Thursday, August 26, 2004
USATODAY.com - A paparazzo stalks a pop starA paparazzo stalks a pop star
By William Keck, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears is in the passenger seat of her black Mercedes G500 SUV, reaching speeds close to 90 mph. With fiancé Kevin Federline at the wheel, the duo attempt to outwit, outsteer and outrun seven paparazzi on their tail.
Mel Bouzad, left, and other paparazzi wield cameras as Britney Spears walks by.
By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY
But there's a third little face in the back seat of Spears' G-Wagon, which explains the paparazzi frenzy. Federline and Spears are returning his 2-year-old daughter, Kori, to her mother's home in Orange County, which means this could very likely be Spears' first meeting with Federline's ex-girlfriend, Shar Jackson.
Today, 25-year-old paparazzo Mel Bouzad is on a wild ride as he attempts to capture that treasured family portrait on film, a photo that could net him more than $50,000.
Although he'd like you to believe otherwise, Bouzad — while a perfectly likable bloke — is not all that different from the ruthless photographers portrayed in the new Mel Gibson-produced film Paparazzi, which opens Sept. 3. When it comes to getting "the shot," Bouzad, like the star-hunters of Paparazzi, allows nothing to stand in his way, sometimes not even the law. (Related item: Learn more about Gibson's film)
He was the first to photograph Cameron Diaz with Justin Timberlake (at a Studio City bowling alley) and credits himself with being "the one" who captured Jennifer Lopez with Ben Affleck in Savannah, Ga., after the couple called off their engagement.
That photo earned him a cool $120,000. But to land today's anticipated shot, he'll have to engage in a freeway chase, crossing double yellow lines and speeding through red lights. If something goes wrong, it could cost him his driver's license, or even his life.
Whether you love the paparazzi or share George Clooney's disdain for the ground they stalk on, there's no denying these guys live an exciting life. And with demand for celebrity photos at an all-time high and with the weekly bidding war among Star, Us Weekly, People and In Touch magazines, there's a lot of money to be made.
Morning: Quarry sighted ...
We meet up with Bouzad at 9 a.m. in his 2002 Mercedes-Benz Kompressor, parked outside his high-rent Santa Monica apartment building. There's still a parking ticket on his windshield from the previous day, not an unfamiliar reminder of the traffic laws he routinely breaks in the pursuit of his art. "I bankroll the city of Santa Monica," Bouzad says, acknowledging that a parking or speeding ticket is a small price to pay for a shot that could net him thousands.
The paparazzi suspected the Spears/Jackson meeting could happen today because they spied Federline bringing Kori to Spears' home a few days earlier for their first "family" weekend. Now it's Monday, and Kori is due back home with Mama.
Bouzad has been keeping Spears under 18-hour-a-day surveillance at her new Malibu home. The surveillance will be increased to 24 hours around the clock as Spears' wedding date nears. The photographers' sources tell them the ceremony will take place in the fall.
As he cruises down the Pacific Coast Highway toward Spears' house, Bouzad catches a glimpse of a passing black Mercedes-Benz G500. "That was Jessica Simpson," he shouts in his strong British accent. "She must be coming from her home in Calabasas." Simpson was in the passenger seat, with her husband, Nick Lachey, at the wheel. Normally, Bouzad would spin his car around and pursue the hot MTV couple, but Star has hired him to get a photograph of a Malibu monastery Spears scouted over the weekend as a possible wedding locale.
A product of Fleet Street, the center of London's newspaper district, Bouzad has been snapping celebrities since he was 17. He moved to Los Angeles three years ago and runs his own agency, MB Pictures, which employs nine other photographers. Also on his payroll: many high-placed secret sources, including celebrities' bodyguards and personal assistants, as well as employees at airlines, hotels, hospitals, schools, restaurants, gyms, hair salons and tanning parlors. A hot tip could earn a source hundreds, or in the case of the Lopez/Affleck shot, thousands of dollars.
Bouzad has a $3,000 Pioneer in-car navigation system mounted to his dashboard that helps him find his prey. Two hundred celebrity addresses are programmed into the computer, in addition to the homes of such celeb offshoots as "Brit's mom" or "Brit's bro." With just a touch of a button, the system will guide him to any one of his programmed celebrities' homes. He also has a printout of 400 celebrity license plates.
