Sons of Hollywood

Hollywood - A&E is launching their new show, "Sons of Hollywood". They hosted a party at Les Deux. The show is about three kids, Sean Stewart, son of rocker Rod Stewart, Randy Spelling, son of Aaron and Candy Spelling, and David Weintraub, son of movie producer Jerry Weintraub.

They are part of a gang of Hollywood rich kids with famous last names that frequent L.A.'s clubs on a nightly basis. You can add a lot of names to that list. The trust funders tend to travel in packs using their blackberrys and sidekicks to set up rendezvous points throughout the night.

They mostly shop during the day on Robertson and then hit the clubs hard at night. Sometimes too hard. Paris Hilton might be looking at jail time after she violated probation on her DUI.

The parking lot at Les Deux looks like an auto show. Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Bentley's, Porshe, Land Rovers and $100,000 Mercedes-Benz's litter the area. Pity the few who have to valet their entry-level BMW.

Rod Stewart took time off from his tour to jet and limo into to see his son's new venture. Which is better than his old venture, which according to IMDB.com is none. Rod must had an awkward moment showing up at the club with his new love-interest, the leggy model, Penny Lancaster, while his ex-wife, Alana also in attendance. He left the club with a big smile on his face, a proud papa.

Late night at a Hollywood club is very "Blade Runner" like. Valets running around trying to park cars and entourages arriving trying to get past huge bouncers. Rod Stewart's daughter, Kimberly Stewart who was there supporting her brother, had a scary moment when one of her friend's boyfriend punched the lead bouncer in the face. The puncher ,who himself had a group of bodyguards, ran off in his Rolls-Royce Phantom (base price $350,000 USD) before the cops could come and arrest him.

That was the beginning of the end of the party at Les Deux. Shortly afterward they found the next spot.

Jason Davis, grandson of the late oil tycoon Marvin Davis, left the club in an incoherent daze. When I asked him where his more famous brother, Brandon "Firecrotch" Davis is, he blurted out you would never see a picture of him and his brother posing together. He later handed me his business card with his new venture as a record producer.

Other guests that night included Tina Sinatra, a women who knows a thing a two about famous parents, Brittny Gastineau, whose dad played for the New York Jets, and Deep Roy, the actor who played Oompa Loompa in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Also on the guest list was a Playmate, Shauna Sand, and Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis. Just add free booze and you have a Hollywood party.

The $1.5 million Cra$h

Irwindale, CA - Actor Eddie Griffin took a very expensive ride when he totaled a $1.5 million Enzo Ferrari at the Irwindale Speedway on Monday night.

Griffin was lucky he was able to walk away. Both airbags deployed and unlike other celebrities that were driving exotic cars around the race track, he wasn't wearing a helmet.

The event was to promote "Redline the Movie" which is opening nationwide on April 13th. The spectacular crash did make a dramatic impact, but I don't think the owner of the Enzo, Daniel Sadek, who wrote and produced the movie, had that in mind.

I got a sequence of photos of the Enzo hitting a concrete barrier and anyone who wants to buy a license for the photos can contact my photo agency, Landov in NYC.

The only reason I even came to the event because I really wanted some photos that were a little different and thought celebs and exotic cars would be a good mix. When Griffin took a couple of practice laps before the crash, I knew something might happen as he knocked over quite a few orange traffic cones that were laid out on the track.

My first reaction was shock. I knew he was in trouble right before the crash and held down the button on my camera and my newly purchased Canon 28-300mm lens. Later when I reviewed the photos on the LCD on the back of my camera, I was relieved that I actually captured the sequence. When something like this happens, you wonder if you mind and body actually coordinated together to take the photos.

I left immediately left the track to try to make sales of the photograph to publications on the East Coast. If Annie Nicole Smith autopsy report wasn't released on Monday, the papers could of found space for the photos, but their news hole was tight and it was too late. Hopefully publications in Europe will want the photos. Eddie Griffin isn't an A-lister but the last time an Enzo was wrecked on California's PCH in Malibu, it was a world-wide story.

You can see a video of the crash here.

Perez meets Paris

West Hollywood - The internet is the great equalizer. In the past there were hurdles and gatekeepers for most people to have their words and photos published. Not anymore.

A once obscure blogger named Mario Lavandeira, Jr. has a website called PerezHilton.com. That site has garnered a lot of attention lately and according to him has had traffic in excess of 4 million visitors in a day.

His website is so popular that even the celebrities he writes about came to his 29th birthday party he hosted at the Roxy in West Hollywood on Friday. Perez Hilton is an obvious play on Paris Hilton's name. Both Paris and Perez were at the party, which is kind of ironic considering they both attained fame via the internet.

Paris was not the only bold-faced guest. John Stamos, Dave Navarro, Dita Von Teese, Kelly Osbourne and Amy Winehouse showed up too. That is a testament of the power of his blog.

This party wasn't for Perez's fans. It was a media event where sponsors advertised their goods and publicists tried to push their clients into the limelight. It may have been called a party, but in reality it was work for most of the attendees.

Usually a party with Paris Hilton's name would attract more than a handful of photographers that were at the red carpet on Friday night. What made many photographers basically boycott the event was the fact that Perez Hilton uses many photographs on his blog without attribution or payment. All in the name of fair use. He has even used my Britney Spears photos. A lot of bloggers are using photos that they haven't purchased any rights to.

