Can Ken Starr tame Malibu's rabid paparazzi?
That's what Malibu officials are hoping as they turn to the independent counsel who investigated President Clinton's involvement with White House intern Monica Lewinsky to help them craft restrictions on "pap packs" that descend on the celebrity-rich coastal town.
Malibu officials say their town has been overrun by members of the celebrity media, who camp out at the city's few shopping centers and follow celebrities down Pacific Coast Highway. In the last few years, merchants have complained about photographers blocking store entrances and staking out restaurants and Malibu's multiplex movie theater.
Brad Pitt placed a massive tarp around his beachfront mansion to foil paparazzi. Recently, dozens of photographers swarmed pop star Miley Cyrus during a trip to a Cross Creek Road shopping center, forcing bystanders aside to get their shots.
Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said Thursday that she'd asked Starr, dean of the Pepperdine law school, to convene a group of experts in the media and legal community to help draft a city ordinance that might include "buffer zones" at certain locations as well as a possible tax on the paparazzi.
"We're coming up on another summer season. Let's hope we are not in store for another tsunami of paparazzi," Ulich said. "Maybe they will think twice before shoving a camera in your face."
Ulich said residents are particularly concerned because paparazzi are hanging out near local schools and following celebrities home after they pick up their kids.
Malibu has been an out-of-the-way playground of the rich and famous for decades. But veteran paparazzo say that only in recent years has it become a destination for the photographers.
Frank Griffin, co-owner of a Los Angeles-based photography agency, said the tipping point occurred two years ago when Britney Spears made the seaside town her home. She was famously photographed driving with her toddler on her lap on Pacific Coast Highway -- images that sparked a tabloid firestorm.
She moved to Studio City but the paparazzi never left -- in part because they discovered how many stars live there, including Pierce Brosnan, Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand.
"They are like crows on a telegraph line, just rows and rows of them," Griffin said of the photographers. "They thought this is nice and comfy: 'I have my Starbucks, the taco stand and can even go surfing.' Who wants to sit in the Valley in 104 degrees?"