Afternoon: Hunt resumes ...
Bouzad reaches Spears' house just in time to see the heavily tattooed Federline cruising home from the grocery store. "That guy's a chump," says Bouzad. "And you can print that."
Bouzad routinely injects his personal feelings for the celebs he hunts, maintaining contempt for most. He insists that if he invested enough time and manpower, he could find dirt on them all and systematically destroy their lives.
He gets lunch at 1:15 p.m., but as soon as Bouzad's cheeseburger arrives, he gets a call that "Brit's on the move."
He shoves his burger into a to-go box, retrieves his car keys from the valet, takes one bite of the burger, then discards his uneaten lunch in the restaurant parking lot and pulls his car onto the busy Pacific Coast Highway. One of his men is already following Spears and informs Bouzad that her car is about a minute away from passing him.
Bouzad spies Federline and Spears in his rearview mirror and pulls out to join a caravan of seven cars all in pursuit of the same shot. Spears has no license plate on the back of her rented SUV, but there's no doubting that it is her in the passenger seat sipping a beverage, her bare feet propped up on the dashboard.
As Federline turns the car south onto Interstate 405 (the San Diego Freeway), Bouzad realizes Federline and Spears are indeed returning Kori, who can now be seen bobbing up and down in the back seat (though safely strapped in), to her mother's home. The first shot of Spears with Jackson is what the tabloids have been craving for weeks. "This is a massive picture," Bouzad announces.
Bouzad knows Jackson lives in a gated community, so he sends two of his photographers to sneak in through the open gates — piggybacking behind entering cars — before the competition arrives. Bouzad phones an airport to see about the availability of a helicopter, but all are in use.
At 1:45 p.m., Federline crosses a set of double-yellow lines, illegally entering the carpool lane at 85 mph. Bouzad radios to his men to keep on their victim. "Don't worry about fines," he says. "I'll pay them. We don't want to miss this."
As the chase picks up speed, Federline makes frequent lane changes and drives off the freeway, then back on. He succeeds in losing two of his pursuers, but five cars remain on his tail. Then suddenly at 2 p.m. Federline gets off the freeway and pulls into a mini mart so Spears can make a pit stop, a common occurrence for her. "The girl's got such a weak bladder," Bouzad says.
A quick stop, a quick snap ...
The paparazzi abandon their cars in the parking lot and jump out to follow the barefoot Spears as she walks calmly into the store to request keys for the toilet. Informed the bathroom is already in use, Spears walks out to the back and patiently waits for the bathroom door to open. She signs an autograph for a little girl, providing a fun photo op for the frenzied photogs.
Bouzad is excited when he spots brand-new tattoos (perhaps temporary) on Spears' right hand — one a braid around her wrist, the other an image of a sun. Close-up photos of these alone will sell around the world for roughly $4,000.
After Spears finishes her business, the chase resumes. Bouzad confirms that his men already are inside the gated community, so it is his hope that once the caravan arrives, only Federline and Spears will pass through the gates, allowing his inside guys to grab the exclusive shot. A few miles later, that's exactly what happens.
"It's an exclusive, boys!" Bouzad announces, and he celebrates by pulling off the road and finally taking his own pit stop behind some bushes.
Not quite a trophy catch
But unfortunately, when he pulls into an Anaheim Starbucks and downloads the photos his men took, they're not the $50,000 images he had hoped for.
Spears never got out of the car, so Federline alone delivered Kori to Jackson. Federline kept a safe distance away as Jackson only briefly passed by Spears' window to collect a bag from the backseat.
Far from the happy meeting he'd anticipated, Bouzad now tries to sell the images as "Shar snubs Britney," insisting the photos show Jackson giving Spears a dirty look.
Star magazine passes on the photos, saying they're not strong enough to warrant reworking its layout, which is about to go to print. Bouzad considers starting a bidding war between People and Us Weekly (competitor In Touch, says Bouzad, has "no money"), but ultimately he decides to try to sell them exclusively to People for low five figures.
When People also passes the next morning, Bouzad is forced to unload the pics overseas. The American tabs, he says, will run his photos next week.
It's now 4:45 p.m. and even though Bouzad's day is coming to a close, his army is still hours away from retiring. Spears has been followed to a Blockbuster Video, where she's browsing DVDs.
