Berry makes a plea to limit paparazzi
Actress Halle Berry painted a portrait of a life under siege Tuesday as she testified in favor of legislation that would increase limits on paparazzi in California. The bill, SB 606, is intended to protect children of celebrities and public officials from harassment.
Berry told a panel of lawmakers that her 5-year-old daughter is constantly afraid to leave the house for school, play dates or shopping.
Particularly traumatizing, she said, was an encounter at Los Angeles International Airport in April, when photographers swarmed Berry, her fiance and her daughter. “Are they trying to kill us?” she recalled her daughter asking.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee approved the bill, which would modify the definition of harassment – meaning activity that “seriously alarms, annoys, torments or terrorizes” a person – to include photographing or recording a child without the permission of a legal guardian.
Carrey won’t promote ‘Kick Ass 2’
Don’t look for Jim Carrey to promote his “Kick-Ass 2.”
The “Bruce Almighty” star has taken to Twitter to distance himself from Aug. 16’s sequel because Carrey said that he “cannot support that level of violence” in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which 20 children and six educators were slain in December.
“I am not ashamed of it, but recent events have caused a change in my heart,” Carrey said of “Kick-Ass 2” through his official Twitter account.
Carrey’s backpedaling prompted an irritated and lengthy online rejoinder from Mark Millar, the writer of the “Kick-Ass” comic books and an executive producer on the Universal Studios sequel.
“As you may know, Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control, and I respect both his politics and his opinion, but I’m baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn’t in the screenplay eighteen months ago,” Millar wrote on his blog. “Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called ‘Kick-Ass 2’ really has to do what it says on the tin.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Josef Sommer is 79. Singer Billy Davis Jr. is 73. Singer-musician Mick Jones is 58. Rock singer Chris Isaak is 57. Rock singer Patty Smyth is 56. Actor Chris O’Donnell is 43. Actor Nick Offerman is 43. Country singer Gretchen Wilson is 39. Rock musician Nathan Followill (Kings of Leon) is 34. Actor-musician Jason Schwartzman is 33.