Well it's one thing when a blogger uses art to illustrate a story that they are writing about. Perez Hilton is not any old blogger. He is profiting significantly from his blog. Paid national ads for movies are regularly on his blog. Consider that the average cable news show gets less than a million viewers a segment, PerezHilton.com actually gets more eyeballs. But the mainstream media outlets actually pay for their content. If CNN wants to use my photos, they better be paying me.

A segment on the "View" discussed Perez Hilton's website. One of the hosts mentioned that Perez gets paid in excess of a million dollars a year. I'm not to sure of that, but I think he has the money to pay for photos. Perez was paid for appearing on the cable drama "Dirt", playing himself. Could you imagine if they used his likeness or website on the show without compensating him? He wouldn't be too happy.

So if Perez is exploiting photographers, why cover his event? I'm a journalist first, and you can't report on something without first hand knowledge. I might have some bias about him because he has used my photos, but in the larger scheme of things, he is a story and a story worth covering.

The LA Times reported about how photo agencies are suing Perez.

Oscar Wrap-up

This year's Academy Awards was the return of Old-Skool.

It was the anti-American Idol. The public doesn't vote, the clubby Academy votes. Instead of trying to get any younger viewers, it went straight for the middle-aged core audience. And the big winner was the sixty-four year old Martin Scorsese. The only bright spot was American Idol cast-off Jennifer Hudson, who looked very out of place.

The Red Carpet, as usual was chaos. The big problem was that some of Hollywood's biggest stars didn't bother walking the Red Carpet because of the danger of bumping into an old flame. Ben Affleck didn't want to be seen in any photos with Jennifer Lopez. Tom Cruise wanted to avoid Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman. Publicists had to make sure that Jennifer Biel and Cameron Diaz, both who dated Justin Timberlake, didn't have a cat fight. Kidman walked the red carpet with a pregnant Naomi Watts, shedding their significant others.

This was supposedly a "green" awards show. I did not see any evidence of that. No carpeting made of recycled materials. The limos burnt gas. No solar powered Klieg ligts. If anything it only pushed the stereotype of Hollywood being an out-of-touch radical left-wing crazed cabal.
You had the openly gay Ellen DeGeneres hosting the show. The "married" Melissa Etheridge winning the best song. Vice-President Al Gore got the loudest applause when an "Inconvenient Truth" won best documentary. Prius driving Leonardo DiCarprio, Cameron Diaz and Larry David were in full force, not to mention the king of conservation, Ed Begley Jr. You come to an Awards Show and the Democratic National Convention broke out.

Hey, I'm a liberal who grew up in New York, but do we really have to wear our politics on our tuxs? Let's save it for the Global Green Awards party.

It's always fun when to watch what Hollywood actors, most of whom live inside a bubble of yes people, think of what to wear to basically the ultimate fashion show, the Oscars. I think some people come to the Oscars just so they can get their photograph into a magazine's worst dressed list. Sally Kirkland wears the most hideous things every year. Jennifer Hudson got Vogue magazine editor-at-large Leon Talley to pick out a dress. Big mistake on the weird Star Trek inspired shrug. Meryl Streep and Faye Dunaway have let their subscriptions to fashion magazines lapse. I'm no fashion expert, using instead as my rule of thumb "the what were they thinking" acid test.

For any photographer covering the Oscars, it truly a day that never ends.

I got up at around 9:00 a.m. at the Roosevelt Hotel. I went through an equipment check, made a few phone calls to my editors, and then walked down to the Kodak Theater to check the strobes in the press room. From 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. the press room is closed for a security sweep, so if you want to check your lights you have to be there at around 10:30 a.m. After the lighting check I went to meet my runners who would be walking my digital cards from my spot on the red carpet to the hotel room where an editor was stationed.

I gave them a tour of the complex and told them the ground rules. Runners can't take photos, can't loiter and watch, and had to stay within a marked path. They do have a pass that give them access to all the regular media areas, which is great.

Around noon I walked a couple of blocks to get a quick lunch at a local fast food joint and then back to the Red Carpet where I tried to make a few feature photos before the big event. That lasts until about 2 p.m. From 2 until 5:30 the stars walk the red carpet. The last hour is non-stop shooting. I burnt up one flash, which I quickly replaced with a back-up, and went through a couple of Turbo batteries. After about 2,000 shots and 10 digital cards with a half-dozen trips by a messenger to an editor, the Red Carpet was done.

Part 2 was the Awards Room, where the winners and some presenters go back and get their photo taken. They changed things this year and only announced the big winners in the last hour of the show. That meant waiting around and shooting meaningless photos of obscure categories winners for 3 hours until someone the magazines cared about showed up.

Around 10 p.m. I started packing up all my equipment and headed back to the hotel for some editing. My editor pumped out around 300 photos while I was shooting. I then spent the next nine hours pushing out another 500 or so photos. I was up for 23 hours, slept for 3 hours and then drove home. Until next September, Awards Season is officially over.

Rolling out the Red Carpet

Los Angeles - When the Academy rolls out their Red Carpet, it's the big one.

Hollywood Blvd. is shut down this week in preparation for Sunday's Oscars. It takes a year of planning and at least a week just to set-up the stage for the stars for their long walk to the Kodak Theater.

Wednesday for photographers is the "walk-through" day when the Academy gives us the details on what to expect. You don't just show up on Sunday.

There is numerous credentials to get, different ones allowing you access to different areas on Sunday. I'm cleared for the very important arrivals area, the so-called Red Carpet where the celebs show off one of a kind fashions to the world. The second area I'm shooting on Sunday is the Press Room, a little room packed with photographers where the Oscar winners pose with their trophy.

