Your Own Personal Paparazzi

Your Own Personal Paparazzi
Time: LINK

What would I do with my own paparazzi? crotch shot. no. my own personal gerald ford assassination reenactment.

Struan Vaz and Paige Hill emerged from a performance of the Nutcracker by Ballet Austin last month and were assaulted by photographers and reporters who pursued them for several blocks, snapping shots and asking personal questions. Amid the blinding flashbulbs and rapid-fire interrogation, the pair held their composure, but the attention overwhelmed them a little. “A couple of times, Paige tried to run away,” says Tania Cowher, one of the paparazzi on the scene that night in the Texas capital, “so we ran along with her.” They chased the couple all the way to the nightclub Qua, where Vaz and Hill were met by a crowd of adoring fans.
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All the hoopla on the street and at the bar confused passersby, some of whom took pics of the action with their camera phones, while others asked the couple, both 30, who they were. “We were like, ‘We’re nobody,’” Vaz says. Actually, Vaz is a high-tech entrepreneur, and Hill works on a city councilwoman’s re-election campaign, but in terms of celebrity status, even locally, they are indeed “nobody.” Vaz, as a surprise for his fiancé, had hired Celeb 4 A Day, which provides personal paparazzi to private individuals who want to experience some of the trappings of fame. (Friends played the fans for free.)

Even as real celebrities battle those pesky cameramen on the streets and in courts for intruding on their lives and trading on their images, some regular folks, from parents hosting teen birthday parties to Gen Xers out on the town, have decided that the attention could be fun–and worth paying up to $1,500 for. Cowher launched Celeb 4 A Day in Austin in November and is expanding to Los Angeles this month and San Francisco in February. There are similar companies, like Private Paparazzi in San Diego and Personal Paparazzi in Britain, and wannabe big shots in other places have taken matters into their own hands, hiring freelance photographers to trail them.

The trend is driven by the twin obsessions with chronicling one’s life and experiencing fame. “We live in a culture where if it’s not documented, it doesn’t exist,” says Josh Gamson, a University of San Francisco professor of sociology who studies culture and mass media. “And if you don’t have people asking who you are, you’re nobody.” University of Pennsylvania sociologist David Grazian, who wrote On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife, calls personal paparazzi reality marketers, who make the act of being photographed more meaningful than the actual photos. “The goal isn’t to produce a product,” he says. “It’s to heighten the experience of the event. In that sense, there doesn’t even need to be any film in the camera.”

Phillip Barker agrees that a photographer is a powerful status symbol, even if it’s also an indulgence in narcissism. Barker, 29, posted an ad on Craigslist for a paparazzo to accompany him and 14 male friends during a bar-hopping birthday party in Chicago last November. Many of the responses were hostile (“You vain vain [expletive],” one read), but a woman, Mandy Johnston, took the job–delivering to the guys afterward an elaborate package of digital photos and prints and, during the evening, unexpected VIP stature: the crew skipped to the front of the line at several clubs. “We got in faster because of Mandy. People thought, These guys are important people,” Barker says. He’s considering hiring her again, perhaps for his upcoming 30th-birthday weekend in Key West, Fla. “Celebrities are always whining about people following them around,” he says. “We’re like, Are you kidding? That’s our dream!”

Prison Term for Removing Fingerprints

US surgeon gets 18 months in prison for removing fingerprints

By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania – A plastic surgeon who replaced the fingerprints of a drug ring member with skin from the bottom of his feet was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison.

Judge Yvette Kane called Dr. Jose Covarrubias’ crime “horrific.”

Covarrubias, a U.S. citizen who lived in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, and practiced in Mexico, pleaded guilty Nov. 1 to a federal charge of harboring and concealing a fugitive.

The case was bizarre even to prosecutors, who did not believe the stories of drug ring operatives without fingerprints, until Marc George was arrested in September 2005 at the Nogales border crossing with Mexico, bandaged and limping badly from the painful procedure.

Covarrubias was indicted in May. Prosecutors say the drug ring moved cash and drugs from Tucson and elsewhere and distributed more than a ton of it in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and other areas.

Covarrubias, 50, apologized to Kane for his conduct, and said he had learned his lesson. He has been jailed for 10 months and can be released in eight months. He then faces three years of probation.

Valentines day fun!

Happy Valentine’s Day. Not!
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NORTHGLENN, Colo. — Undercover police officers posing as flower deliverymen on Valentine’ Day arrested 23 people with outstanding warrants.

The Northglenn officers used a van with a sign saying “Flower Delivery” and knocked on doors be long-stem rose box to net their quarry.

“Hello there. Happy Valentine’s Day,” Officer Matt Hindman told one man wanted in this northern Denver suburb for failing to appear in court on a marijuana possession charge.

The man asked for a pen to sign for delivery. Hindman announced: “Northglenn police undercover, OK? You’ve got a warrant for your arrest, OK?”

Handcuffed, the man, identified by police as Ronald Madden, chuckled as he told Channel 7 News he’d been fooled.

“Honestly it didn’t click with me until I heard, ‘Northglenn police’ and then he pulled out the badge and I thought, ‘Damn you guys are good,’” Madden said.

Taxi driver plays cupid for Valentine’s Day
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Kind-hearted cabbie plays matchmaker, brings romance to New Yorkers

NEW YORK — Finding your better half this Valentine’s Day could be as easy as hailing a taxi — especially if Ahmed Ibrahim is in the driver’s seat.

The 53-year-old cupid cab driver, as he refers to himself, has spent the past few years playing matchmaker to lonely New Yorkers, setting up more than 70 dates. Nineteen have led to relationships that lasted more than a year.

Ibrahim planned to decorate his yellow cab with red and white hearts and roses for Thursday.

“I’ve organized so many dates, and it really makes me feel good about it,” Ibrahim said. “I’ve not had one complaint.”

Ibrahim said he offers his matchmaking services to passengers he evaluates by listening to conversations and asking a few questions. He then exchanges phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

“I want to know if they’re the real deal or just a player,” he said. “If you’re a player, then forget about it.”

One of his clients, Martin Karamon, said he successfully found romance through the cupid cab’s services. The relationship ended after about six months, though the two remain friends.

“I might have to get in his cab again because I just broke up with my girlfriend,” said Karamon, 37.

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Eff You, Giants

Murphy won’t cheer Giants
Bucks County Courier Times: LINK

He was the sole U.S. representative not to OK a congratulatory resolution
Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-8, has taken the rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants to Capitol Hill.

On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution congratulating the New York Giants on winning this year’s Super Bowl “and completing one of the most remarkable postseason runs in professional sports history.”

The resolution passed by a vote of 412 to 1.

Murphy, a diehard Eagles fan who worked at Veterans Stadium as a security guard when he was 16, was the only House member to vote against it.

“As a former 700-level security guard and lifelong Eagles fan, I couldn’t, in good conscience, vote for the New York Giants,” Murphy said Thursday. “The only thing worse would have been a resolution honoring the Dallas Cowboys.”
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The Giants shocked the sports world when they defeated the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3. The upset spoiled the Patriots’ quest to become the NFL’s first undefeated Super Bowl winner since the Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl in 1972.