Plus ça change!
Despite the uproar following Diana’s death, France’s paparazzi continue to stalk the rich and famous
By Tom Sancton
Paris, August 26, 2017
No one can forget the night of August 31, 1997. Pursued at
high speed by a relentless pack of paparazzi, the black Mercedes bearing
Princess Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed struck the 13th pillar of
Paris’s Alma tunnel and crashed into a concrete wall. Fayed was killed
instantly. Diana, despite a heroic effort to save her life, died on the
operating table four hours later. Blame focused immediately on the paparazzi
who had chased the couple on motorcycles then crawled all over their smashed
vehicle snapping photos and jostling one another for position. Ten
photojournalists were arrested that night and later charged with manslaughter
and failing to aid persons in danger.
But another
factor soon emerged: an autopsy of the Mercedes’s
deceased driver, Ritz Hotel security chief Henri Paul, revealed that he was
drunk and under the influence of prescription drugs at the time of the
crash. If that fact relieved the
photographers of the legal responsibility for the accident—all charges against
them were eventually dropped—it did little to change the public perception that
these camera-slinging cowboys had hounded the Princess to her death.
Despite
widespread calls to rein in the reckless methods of the paparazzi, little has
changed in the intervening 20 years. The French celebrity press—magazines like Paris Match, Voici, Gala, and VSD—continue to thrive on stolen images
of the rich and famous, and daredevil photographers keep shooting them. “The
paparazzi calmed down for six months after the accident, then they started back
up again,” says Alain Toucas, Diana’s former lawyer, who currently represents
the royal family of Monaco. “We hoped
the situation would improve, but in fact it’s gotten worse.”
Even before the death of the
Princess, France had one of the Europe’s strongest laws against invasion of
privacy. The French civil code states that “everyone has a right to respect of
their private life” and accords to each individual the right to control his or
her own image. The problem is that the celebrity magazines continue to publish
paparazzi photos and, when they are sued, simply pay the fines and make up for
the cost through boosted sales. Though the law is strict on paper, it has
little deterrent effect. “I continue to pursue all those who violate the
private lives of my clients,” says Toucas. “But our efforts have little
success. We receive minimal damage payments, but we have failed to put an end
to these abuses.”
Bruno Mouron, one of France’s
best-known paparazzi, agrees that the celebrity stalking continues unabated but
laments that the business has changed since he started working in the 1970s.
For one thing, it is nowhere as lucrative as it was in the pre-Diana days when
a single photo could fetch six figures. “The prices are ten percent of what
they were 20 years ago,” he says. “Now you’re lucky if you can get $5,000 for a
photo.”
Mouron attributes that precipitous
drop to a number of causes. “With Instagram and Smartphones, everyone can be a
paparazzi. Celebrity photos are all over the Internet.” Another factor is that
the so-called “people” magazines increasingly organize their own photo shoots,
often with the express or tacit cooperation of the subject. Then there is the
precarious state of print journalism in general: more and more publications are
closing down and there is less money to spend on photos and reporting. Finally
there is the competition of young, hungry photojournalists attracted by the
adventure and willing to work cheap. “You don’t need a diploma to be a
photographer,” Mouron grumbles. “With today’s digital cameras, the photos take
themselves.”
Mouron waxes nostalgic about the
old days. “It used to be a princely profession,” he says. “Travel, grand
hotels, fancy restaurants. To photograph celebrities, we had to go to the same
places they did. Now it’s a profession for bums—kids riding around on motor scooters
and eating fast food. If I was 20 years old today, I’d never choose this
profession. It no longer makes one dream.”
Alain Toucas is unmoved by such complaints:
“Maybe it is less lucrative for the paparazzi—that’s not my problem—but it is
just as bothersome to the people they stalk. And I am afraid that, one day, we
will be confronted by another tragedy like Diana’s.”
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Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod's 1998 bestseller is now available in an updated 20th anniversary edition.
—Lisa
Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
“A solid piece of work…Every eyewitness is
interviewed; every lead followed up; every theory is explored.”
—Roy
Greenslade, The Guardian
“The definitive book on those final moments, days, hours,
minutes and seconds of Diana’s life.”
—Cindy
Adams, New York Post
“[The authors] have done more in-depth reporting on this
than just about anyone else.”
—Anderson
Cooper, CNN
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