The photography is the easy part. The hard part is after the shutter is depressed. What makes a successful day of shooting is how much play your photos get, or in layman's terms, who many photos are published in newspapers, magazines and website throughout the world. My digital card will be picked up my a messenger who will bring it to the Hotel Roosevelt where an editor will pick out and transmit the photos to clients around the world. How fast, and how relevant the photos will be are crucial factors on its usage.

The Academy does provide you with an option of transmitting on site at the Renaissance Hotel, but you are limited to the room's use until two hours after the show is over. I plan an all night editing and transmitting session, hence the need for a hotel room close by.

How many photos will I take? How many photos will I transmit? As many I can pump out. The needs of photo editors for Oscar photos are vast. You never know what they need or want. So you shoot everything. And I mean everything. Full-length. Check. Head shot. Check. Waist up. Check. Close-up of shoes. Check. Close-up of jewelery. Check. Actor with spouse, or "two-shot". Check. Singles of each. Check. The list is endless.
Add in the factor of shots of the celeb looking left, right, center, and even from behind, and you have greatly increased your workload.

Why? You might ask? Because readers want to see all the details. That strange tattoo. That backless dress. That diamond encrusted necklace and earrings. The latest hair style. The plunging necklines. "Who are you wearing?" will be the most asked question on Sunday.

Hey, America doesn't have a Royal Family, but we sure got our celebs. And Sunday will be our version of a coronation.

Covering The SAGs

Covering last weekend's Screen Actor's Guild Award (SAG) show at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles took a lot of careful planning and work.

It starts with trying to get access for the show.

Every show has a different criteria for who they allow to cover their event. There is an application process which every media outlet has to go through. It details what kind of access is needed and in what role each member has in covering the event.

Each news agency that wants to cover an Award Show must submit an application and carefully fill them out with an awareness for the deadlines for different shows. The Award Show organizers don't contact you to cover their event, you have to be proactive and find out when the show is, what are deadlines and how to cover them.

For a TV production, it can be an immense affair with talent, camera people, sound technicians, lighting grips, and carpenters building sets at different locations. The print wire services like the Associated Press, a team of editors, messengers and photographers descend on the day of the event.

For me, I'm it. I shoot, edit and transmit my photos which in turn are sent by my agency to publications around the world.

After your get an approval email, you can then start thinking how to cover the event.

One thing that is important if your a still photographer working for the magazines is what day the event is on. The SAGs was held on a Sunday. Many magazines finish editing or "close" on Monday. Sometimes if the event is huge, like the Oscars, they start editing the magazine that night and have editors laying out pages as soon as they get photos. That means you have to get your photos in front of those editors eyes ASAP or you won't see your photographs published that week. Different magazines close at different days of the week, so knowing what day is crucial to a photographer's success.

Luckily for me, the magazines did not have people working on Sunday so I sent my photos after the event and didn't have to worry about arranging for an on-site editor plus messenger to get my digital card to and from that editor from my shooting spots.

Photographers are granted access three areas for shooting at the SAG's. The Red Carpet, which is called arrivals, the press room, where winners of the awards pose after they win, and the show itself.

Most of what is televised of photographers are images of the Red Carpet where photographers are seen shouting at the stars trying to get their attention and pose in a certain way. The biggest reason why you see that is because for the most part video and still photography is mostly segregated except on the Red Capet. Plus it makes for good TV with all the photographer's flashes going off. At some awards shows and movie premieres, there is disco strobes installed to simulate photographer's flashes going off to give the Red Carpet the atmosphere of a big Hollywood spectacle.

There is a Red Carpet Protocol. It's the order of when and how movie stars walk down the Red Carpet. The Red Carpet "opens" for celebs about 2 hours before a show. First to walk down the Red Carpet are correspondents for the entertainment networks. They do the carpet first because it really the only time they have to get their photo taken as they will later have to interview the celebs. Next in line are minor actors, usually in supporting roles, or people that have to get into the theater early for the show because they have some kind of role during the show. Somewhere in the mix is a sponsor or in the case of the Oscars, guys from the accounting firm that counts the ballots with handcuffed suitcases attached. (Insert Big Corporate Logo)

Then around 30 minutes at the end, the big stars come out. Rapid fire, sometimes there is star grid-lock and if the star is big enough, they just get frustrated and avoid the press line and walk straight into the theater. The worst thing for a mid to low level celebrity is to walk near a big celeb and be totally ignored. If they are shrewd, they will come early and avoid that pitfall.

The SAGs and most shows are televised live, so stars have to be in their seats by a certain time. But their is always a few stragglers. They don't care, there whole purpose is to get photographed and interviewed, the show is secondary especially if they are not presenters or nominees. At the Emmys in September, they closed the Red Carpet and told photographers that no one else was coming and the show was starting and all photographers had to go inside. Well, I did, and the photographers who dragged their feet got to shoot some really big stars that came very late.

Only a small handful of people are allowed to shoot the show itself. There is little space for photographers inside and they don't want a bunch of photographers shooting away, possibly making a disturbance. At the Golden Globes, only one photographer from NBC is allowed in, at the SAGs and Oscars, about six.

Ten to fifteen minutes into the show, the first awards are given out, and after they get their award, they are escorted backstage to get photographed and interviewed at various locales.
The entertainment TV shows produce elaborate sets where winners are interviewed. People Magazine, a sponsor of the SAGs sets up a make-shift studio with huge studio strobes and a back drop for portraits of the winners.

