Anyway, the lesson here is don't get your legal info from TMZ.
Harvey Levin is a lawyer.
Tyson is a fool to punch someone but a small part of me can sympathize. Paparazzi are so frickin out of hand and will purposely instigate trouble purely FOR the reaction and subsequent photo. They're scum and although I don't condone assaulting them for it, I can still understand the urge.
I think the paparazzi are more out of control in the UK than they are here in the US. I can understand your feelings toward them.
If there were swarms of guys following me around flashing their cameras at me whenever I went outside, I would probably punch one too.
Celebrities suck, but 'razzi sucks more, and contributes largely to the celebrities sucking so much.
Just think: Without paparazzi, where would all the 15-25 y/o girls be? No ******** magazines to live vicariously through anymore? GOD FORBID!!!
I can hear the meltdown now: "OhMY GOD WHAT DID KATE WEAR TO HER TRIAL?"
"WHAT DO THE "REAL" HOUSEWIVES DO ON THE WEEKENDS???"
I can not stand those magazines and how they have largely sullied or entertainment business.
I long for a day when nobody cares about Brad Pitts twitter updates, or any of the other trash 10+ national magazines perpetuate.
So after this rant I have a new position on the matter. ALL paparazzi could do with a good face-punch from Mike T.
As I said before, the paparazzi need the celebrities, and the celebrities need the paparazzi. It's a symbiotic relationship. Things are really not as they seem. The celebs publicly complain about how annoying the paps are, but it fact, most of the time it is the celebs (or their publicists/agents/etc) who call the paps to tell them where they'll be and when. And then, when the paps start shooting photos, they act all annoyed that their privacy is being violated.
For example, do you think that Jennifer Aniston didn't know that there was going to be a ton of paps at
The Ivy when she went there for lunch last year? They practically live outside of that restaurant. When celebs want their pictures taken, they go there for lunch. Why is she acting all shy and not smiling? Because it's an act. She had a movie or something coming out, and wanted some free publicity.
There are a ton of places to go for lunch, dinner, shopping, etc. in Los Angeles. The celebs that go to Robertson to shop, or to anywhere in Beverly Hills for a meal want their photo taken.
The celebs that live in the Valley or that don't go to popular restaurants (eg Mr. Chow) or clubs (Hyde) on the weekend are the ones that don't have their photos taken by the paps.
All news, whether positive or negative, is good news, because it helps the celebrity to remind the public that the celebrity still exists.
I'm not saying that every single pap/celeb interaction is a set-up, but, at least here in Los Angeles, more of them are than you think. Obviously, the Tyson at LAX incident was most likely the real deal.
Also, I'm not trying to defend paparazzi either. I'm just saying that some of the blame for the ridiculous tabloid industry falls on the celebrities as well. It's not accurate to think that the paparazzi are merely parasites in this.
As an aside.... I was once shopping on Robertson, and there was a huge crowd of paps outside of a store called Kitson trying to take photos. I asked one of them who they were shooting..... and he told me he didn't know- he just didn't want to miss the shot and let one of the other 20 guys get it. I thought that was kind of funny. What if they were all wrong, and no one was in there? It turns out it was Hilary Duff *yawn*