Halle Berry is weighing in on new Californian legislation that is designed to curb journalists from photographing the children of celebrities. Aimed at paparazzi, the likes of which Berry reamed and cursed at in the Los Angeles International Airport in April, when she told them to stay away from her young daughter, the new legislation would redefine harassment to include photographing or recording children without the permission of a legal guardian, to include following a child or lying in wait, as the Associated Press reported.
The law coyly protects the children of public officials, judges, and law enforcement, says Greg Hayes, spokesman for the senate. It is opposed by The Motion Picture Association of America as an infringement of speech, since it prohibits newspapers from taking innocuous pictures.
“It’s what journalists do, they take pictures,” said Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, when he addressed the Times.
Berry’s testimony Tuesday at least would be a personal account of how frustrating it can be to be both a celebrity, on the one hand, whose actions are scrutinized, photographed, and videotaped by perfect strangers, and on the other hand, being a mother, a parent protective of her children.