Then there is the press room for photographers. A little stage with taped areas where the winners are supposed to stand along with a long back drop, also called a "step and repeat" because celebs walk, stop, pose, and repeat. The winners pose with their trophy and photographers shout. Its a little noisy because it's indoors and the sound of 50-60 photographers shouting to look their way can be deafening. Not to mention the strobes of 50-60 cameras going off continually. You wonder how any hasn't gone into an epileptic fit.

A lot of photographers use an on camera strobe for the press room, but a light bar in the back of the room is set up for photographers to hang studio strobes. There is a huge difference in quality using the studio strobes. I mount two Dyna-Lite Uni 400 mono-lights that are plugged in and are triggered by Pocket Wizards. Doing so also means that I have to lug a lot more equipment to the show and show up extra early to mount and test them and stay late to take them down and pack them.

At the Oscars, photographers will come a day early to mount their strobes in the press room as light bar gets filled very quickly and room for more strobe heads are gone.

The most secure way is to have all your strobes hardwired and to have the packs under your seat at the press room. That way if there is a problem, the packs are right next to your and your sync cord is short. I try to keep it simple with the small self-contained flashes and the radio Pocket Wizards. I can leave my seat if I have to and if I'm using multiple cameras, at the SAGs I used three, there is no wires to tangle up.

The SAGS are a good show to shoot. You get to shoot stars from both TV and Film. The show itself is short. No long parade of winners of obscure awards.

It may have been a short show of only two hours, but is was a long day for me. I started my day at 8:00 a.m. Got my tuxedo in order, the show is black-tie, packed one rolling bag full of equipment with three cameras, three lenses and five Pocket-Wizards, one hard Pelican case with my Dyna-Lites, and another bag with my laptop and other computer equipment. Loaded the car and drove to the Shrine, set up the strobes and tested them, and then staked out my spot on the Red Carpet. At the press room I did a preliminary edit on my computer of arrivals, then after the show changed into jeans and a sweatshirt and drove two blocks to the local Starbucks, where I transmitted photos until they closed at 1 a.m. Drove home and then did a second edit and transmitted more photos until 5:30 a.m. That's over 21 hours of work for the day.

One Step Closer to the Prize

Beverly Hills- The race starts today.

The morning the Academy Awards announce their nominations is when the fog of early Awards Season is lifted and the contenders are thrust into focus.

Reading between the lines of the announcement, the media looks for what is called the "snub". Who got snubbed and whogot a nod? Dreamgirls got snubbed because they didn't get nominated for Best Picture. I guess if you get eight nominations and not the top one, its a snub.

The nominations made it clear that the Best Actor Oscar will go to Forest Whitaker and Best Actress to Helen Mirren. Consensus has it that Martin Scoresese will finally get a Director Oscar.

A nomination can change a career. Jennifer Hudson, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Dreamgirls, has come from nowhere reality television star to center stage in Hollywood. Eddie Murphy can now get some respect for acting, not just playing a clown. Sasha Baron Cohen, whose Borat is considered in the low-brow comedy genre, is taken seriously with a nomination for best adapted screenplay.

The actual nominations event is run like a CIA clandestine project. A lot of employees at the Academy know who the actual nominees are before they are announced and the Academy takes every effort to keep the knowledge from getting out prematurely. Cellphones, cameras, Blackberrys and other communication devices are not allowed on the upper floors of the Academy building where the information is processed. The media arrives in the middle of the night to set-up for the 5:38:30 a.m. PST live announcement. They shut down the theater from 3:30 a.m. to 5:15 a.m. to have rehearsals and everyone must vacate the area with all TV cameras pointed down and all microphones turned off. A security force checks all bags and all attendees are issued badges that you have to get photographed for in advance, yet no photo is actually placed on the badge itself.

After the announcements, all hell breaks loose. Publicists call their clients. The actor that reads the nominees, in this case Salma Hayek, is mobbed by media to comment on what she just read. TV shows, print, radio and photographers jockey for position.

Ms. Hayek was very accomodating. Her friend, Penelope Cruz, was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Volver, and she pumped her fist on live television when it was announced. She later said to the media that she thought is was a great day for Hispanics with Cruz, Adriana Barraza, and Alejandro González Iñárritu getting nods from the Academy. One television interviewer asked what she was wearing, and Hayek put her hands up to the camera lenses in a mock protest.

For a photographer, covering the event, which is pretty much the same every year, is a challenge. The whole thing is over in less than five minutes. The president of the Academy, Sid Ganis, walks out to the podium, introduces Salma Hayek, and they both read off from a teleprompter as five panels behind them show the nominees. The theater is small and well lit.

You pretty much have to shoot from the center if you want a photo of the announcers with all five panels shown behind them.

I used three cameras, one with a wide-angle 16mm-35mm lens for an overall shot, a medium-range 70mm-200mm zoom lens to get a variety of photos during the event and the third body with a 24mm-105mm lens with a flash for post-announcement photos. I brought a fourth body along to set-up a remote camera, but wasn't allowed to set it up. (No unmanned cameras).

Fear and Loathing in Hollywoood

Hollywood- There are two kinds of people in Hollywood. The famous and those who want to be famous.

The ironic thing is that the famous say they don't want the attention and those who want to be famous will do anything to get it.

Everyone knows who the A-listers are. Those are the ones who get invites to the Golden Globes. The others, who are working their way up the list, have to go to the endless promotional parties that their publicists set up and hope they can get some ink in Page Six.

This week I got to see the whole gamut.

