Celebs at Odds with Bratton Over Paparazzi Crackdown

KTLA-TV

August 1, 2008, 10:52 AM PDT

LOS ANGELES -- It's a growing problem that brought actors, musicians and a city councilman to a meeting on how to curb aggressive paparazzi.

But one person who was not in attendance at Thursday's meeting was Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton.

He calls the push for more anti-paparazzi laws "unnecessary," and says the city has had fewer problems with paparazzi since Britney Spears "started wearing clothes" and other celebrities changed their partying ways.

Actor Eric Roberts and singer-songwriter John Mayer strongly disagree. They attended the three and a-half hour meeting with Councilman Dennis Zine who is spearheading an attempt to regulate the paparazzi.

Mayer says he believes freelance photographers should be licensed, taxed and credentialed with a big, white letter "P" affixed to their car license plates. Roberts and fellow actor Milo Ventimiglia say they frequently feel their privacy is violated.

Chief Bratton says the altered behavior of formerly troubled celebrities makes a proposed crackdown on paparazzi an unnecessary "farce" because photographers who swarm neighborhoods and shopping districts have been losing interest in snapping stars in trouble.