{"id":23273,"date":"2010-10-20T08:22:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T12:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=23273"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:38:55","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:38:55","slug":"the-price-of-fame-celebrities-and-the-right-to-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/10\/the-price-of-fame-celebrities-and-the-right-to-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Fame: Celebrities and the Right to Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Paparazzi<\/p>\"<\/a>
Robin Barnes' book discusses how increased press freedom has permitted disregard for individuals' right to privacy. Stock photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Britney Spears, Sandra Bullock, Princess Caroline of Monaco, and scores of other celebrities, fame more often than not comes at a price \u2013 the loss of one\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n

Living their day-to-day lives in the public eye, many celebrities must contend with the fabrications and distortions of gossip columnists, the infatuation of stalkers, and the unrelenting paparazzi, who follow them into restaurants, to their children\u2019s schools, on vacations, and even into their own residential neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

In her book, Outrageous Invasions: Celebrities\u2019 Private Lives, Media, and the Law <\/em>(Oxford University Press, 2010), published earlier this year, law professor Robin Barnes examines how the private lives of the rich and famous \u2013 on display for the public in the form of entertainment news shows, tabloid magazine headlines, and online Hollywood gossip blogs \u2013 are routinely invaded in what she calls our \u201ctell-all society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens of the United States [and] European Union are guaranteed constitutionally protected rights to safety, privacy, and freedom of self-expression,\u201d Barnes writes in her introduction to Outrageous<\/em> Invasions<\/em>. And yet, she asserts, these rights are frequently violated in the case of American celebrities.<\/p>\n

To listen to an interview with Barnes, click here: Law professor Robin Barnes discusses her new book, Outrageous Invasions.<\/a><\/p>\n

Celebrities Are Not Public Servants<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past several decades, Barnes says, the U.S. press has been granted increased freedom. Although this is considered a positive development important to our democratic way of life, Barnes demonstrates how it has in the meantime permitted tabloid publishers \u201cto expand their cottage industry of disseminating the intimate details of the lives of the rich and famous\u201d \u2013 without regard for these individuals\u2019 rights to privacy.<\/p>\n

Barnes\u2019 book touches on the \u2018outrageous invasions\u2019 endured by a wide range of celebrities, from Tiger Woods, John Lennon, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to Naomi Campbell and Nadya Suleman \u2013 branded by the press as \u201cOctomom\u201d \u2013 to Suri Cruise and other children of stars.<\/p>\n

According to Barnes, who teaches courses in constitutional law and serves as a national and international speaker on issues related to democracy, free speech, privacy, and human rights, not every celebrity should necessarily be regarded as a public figure, nor should their personal lives be considered \u201cmatters of public concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we have to keep an eye on public officials,\u201d she says. \u201cThe question is, does that entitle us to know everything about Monica Lewinsky\u2019s dress? Why throw every athlete, actor, and musician into the same pot? Celebrities are not public servants. They don\u2019t wield that much influence. That argument is specious at best. The European Convention contains specific provisions that identify human dignity as a paramount value. Individuals, including members of the media and representatives of the government, must behave in ways that are respectful toward a person\u2019s private and family life. Not so in the United States, where free speech always trumps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Examining the outcomes of numerous legal battles from the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the High Courts of Europe, Barnes identifies the differences in the protections granted European celebrities versus those given to American stars when it comes to the entertainment press.<\/p>\n

Barnes points out that in France, for instance, photographs that are not of public interest cannot be published without the celebrity\u2019s permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Europe they talk about free development of personality and human dignity,\u201d she says. \u201cThey insist upon a meaningful definition of what the public has a right to know. They want to separate the issue because of the longstanding need to offer respect for individual privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corporations and the Media<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Tiger Woods\u2019 apologies for his extramarital affairs received \u201cwall-to-wall network coverage,\u201d Barnes notes that similarly timed news about the hefty bonuses awarded to bank executives in the wake of the bailout was given minimal attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe give the press a wide range of freedom \u2013 to look at the banks, not to ruin Tiger\u2019s family,\u201d Barnes says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a situation where five or six major corporations own the media \u2013 not only the newspapers and television channels, but the magazines, Internet sites, blogs, the PR firms, the publishing houses,\u201d she says. \u201cThey keep the public focused on celebrities. When they can get people to focus on Tiger Woods and not the corporate scandals on Wall Street, they win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having written Outrageous Invasions<\/em> with an audience of \u201ceveryone\u201d in mind, Barnes hopes her book is accessible enough for \u201cundergraduates to leaf through it, but also professors at the graduate level to use it in class as well.\u201d She has assembled a supplement to the book \u2013 Privacy and Defamation in the U.S. and European Union<\/em> \u2013 which contains cases, legal articles, an electronic teaching manual, and other accompanying materials that may be used to teach this topic as a graduate course. Ideally, however, Barnes would like to put the book in the hands of the people she wants to read it \u2013 namely, she says, every judge on the federal circuit.<\/p>\n

The law school is having a banner year for books, with the publication of 10 new faculty works \u2013 including Barnes\u2019s book \u2013 by major academic presses. In honor of these and other faculty publications in respected law journals, the school has dubbed the 2010-2011 academic year \u2018The Year of the Book.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new book, law professor Robin Barnes discusses celebrities, the media, and the law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[49],"class_list":["post-23273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 12:01:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23273"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36825,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23273\/revisions\/36825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23273"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=23273"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}