Monday was another Award Show, the Golden Globes. It's less like an award show and more like a free-wheeling party in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. There is dinner and drinks. Celebs sit at tables and mingle. Everyone goes home happy.

If you saw the show, you know who won. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which gives out the awards, have plenty of categories for both film and television including drama and comedy, where everyone goes away happy.

The whole event is a barometer of who's in and who's out in Hollywood. Who gets to arrive in a limo, and who arrives on a bus. The media parking lot was in Century City via a shuttle bus. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were not on that bus.

A party for Donald Trump's Vodka on Wednesday was another story. This is more of the down and dirty Hollywood.

Les Deux, a night club off Hollywood Blvd. was location for this little event.

These promotional events serve many purposes. The main mission if to promote a product or service. In this case, Trump Vodka. The other benefits are self-promotion, which come hopefully when you photo is published in a magazine or you get interviewed by television.

The Hollywood clubs also serve as a meeting ground where a group of trust-fund babies hang out nightly. Some of the names you know, Paris Hilton, whose great-grandfather, Conrad Hilton, started the Hilton Hotel chain. Others include Kimberly Stewart, daughter of rocker Rod Stewart, her brother, Sean, Kim Kardashian, daughter of O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Kardashian, Brandon Davis, who late grandfather is billionaire Marvin Davis, Brittny Gastineau, whose father, Mark, played pro football for the New York Jets, and even the DJ at the party, Steve Aoki, whose father is Rocky Aoki of Benihana fame.

Absent from this particular party was Lindsey Lohan who just checked into rehab after a particularly rough night at some Golden Globes after-parties. But Jessica Simpson and her sister, Ashlee, made an appearance, trying to evade photographers.

Part of any Hollywood event is the parade of starlets and young actors that walk the red carpet. The amazing thing is that every now and then a few get plucked from obscurity and flung into super stardom. A couple years back Scarlett Johansson was an actress that photographers had to ask each other who that was. Before "Desperate Housewives" became a hit, Eva Longoria dutiful walked down every carpet indistinguishable from the rest.

First, some rules on who gets picked. Generally, you have to be young and pretty. Over 25? Forgetaboutit. You also need a vehicle for stardom. That vehicle can be a movie, a hit TV show, a hit record, even a porn video (Paris Hilton). Or you can be somebody's famous best friend or lover (K-Fed anyone?).

You can't be boring. Drug rehab, arrests, marriages, divorces, babies, affairs, all contribute to the mix.

So what's a pre-stardom star like? That person could be a waitress like Julianne Moore or sleeping in their car like Hilary Swank. On a soap opera like General Hospital in the case of Demi Moore.

And no one can predict the future. So photographers snap everyone that comes down the red carpet. Maybe one day that person will be in the spotlight and that photograph becomes valuable. It's like investing in penny stocks, even Microsoft started small.

Pity the photographer who doesn't take at least one photograph of someone because they think that person isn't worthwhile.

Everyone who shoots a lot of celebs knows of a guy who didn't bother shooting an ex-football player whose days were long gone at a movie premiere with his family. That player was O.J. Simpson with his wife, Nicole and kids, the last time they were photographed publicly before Nicole was murdered. I'm sure everyday that photographer wished he had just taken a few frames, not that he could of retired on the money, but because missed opportunities are a photographer's bane.

I got a lot of photographs of obscure people that will never see the light of day. Somewhere in that batch are a few diamonds, waiting to be mined.

How To Get Your Photos in the Tabloids

Most people who read a celebrity magazine don't have a clue how they get their photos. They think a bunch of paparazzi stalk celebs by hiding in the bushes and then sell them to the tabloids. Its not that simple.

A lot of the most valuable photos come from regular folks who stumble upon a picture that makes its way into a magazine.

A simple snapshot of Sen. Gary Hart and his girlfriend, Donna Rice on the aptly named boat "Monkey Business" makes it way to the cover of the National Inquirer and history is changed. Sen. Hart drops out of the 1988 presidential race.

So what should you do when you have that valuable photo? Who do you call? How much is that photo worth? It's something they don't teach in any photography class.

• First a few questions about the photo. Is the photo exclusive? If not, who else has similar photos. A hundred people could have shot similar photos but if your the only one marketing them, it might as well be exclusive. A lot of people have cell phone cameras but they don't know how to actually sell the photograph.

• The second question is content. Is the photograph newsworthy? What makes a photograph valuable is the storyline. If a writer is doing a story about something it usually needs some kind of photography to illustrate it. The more important the story, the more money a magazine will pay. Its not always how famous the person is that sells a photo. A picture of a famous person walking out of Starbucks with a latte is of little value, a snapshot of Elizabeth Smart with the people that kidnapped her, much more interest.

• The third question is the photo real? Verification is important. Your cat just had a kitten with one eye, can you prove you didn't Photoshop one eye out? Can you back the photo up with several other pictures and witnesses? Tabloids and magazines do get sued and they want to be safe, especially if they receive a photo from an unknown source. Professionals who shoot for the magazines on a regular basis are trusted more than a guy off the street.

Okay, your photo passed all three tests. The clock is ticking. Every minute that passes means the photo is worth less and less. A magazine somewhere in the world might be finishing up their layouts and your photo is not in their hands.

The first thing you might think of doing is try to get your photo to biggest possible magazine and hopefully make the most amount of money. Wishful thinking.

I don't recommend you try to market your photos yourself. Unless you do this sort of stuff everyday, you will get taken and basically ripped-off. No contest. You are a guppy with the sharks.

