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On their behind-the-scenes showbiz podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, journalist Marina Hyde answered a fan question which read, “How often are celeb paparazzi shots staged, and how can we tell the staged ones from the real ones?”
Marina joked that she’d have to “think carefully” about her answer and that she had “a tiny lawyer” on her shoulder” but shared that “quite often they are staged.”
How does it happen?
Marina makes it clear that almost nobody is above the move, sharing that there are even recordings of Princess Diana making arrangements with photographers.
“At some point, people think, ‘I’ll turn the tables myself,’” she said ― “often, people used to feel, ‘the paparazzi are hanging out on the beach, if I give them one set of pictures and say, can you now leave me alone for the rest of my holiday in Barbados,’ then they would do that.”
But other people just want to be captured for marketing purposes and may even split the money with the photographers, Marina shared. “That happens a huge amount.”
She then says that some companies are better known for liaising with celebs than others.
Speaking to Cosmopolitan, New York City paparazzo Justin Steffman also said “Many setup photos include a paid product endorsement, where a photo agency works as a middleman between a celebrity and a company who has a product to sell.”
He added, “It could be the latest cell phone that was just released, or a food or beauty product, or something as simple as them being seen shopping at a certain retail outlet.”
How can you tell staged from non-staged pics?
“What they do is they take out all the ones that you look like you’ve got cellulite, you know ― you’ve sort of got picture approval on [staged pics],” Marina shared.
“Anybody can make anybody look dreadful if they don’t co-operate ― and I think awfully, women got sick of someone thinking, ‘oh if I get her with a bit of cellulite’… there was a long period in the early ’00s that was an absolute wild West for women, and celebrity, and paparazzi,” she added.
She then referenced the “brutal” Britney Spears paparazzi relationship, which she said lead some people to decide they’d rather deal with a bit of the hassle to be left alone. Others, she adds, do use it for marketing.
“Quite a lot of paparazzi pictures are staged,” she ended. “If they look good in the pictures, I’m sorry to tell you they’ve been staged.”
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