As long as it takes Spears to select her movie, Bouzad's men will be waiting for her — and their next shot.
By William Keck, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears is in the passenger seat of her black Mercedes G500 SUV, reaching speeds close to 90 mph. With fiancé Kevin Federline at the wheel, the duo attempt to outwit, outsteer and outrun seven paparazzi on their tail.
Mel Bouzad, left, and other paparazzi wield cameras as Britney Spears walks by.
By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY
But there's a third little face in the back seat of Spears' G-Wagon, which explains the paparazzi frenzy. Federline and Spears are returning his 2-year-old daughter, Kori, to her mother's home in Orange County, which means this could very likely be Spears' first meeting with Federline's ex-girlfriend, Shar Jackson.
Today, 25-year-old paparazzo Mel Bouzad is on a wild ride as he attempts to capture that treasured family portrait on film, a photo that could net him more than $50,000.
Although he'd like you to believe otherwise, Bouzad — while a perfectly likable bloke — is not all that different from the ruthless photographers portrayed in the new Mel Gibson-produced film Paparazzi, which opens Sept. 3. When it comes to getting "the shot," Bouzad, like the star-hunters of Paparazzi, allows nothing to stand in his way, sometimes not even the law. (Related item: Learn more about Gibson's film)
He was the first to photograph Cameron Diaz with Justin Timberlake (at a Studio City bowling alley) and credits himself with being "the one" who captured Jennifer Lopez with Ben Affleck in Savannah, Ga., after the couple called off their engagement.
That photo earned him a cool $120,000. But to land today's anticipated shot, he'll have to engage in a freeway chase, crossing double yellow lines and speeding through red lights. If something goes wrong, it could cost him his driver's license, or even his life.
Whether you love the paparazzi or share George Clooney's disdain for the ground they stalk on, there's no denying these guys live an exciting life. And with demand for celebrity photos at an all-time high and with the weekly bidding war among Star, Us Weekly, People and In Touch magazines, there's a lot of money to be made.
Morning: Quarry sighted ...
We meet up with Bouzad at 9 a.m. in his 2002 Mercedes-Benz Kompressor, parked outside his high-rent Santa Monica apartment building. There's still a parking ticket on his windshield from the previous day, not an unfamiliar reminder of the traffic laws he routinely breaks in the pursuit of his art. "I bankroll the city of Santa Monica," Bouzad says, acknowledging that a parking or speeding ticket is a small price to pay for a shot that could net him thousands.
The paparazzi suspected the Spears/Jackson meeting could happen today because they spied Federline bringing Kori to Spears' home a few days earlier for their first "family" weekend. Now it's Monday, and Kori is due back home with Mama.
Bouzad has been keeping Spears under 18-hour-a-day surveillance at her new Malibu home. The surveillance will be increased to 24 hours around the clock as Spears' wedding date nears. The photographers' sources tell them the ceremony will take place in the fall.
As he cruises down the Pacific Coast Highway toward Spears' house, Bouzad catches a glimpse of a passing black Mercedes-Benz G500. "That was Jessica Simpson," he shouts in his strong British accent. "She must be coming from her home in Calabasas." Simpson was in the passenger seat, with her husband, Nick Lachey, at the wheel. Normally, Bouzad would spin his car around and pursue the hot MTV couple, but Star has hired him to get a photograph of a Malibu monastery Spears scouted over the weekend as a possible wedding locale.
A product of Fleet Street, the center of London's newspaper district, Bouzad has been snapping celebrities since he was 17. He moved to Los Angeles three years ago and runs his own agency, MB Pictures, which employs nine other photographers. Also on his payroll: many high-placed secret sources, including celebrities' bodyguards and personal assistants, as well as employees at airlines, hotels, hospitals, schools, restaurants, gyms, hair salons and tanning parlors. A hot tip could earn a source hundreds, or in the case of the Lopez/Affleck shot, thousands of dollars.
Bouzad has a $3,000 Pioneer in-car navigation system mounted to his dashboard that helps him find his prey. Two hundred celebrity addresses are programmed into the computer, in addition to the homes of such celeb offshoots as "Brit's mom" or "Brit's bro." With just a touch of a button, the system will guide him to any one of his programmed celebrities' homes. He also has a printout of 400 celebrity license plates.
Afternoon: Hunt resumes ...