The most important thing is to have a photo agency sell the photo for you. They deal with editors everyday and they know the value of a photo in the marketplace. Agencies usually get a 50/50 split of the gross sales. The more they sale, the more you make. You get paid after the publication pays them. They issue you a statement of how much a photo sold and to whom.

The agency I use is Landov in New York. The reason why I use them is because the market a wide range of photos from news to sports to travel along with celebs. You can use any agency you want, but not all agencies understand how to sell all kinds of photos. Some agencies only sell celebrity candid photos taken on stake-outs, others only at red-carpet events. You might have a newsy photo that is not celebrity related.

You can get an idea of photo agencies from looking at the photo credits of magazines. Unfortunately, some photo agencies have relationships with the actual celebrities and don't sell photos that are unflattering to the stars. Those agencies may or may not be right for you.

The photos that get the most money are the ones where an agency gets the magazines to bid for it. An auction with phone bidders. The deepest pocket wins.

To get the most mileage out of a photo, a photo has to be sold to different markets. The first market in the U.S. is the New York City tabloid market. The New York Post and the New York Daily News will bid on photos depending on value. I remember ten years ago in 1997 when I worked at the New York Post when they bought a photo of Bill Cosby with his son, Ennis, who was just murdered, from a photographer for $10,000. They used that photo on the front page.

Was the photo worth that much? The deadline for the next day's paper was drawing near and that was the only photo they could get their hands on. There might have been a few snapshots of the two in someone's album, but whoever had them wasn't calling the Post or the Daily News.

Did that sale kill other sales? No, because that sale was just for usage rights for newspapers in the U.S. The photographer then sold a similar photo to Time magazine. Time magazine doesn't care if a New York City newspaper used that photo, the magazine sells all over the country and readers in Peoria haven't seen the photo. Actually the sale of the photo to the New York Post increased its value. Every major magazine in America has offices in New York and every photo editor reads the New York Post and the Daily News. When they see the credit for a photo with the photographer's and agency's name on it, they know who to call to acquire rights for it. Photo agencies love when the New York tabloids run their photos, it is like a free ad.

The London tabloids are even more rabid than the New York tabloids. They invented the tabloid. They too bid crazy money for photos. Photo agencies make sure what time it is in London, and try to make their deadlines too.

A valuable photo can be sold to every country on Earth. Certain photos may not have a lot of value in the U.S. could be big in Germany, huge in Japan. A street-wise photographer and editor knows each market. David Hasselhoff and Heidi Klum, small celebs in the U.S., huge in Germany.

Here is a real-life case study. I shot a few photos of Britney Spears two weeks ago on the red carpet on New Year's Eve at the nightclub PURE in Las Vegas. She posed quickly and left. My photos sucked. I thought maybe I could get a few photos of her outside when maybe she was on the club's balcony during the fireworks they have on the Vegas Strip. Got a few photos of her on the balcony and left. I figured it was a wasted night. Sent the photos to my agency in New York anyway.

Next morning Robin Leach writes in his blog about how Britney passed out. I call my agency to tell the story. They call the New York Post and Daily News to see if they want the photos. The Post uses a photo shot by a photographer paid by the club. The Daily News uses my photos of a very unflattering Britney. The London Sun sees my photos in the News and contacts my agency to buy them. Other publications around the world contact my agency to buy the photos. This week the National Inquirer writes a cover story about Britney and runs the photo on the cover and big inside. Star magazine runs my photo this week inside small.

What made the photo valuable? First, it was Britney Spears, the magazines run a story on Britney every week.

Secondly, there was news value, Britney having an incident.

Was it exclusive? Nope. They could of been other photos from the party. I bet every person at the party had a cellphone that could of taken a photo of the incident. A professional photographer was there but he can't release any unflattering photos because he basically works for the club.

That basically leaves my photo, which is not the best quality, but it illustrates the story and it was shot very close to the time frame when she supposedly collapsed.

Can I verify the photos? Yes, I have a whole series of photos of her and I just happen to get some business cards of people that attended the party that the tabloids can call to verify the story.

Am I going to get rich off the photos? Nope. But because I understand how the system works, I can maximize the value of the photographs and any other photographs I take.

People's Choice Awards

Los Angeles- The People's Choice Awards usually is a so-so award show where stars come knowing they are winning something beforehand. Its a win-win for everyone and you get exposure and a nice glass trophy.

Tuesday, the show was brought up another notch when the some mega-stars showed up.

How about Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn? Throw in Halle Berry, Cameron Diaz, Carmen Electra, Christina Applegate, Eva Longoria, and Patrick Dempsey with rest of the Grey's Anatomy cast.

Even though this was a CBS telecast, stars from the other networks decided to invade the show. Practically everyone from NBC's Heroes showed up. Howie Mandel of NBC's Deal or No Deal.
ABC brought Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman and Longoria. Ugly Betty was represented by Vanessa Williams.

Queen Latifah didn't need a reason to come. Maybe just to say hi to LL Cool J and Halle.

Emily Proctor and Joely Fisher vied for the low-cut dress of the evening award.

Aniston and Vaughn made their way to the press room for photographs, albeit separately. Vince, his usual surly self and Jennifer, all smiles.

The real couple of the night seemed to be Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi. They posed together, but the cries from photographers for them to kiss fell on deaf ears.

The award show, which used to be held in Pasadena, is now in the same spot where the Emmys and Screen Actors Guild have their show, at the Shrine Auditorium. They are also using the same public relations firm that does the Emmys too. It now actually feels like a real Awards Show.

