Celebs Who Sued The Paparazzi For Going Too Far

Though George Clooney is one of the most famous celebrities on the planet, he and his wife, Amal, prefer to keep their private life out of the headlines. When a photographer for the French magazine, Voici, allegedly scaled a fence and climbed a tree outside of the A-List couple's Lake Como, Italy home in order to take pics of their one-and-a-half month old twins, Clooney snapped. The Money Monster star issued a statement to E! News in July 2017 saying, in part, "Make no mistake—the photographers, the agency and the magazine will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The safety of our children demands it."

This is not the first time the tabloid industry intruded on the tequila magnate's luxe Italian estate. In 2009, Clooney told TMZ that a photographer climbed a wall and "took a topless photo of a 13-year-old girl changing in one of his guest rooms." The actor's statement said, "We're suing two magazines AND a photographer. I don't know about the law in the United States but in Italy it's illegal for photographers to climb over my wall and to take long lens pictures of a 13-year-old girl in her bedroom. I draw the line of privacy at that." Um, that sounds pretty shady here, too. Gross.

Prior to Shepard and Bell's unbelievably effective appeal to the moral conscience of the tabloid industry, another A-List team, Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner, went directly for the legal option, even going so far as to aid in the passage of new legislation aimed at protecting celebrities' kids.

In 2013, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 606 into law, which, according to E! News, "increases the possible punishment for harassing celebrity kids—and clarifies the legal definition of harassment in such cases." Unlike Shepard and Bell's appeal to the consumers of the paparazzi product—the publishers and readers of the tabloids—Berry and Garner, along with others such as Adele and Nia Vardalos, took the fight directly to the photogs themselves.

In her statement regarding the legislation, Berry claimed the "overly aggressive paparazzi" has caused her "so much trauma and emotional distress." When Garner testified before the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety, she framed the problem through her children's experience, saying, "They're beautiful and sweet and innocent, and I don't want a gang of shouting, arguing, lawbreaking photographers who camp out everywhere we are all day, every day, to continue traumatizing my kids."

Critics argued that the language required to make the bill conform to the protection of the press under the First Amendment renders the legislation effectively meaningless, but Garner told Yahoo Beauty that in combination with Bell and Shepard's initiative, her kids' lives have changed for the better. That has to count for something, right?

Ron Galella, the OG of crazy paparazzo, waged his most tumultuous relationship with Jackie Onassis. Galella became obsessed with the former first lady in the 1960's and "tracked her" extensively throughout the next two decades, according to The New York Times "Asked and Answered" Q&A with Galella. He referred to his now infamous shot of "Windblown Jackie" as his "Mona Lisa," and seems proud of his long history of professional stalking, even though it got him slapped with restraining orders twice.

According to Circuit Judge J. Joseph Smith's account of Galella's rejected 1973 appeal, Onassis' first legal action against Galella came after his repeated intrusion into her children's lives, including appearing at their private schools, "interrupting Caroline at tennis," and "jumping out into John's path" as he rode his bike in Central Park. The latter altercation led to Galella's detention by John's Secret Service detail, which in turn led to a restraining order instructing him to stay away from Onassis and her family. Gallella reportedly violated the restraining order within two months and had a new one issued against him.

Gallela gleefully admits that despite all of that, he resumed his obsession and began shooting Onassis "from 1975 to 1982, when she took me to court again," according to The New York Times. In his defense, he showed the court "50 pictures of her smiling into the camera," because clearly that justifies his behavior, right? 

Ugh. What a business.

In 2012, the French magazine Closer published topless photos of Kate Middleton that were taken, without consent, while she and Prince William vacationed at a French estate. A French court ordered the magazine to "hand over all digital copies" of the photos or face a $10,000 euro/day fine until it complied. The magazine did so, but by that time the photos had already been published internationally by various other outlets, according to Yahoo News. Closer paid a relatively paltry fine of $2,000 euros.   

Four and a half years later, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge filed a lawsuit against the two suspected photographers, as well as the editor of the magazine and chief executive of its parent company, seeking $1.5 million euros in damages "to add to 'significant fines' against the guilty parties," according to the Daily Mail. Likening the invasion of privacy to memories of the way his mother died, Prince William said via a statement to the court, "The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy."  

In a tone-deaf response to the royal couple's complaint that is eerily similar to Galella's distorted perception of his pursuit of Jackie O, a lawyer for Closer magazine said, "It was an extremely flattering representation of the couple, so I don't really understand the bad lawsuit against us." Yup, that sounds like a million and a half euro defense right there.  

Aside from J.D. Salinger, there may not be a more reclusive celebrity than Adele. To protect her precious privacy, she not only lent her star power to California's Senate Bill 606, but she also hauled the paparazzi into court over photographs taken of her infant son, Angelo. 

According to E! News, Adele and her then-boyfriend, now-husband Simon Konecki, filed a suit against Corbis Images after Angelo's "milestone moments, such as his first family outing and his first trip to playgroup, were photographed and published worldwide expressly against his family's wishes."

Adele won the suit, and Corbis agreed to pay a five-figure settlement in "damages and legal costs to Angelo" as well as never use the pics again. Granted, these photos of a child playing on a playground may seem tame in comparison to the dangerous stalking antics and surreptitiously taken topless shots of other celebs, but for someone like Adele, who has called fame "frightening" and "very toxic," it was obviously a bridge too far.