Trying not to be the paparazzi

 

Saturday, July 18, 2009

 

I spent an inappropriate amount of time on the telephone with Warner Brothers yesterday, trying to get a publicity shot of the new Bruce Willis movie, since the company came to Bayonne to practice some stunt driving.

The publicity person was courteous, but did not know if the studio had an official release as of yet.

She did, however, mention the fact that the paparazzi were everywhere taking their own.

In some ways, my whole call was a matter of mending my ways since the last time Bruce Willis came to Bayonne, I was one of those fools waiting for a chance to snap his picture for my newspaper.

We’re all caught in this incredible dance. Local newspapers want to impress our readership with the fact that we can get access to the stars.

But photographers have become a plague to the stars, always seeking to take the candid shot that might not put the star in a good light.

I caught the movie bug about five years ago when Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg came to town.

Prior to their arrival, I had earned my stripes at an investigative reporter so I had the nerve to wander through Spielberg sets looking for clues to his movie.

It never occurred to me that he would get upset.

I interviewed extras on several sets in New Jersey, Staten Island, even Athens, New York, never realizing the danger I put them in until one extra I interviewed expressed great fear for her movie career by what she told me.

I killed the story and have not yet reprinted it, even on my website.

But continued to probe, not completely believing that Spielberg would care what I did since it only helped promote his movie. I pretty far since the sets provided a lot of clues as to what would happen, as did many of the people I talked to.

Much later, when Spielberg was filming Indy 4, one of the extras talked to his local newspapers and Spielberg threatened to destroy the man’s career for giving away bit of the script. At the point, I realized just how seriously Spielberg must have taken my invasions.

But reporters are a curious breed. We love mysteries, and so the more secretive a film director is, the more we want to find out.

Several other movies swept through Bayonne after Spielberg’s, but it was Bruce Willis that taught me another lesson about life in the movie business, when he wouldn’t pose for a picture when I asked (The way Tom Cruise had).

I’m sure Willis is a great guy, but he just kept walking. When I shouted out, “can I take a picture for the local newspaper?” he replied, “You mean you haven’t already?”

Of course, I wandered through those sets, too, taking pictures of what would eventually become magical non-reality on the silver screen.

I even talked with some of the workers to find out about the movie, and when The Wrestler came, I talked to their staff, snapping a few shots Mickey Rourke before he went to work.

But it is clear nobody likes it on the movie making side, and so I figured, maybe I’ll be a good boy this time and ask.

Warner Brothers – although they might not be aware of it – started in Bayonne at the turn of the 19th Century. I once even took pictures of one of the film vaults accidentally uncovered during an excavation. Their press person was much more cooperative than Paramount’s, promising to email me an official shot when they became available.

When I called to get a publicity shot from Paramount of Tom Cruise, I spent hours calling both coasts only to have them tell me we could purchase one.

Perhaps that’s why I grabbed what photos I could when I did – inadvertently offending Spielberg in the process.

Since then, I’ve caught the film-making bug, seeking somehow to understand all the pieces come together to make the magic they make.