SAG Nominations

Los Angeles- Actors Sandra Oh and Elijah Wood got up early Thursday morning to read the nominations for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. The awards show will be held on January 28th and will be televised live on TNT and TBS.

Of the four big Hollywood awards show, the SAGs are the least known step-child to the Golden Globes, the Emmys and the Academy Awards. They don't have a major network broadcasting the show and I don't think anybody remembers who has ever won a SAG Actor award.

But it does have some great attributes. First, it just honors actors and is voted on by its peers. It just focuses on actors and nothing else. No best short film, or sound editing.

It recognizes film and TV, so you get to see all the top stars of both unlike the Oscars which handles film only, and the Emmys, which is TV only.

It's a great predictor of who wins an Oscar because its voted by other SAG members, not "members of the foreign press" like the Golden Globes, who sometimes have unusual choices.

By the list of nominees, this year's SAG should be good. International stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Penelope Cruz, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Eddie Murphy, Cate Blanchette, Jeremy Irons, Helen Mirren, and Greta Scacchi mixed in with television favorites like Kiefer Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Perry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mary Louise Parker and Jaime Pressly.

The wild card are movies and TV series which are nominated for ensemble awards.

Will Brad Pitt and his wife, Angelina Jolie, show up for "Babel"? Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Lindsay Lohan, Christian Slater and Sharon Stone for "Bobby"? Beyonce Knowles and Jamie Foxx for "Dreamgirls"? And how about the "Desperate Housewives" cast, of which only Felicity Huffman was nominated? Will Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Nicollette Sheridan make an appearance?

With all its star power the SAGs should be a high-profile awards show. The show hasn't embedded in the media's or the public's minds yet. You will read in the first sentence of a news story "Oscar-winning actor...or Emmy-winning actor...or Tony-award winning actor" but never "Actor-winning actor"???? Maybe that is the problem. The award they hand out it called the "Actor".

It might mean more than the other awards because its judges are other actors, but a "Moonman" from the MTV awards will probably attract more attention in the trophy case.

Waking Up to a New Year

In a few hours things can change drastically.

On New Year's Eve I covered Britney Spears' party at PURE at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Took a few photos of her on the red carpet. She didn't pose long, just a minute and gone.

I stayed a while to see the fireworks on the strip. I thought that there was a chance that Britney might want to do the same and looked to see if she was at the night clubs' terrace overlooking the Strip. She did and I took some so-so photos of her from the street.

I went back to my hotel room and edited and transmitted the photos to my agency in New York and went to sleep.

When I awoke in the morning I was browsing the web looking for a tip on where Michael Jackson new home was in Las Vegas and came across a story about Britney collapsing shortly after midnight. I immediately called my agency in New York to tell them those Britney photos just got more valuable and to price them accordingly.

The strange thing was while waiting for Britney to show up at the red carpet, we photographers were joking about some of the club members came out stumbling out drunk and that you better be ready if Britney were one of them. No one really took it seriously, we were just bored waiting for her to show up.

It's not like you plan or even hope for stuff like this to happen. Its always a surprise.

I was not inside the club when whatever happened. I just shot some photos of her just before it happened. Britney's publicist stated she was tired and was sleeping. Whatever. It's a story either way.

What Happened to Britney?

Las Vegas- No one likes to be under scrutiny. Put a magnifying glass to anyone and you will find the flaws. That's the downside of being famous. There is a huge upside, in a financial sense.

Britney Spears is one of those pop stars that seems to have a huge bull's-eye on their back. I don't know if she tries to paint that target herself, or does the media-induced frenzy paint it for her.

In the last month she was photographed with Paris Hilton at L.A.'s clubs. She has two young children at home and partying with Paris Hilton doesn't seem to be the right thing to do especially after filing for divorce from Kevin Federline. So what does she do this New Year's Eve?
Host a party at the night club, PURE, at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Nothing wrong with a twenty-something going out and enjoying herself. Especially if a club is paying you a fee that has been reported anywhere from an outrageous $300,000 to a somewhat, dare I say modest, $30,000. I don't know what the details of her contract with the night club is, but its hard to turn down a job where you get paid to host a party.

Paris Hilton couldn't make the trip to Vegas, she was in Australia promoting beer. Actress Shannon Elizabeth, Jesse Metcalfe of "Desperate Housewives" and the co-found of myspace.com, Tom Anderson made an appearance.

Awards Season

Beverly Hills - On December 14th, the Awards Season officially began at 5:15 a.m. That was when the Golden Globe nominations were announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The Awards Season extends the Holiday Season a couple of extra months for those in Hollywood. Its the time of gift bags, lavish parties and acknowledgements for the nominees. Nominations by themselves are victories. A recent ad on television for "DreamGirls" stated that it had "won" five Golden Globe nominations. Coming in second, third, fourth or fifth, is still a win.

Covering a nominations ceremony require either pulling an all-nighter or going to bed at 6 p.m. I've done both, neither is good. The reason for the early start is that fact that they announce them on the West Coast, which is three hours earlier than the East Coast, and they want the publicity of a live broadcast on the morning TV shows and the whole day's news cycle. Maximum coverage.

The Grammy's, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Academy Awards all have the early start time. They also bring in some talent to announce the awards and do a round of press interviews afterwards. The Globes brought in a trio of actors, Matthew Perry, Jessica Biel, and Rosario Dawson. It's over and done with pretty quickly and then there is a mad flurry of activity afterwards as reporters pound out their stories, TV does their live shots and publicists call their clients to tell the good or bad news.

