Hawaiian politicians are backing legislation that will hopefully make their state more welcoming to celebrities and they are using Steven Tyler as their public symbol and California’s anti-paparazzi laws as their guide.
J. Kalani English, the state senator who wrote the bill that will pave the way for celebrities to lodge civil suits against paparazzi, has named SB 465 the “Steven Tyler Act.”
The Aerosmith frontman owns a home in Maui and reached out to English, telling him paparazzi in boats offshore frequently use telephoto lenses to snap pictures inside of his home.
English said:
“I have a lot of public figures who live here and this has been something that’s been on the plate for a while. Steven stepped forward and said, ‘I can be the face of it.’”
The bill would allow celebrities to sue a paparazzo for taking pictures or recordings of someone “engaging in a personal or familial activity with a reasonable expectation of privacy.” English tried to clarify as much as possible, for example, we won’t stop seeing celebs in their bikinis on the beach. English said:
“The beach is open ground. This is delineating public and private spaces. The litmus test is if you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
English has looked to California’s civil code to eliminate any gray areas because, according to him ” it’s worked well for California” and it “helps us to fortify tourism and a film industry.”
Eighteen of the state’s twenty-five senators have signed on to the bill and it is headed to a judiciary committee, but a discussion date has not been set yet.
Written by Michelle Wincott
With all the talk about chipping away at the 2nd amendment, it isn’t a big surprise that there are forces at work to chip away at the 1st. Now lets see how the press feels when someone is stepping on their toes.