X-Men star Halle Berry backs bill to protect children of celebrities from paparazzi
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Your support makes all the difference.Halle Berry is set to testify in favour of a bill that would protect the children of celebrities from the paparazzi.
The Oscar-winning actress wants to change the definition of harassment to include the “actual or attempted recording of the child’s image or voice” without the written consent of a legal guardian, according to the LA Times.
The bill, authored by Kevin de León of the California State Senate, mentions paparazzi shots captured by “following the child’s activities” or “lying in wait”.
A first conviction would see offenders jailed for between ten days and a year, while a second offence would merit jail time of between 30 days and a year in addition to a fine of $10,000.
Berry, who has a 5-year-old daughter and is expecting a child with her fiancé Oliver Martinez, clashed with the paparazzi at LAX Airport in April.
“Get away from the child, Jesus, what is wrong with you people… that’s a child here,” she shouted as photographers swarmed her family.
The X-Men star is not the only actress to have voiced her disgust with the paparazzi. Man of Steel star Amy Adams told The Hollywood Reporter: “I am going to get in an altercation with the paparazzi. It’s going to happen. They keep focusing on my child.”
Anne Hathaway said that she and her husband were debating where to raise their future children in a bid to avoid invasive photographers.
But Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, is opposed to the ban. He said: “It’s what journalists do. They take pictures.”
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