Malibu residents Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner testified Tuesday in support of a state bill that would better protect their children from the paparazzi that frequent Malibu and other star-filled areas.
California Senate Bill 606, proposed by Sen. Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles), stands to alter the legal definition of harassment to include conduct “directed at a specific child…that seriously alarms, annoys, torments, or terrorizes the child” without parental consent.
It also states the children may not be harassed because of their employment, including language to cover anyone from public officials to celebrities, and specifically targets photography that involves “following the child’s activities or lying in wait.” It dictates that no attempts may be made to photograph or otherwise record a child without written permission from the parent or legal guardian.
Paparazzi are often around town, photographing celebrities and their families in at places like the Malibu County Mart, on the beaches and elsewhere around Malibu.
Both actresses traveled to Sacramento to testify in front of lawmakers, saying they are concerned for the safety of their children, according to reports.
Berry, who is pregnant, said the presence of photographers, constantly yelling and snapping pictures, have made her daughter afraid to go to school, according to the Associated Press.
“As mothers, as parents, we don’t have the wherewithal or the law in place right now to protect them from this,” she was quoted as saying. “What this bill would do is give us our rights back so that we can protect our children.”
She also said that the photographers ask her daughter inappropriate questions, according to the Sacramento Bee.
“I went through a custody battle with her father recently, trying to move to France to remove my family from this, and the paparazzi would say things like, ‘Oh how do you feel, Nahla? You might not see your father again. How do you feel about that?’ Inappropriate things to say to a child,” Berry was quoted as saying.
Garner had similar sentiments. She said paparazzi aggressively follow her and her three children on their way to school, and spoke of a man who once threatened to “cut the babies out of my belly,” according to the Bee.
He “was arrested, waiting behind our daughter’s preschool, standing among the throng of paparazzi,” Garner said. “That man is still in prison but I have no doubt there are others like him still out there, and I don’t want to make it any easier for them to find and reach my children.”
The bill passed the panel and is now headed to the Appropriations Committee.
SB 606 has raised concerns that it would restrict journalists from conducting legitimate newsgathering activities. The California Newspaper Publishers Association and the California Broadcasters Association have spoken against the bill, according to the Bee.
