culturekitchen Exclusive! Anonymous paparazzo hawks alleged private Brangelina photos

I guess I have arrived ... although I am sure this is a hoax.

An alleged paparazzo only identified as lowrdr27, contacted me along with other bloggers and several publishing companies, in an attempt to sell 450 pictures taken during Angelina Jolie's and Brad Pitt stay in Namibia. The email is actually a forwarded original that included the text below and 3 photos attached.

The quality of the photgraphs is relatively good although there is one, of Angelina holding Zahara, that looks just a tad too professional.

-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
From: lowrdr27@XXXXX
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 22:11:25 +0000
Dear Sir or Madam,

I am contacting you because I have recently acquired some digital photos (450 pictures). On this memory stick are personal photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and their children. These photos are in thier home and on vacation, are good quality and are close up. These pictures have not been seen by anyone else. I am contacting you and several other Papers, magazines and websites to see what these photos may be worth. I am attaching 3 photos so you can verify the authenticity of them. You can contact me through this e-mail address:
Lowrdr27@XXXXXX

The list of people contacted includes :

eforu.com
celebritypicturesla.com
celebrity-babies.com
ew.com
howardshrine
deansplanet.com
celljournalist.com
verycool.co.uk
thebosh.com
paperunicorns
entertainment.ie
fotofama.com
celebrity8x10s.com
starmagazine.com
americanmedia
starmagazine.com
people.com

I have been vascillating between publishing or not publishing but the photographs looked just a bit too familiar. There are two with Brad and Angie that look like they were taken during their baby shower. The one I have published I swear to have seen on a foreign publication. I am not sure if it was published on an Indian or Chinese website and believe it or not but I broke Google this morning searching for the original article. That's the power Brangelina has over the internets!

This comes after less than a day a paparazzo was charged with stalking the couple's son.

Is it a breach of privacy? It's not clear how these photographs were take or if indeed 450 photographs exist of the couple's time in Namibia. What is clear is that privacy is not what used to be; just as the concept of exclusives.

When it comes to the right to privacy, where do we go from here? I do honestly believe people do not abdicate their right to privacy by becoming famous whether as a celebrity actor or a blogger. It's as if people are punished for being in the public eye. But now that almost anybody has a MySpace page or a blog, how does this old media trick of stalking paparazzi going to go down in a world of self-published celebrity and camera phones?

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