburban Los Angeles, proposed and wrote the amendment to existing anti-paparazzi laws.

“We always said that the only way we would be able to curb dangerous behavior by these paparazzi was by going after their motivation, and that is being able to make enormous, outrageous profits,” Montanez said, according to www.cnn.com.

In contrast, Tom Newton, a member of the California Newspaper Publisher Association, told CNN that “journalists sued under the new law would likely challenge it as unconstitutional.”

“It exposes people engaged in First Amendment activities to penalties the rest of the public is not susceptible to,” Newton said.