Bouzad reaches Spears' house just in time to see the heavily tattooed Federline cruising home from the grocery store. "That guy's a chump," says Bouzad. "And you can print that."
Bouzad routinely injects his personal feelings for the celebs he hunts, maintaining contempt for most. He insists that if he invested enough time and manpower, he could find dirt on them all and systematically destroy their lives.
He gets lunch at 1:15 p.m., but as soon as Bouzad's cheeseburger arrives, he gets a call that "Brit's on the move."
He shoves his burger into a to-go box, retrieves his car keys from the valet, takes one bite of the burger, then discards his uneaten lunch in the restaurant parking lot and pulls his car onto the busy Pacific Coast Highway. One of his men is already following Spears and informs Bouzad that her car is about a minute away from passing him.
Bouzad spies Federline and Spears in his rearview mirror and pulls out to join a caravan of seven cars all in pursuit of the same shot. Spears has no license plate on the back of her rented SUV, but there's no doubting that it is her in the passenger seat sipping a beverage, her bare feet propped up on the dashboard.
As Federline turns the car south onto Interstate 405 (the San Diego Freeway), Bouzad realizes Federline and Spears are indeed returning Kori, who can now be seen bobbing up and down in the back seat (though safely strapped in), to her mother's home. The first shot of Spears with Jackson is what the tabloids have been craving for weeks. "This is a massive picture," Bouzad announces.
Bouzad knows Jackson lives in a gated community, so he sends two of his photographers to sneak in through the open gates — piggybacking behind entering cars — before the competition arrives. Bouzad phones an airport to see about the availability of a helicopter, but all are in use.
At 1:45 p.m., Federline crosses a set of double-yellow lines, illegally entering the carpool lane at 85 mph. Bouzad radios to his men to keep on their victim. "Don't worry about fines," he says. "I'll pay them. We don't want to miss this."
As the chase picks up speed, Federline makes frequent lane changes and drives off the freeway, then back on. He succeeds in losing two of his pursuers, but five cars remain on his tail. Then suddenly at 2 p.m. Federline gets off the freeway and pulls into a mini mart so Spears can make a pit stop, a common occurrence for her. "The girl's got such a weak bladder," Bouzad says.
A quick stop, a quick snap ...
The paparazzi abandon their cars in the parking lot and jump out to follow the barefoot Spears as she walks calmly into the store to request keys for the toilet. Informed the bathroom is already in use, Spears walks out to the back and patiently waits for the bathroom door to open. She signs an autograph for a little girl, providing a fun photo op for the frenzied photogs.
Bouzad is excited when he spots brand-new tattoos (perhaps temporary) on Spears' right hand — one a braid around her wrist, the other an image of a sun. Close-up photos of these alone will sell around the world for roughly $4,000.
After Spears finishes her business, the chase resumes. Bouzad confirms that his men already are inside the gated community, so it is his hope that once the caravan arrives, only Federline and Spears will pass through the gates, allowing his inside guys to grab the exclusive shot. A few miles later, that's exactly what happens.
"It's an exclusive, boys!" Bouzad announces, and he celebrates by pulling off the road and finally taking his own pit stop behind some bushes.
Not quite a trophy catch
But unfortunately, when he pulls into an Anaheim Starbucks and downloads the photos his men took, they're not the $50,000 images he had hoped for.
Spears never got out of the car, so Federline alone delivered Kori to Jackson. Federline kept a safe distance away as Jackson only briefly passed by Spears' window to collect a bag from the backseat.
Far from the happy meeting he'd anticipated, Bouzad now tries to sell the images as "Shar snubs Britney," insisting the photos show Jackson giving Spears a dirty look.
Star magazine passes on the photos, saying they're not strong enough to warrant reworking its layout, which is about to go to print. Bouzad considers starting a bidding war between People and Us Weekly (competitor In Touch, says Bouzad, has "no money"), but ultimately he decides to try to sell them exclusively to People for low five figures.
When People also passes the next morning, Bouzad is forced to unload the pics overseas. The American tabs, he says, will run his photos next week.
It's now 4:45 p.m. and even though Bouzad's day is coming to a close, his army is still hours away from retiring. Spears has been followed to a Blockbuster Video, where she's browsing DVDs.
As long as it takes Spears to select her movie, Bouzad's men will be waiting for her — and their next shot.