A nomination can make someone's career. Hilary Swank started her Oscar run with a surprising Golden Globe nomination and win for "Boy's Don't Cry". The nominations that stirred the pot this year were Sasha Baron Cohen for "Borat" and Mel Gibson for "Apocalypto", which he directed, written and produced. The media loves a good storyline and with those two along with some high profile stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyonce Knowles, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt, this should be a decent Awards Season.

A tale of two events

Los Angeles - All things Tinseltown have a veneer of fake. Premieres and award shows are on the top rung of fakery.

Friday, I went to Spike TV's annual Video Game Awards. Anyone can create an award show with the right mix of stars and sponsors. As the video game industry as grown to the size of the movie industry in dollars and cents, they too have to have an award show.

Gaming is not as mature as the movie industry, so the award show is a little on the early adopter cycle of viewership. They wrangled a few stars, Samuel L. Jackson was the host, and the f-bombs were flying all over the show, which of course will be bleeped out when aired.

Spike TV thought the mix of tough guys like Sam Jackson and 50 cent. With a sprinkling of eye candy of Eva Mendes and Tila Tequila, whose claim to fame is she has 1.4 million friends on her MySpace page, (http://www.myspace.com/tilatequila) would be the right mix for those fanboys of video games. They kinda missed the mark with comic Sarah Silverman who basically ended the show making fun of the target audience with jokes about how video games have lowered the STD count in America. She was funny but only in the press room, not in the Galen Center, where they held the event.

For a different take on Spike TV's VGA, click here.

Contrast that with the premiere of "Charlotte's Web" on Sunday morning at the Arclight Theatre on Sunset. Their were A-list stars like Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Lauren Holly and Bridget Fonda.

The weekend premieres in Hollywood are for children's movies, the stars walk the red carpet with kids in tow. Christine Taylor, actor and wife of Ben Stiller brought her daughter along and stopped for a few photos until the little one had enough of the flashes and started to cry. She quickly scooped her up and ran to the theater, effectively ending the photo session at that point.

The snappers who awoke early to get to this premiere to make a few photos of Julia Roberts were disappointed. She committed the three cardinal sins to photographers. One, she wore black. Two, she had sunglasses on. Three, she had her hair up. The only thing worse is if she didn't show up at all.

The reason why photographers don't want a big star wearing black, is that the magazines don't want to have pages with celebs in black, especially if they are wearing a black coat, which Julia was. Black is boring. A coat that covers everything up is boring. Pants are boring.

The second is sunglasses. Okay, if your Stevie Wonder. But people want to know what stars look like. A shot of a celeb without sunglasses will make the magazines many more times than with.

The third is hair up. Hair up is when you go do errands. Not a premiere. We are not talking about hair up that took hours to do here, we are talking hair-up that took two seconds before she went out the door. Readers want glamour.

I know, its Julia Roberts, so its not like all the world isn't going to use the photos this week, its next week, or next month, those photos will be worthless.

Mr. Smith Goes to a Hollywood Premiere

Los Angeles- Westwood in Los Angeles is generally known for UCLA, but in the movie biz, its where premieres happen.

The Will Smith project, "The Pursuit of Happyness", rolled out its red carpet last night with some heavy hitters in the industry. Mr. Smith had a few friends drop by, Tom and his new wife, Katie, Jennifer and her husband, Marc. That would be TomKat to the tabs and Jenny from the Bronx a.k.a. Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.

The unusual foursome didn't do TV so only photographers stationed at the entrance to Mann Village Theater on Broxton Ave. got some snaps. Anything can happen at a Hollywood premiere, and it usually does. A couple years back at the same theater and at the same spot, I photographed Halle Berry getting Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher.

Some photographers must had the heads-up on the TomKat/Lopez-Anthony arrival as they staked out spots usually considered inferior to the one's further up the carpet. Photographers in general want to take photographs of the stars before they do video for ET/Access Hollywood. If you have to wait until after the interviews from TV, then you risk having the talent rush into the theater for the screening leaving little time for another round of pictures.

You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug stuck on the windshield.

Will brought his whole family with him. And from the looks of it, he wants to keep the biz in the family. His son, Jaden, is in the film and on the poster. His other son, Trey, was in front of the camera interviewing talent for Access Hollywood. Will's wife, Jada Pinkett, has a pretty good career herself and time will tell if their daughter, Willow, will enter the biz.

Party Time in Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills - So what is a celebrity studded party in Beverly Hills like? You seen the photos in the magazines, the rich and famous co-mingling at a glamourous setting. But things are a little more complicated than that.

I covered the Vh-1's Big Night for a Big Cause: A benefit for the VH-1 Save the Music Foundation. That's what the press release called it. What does all that mean? I really don't know. I do know that a bunch of big corporations get together along with powerhouse public relations groups and publicists and a foundation to organize an event that hopefully benefit everyone involved. "Benefit" being the key word.

These events are very complicated. Esquire Magazine built this massive 17,000 sq. ft. Italian Villa in Beverly Hills at 11 Beverly Ridge Terrace that they call the "ultimate bachelor pad". They hosted the event at the villa and its on top of a hill on a private street with a guard house on Coldwater Canyon. All the houses on the block are way above $10 million. It's Esquire Magazine's Playboy Mansion. I'm sure the magazine is getting some kind of tax write-off.

I'm also sure the neighbors are not too happy about having hundreds of people invading their area to go to some party. The parking for the event is a disaster. They have valet service, but only for so many cars. After that fills up, there are remote parking lots on dirt construction sites that you can take a mini-van shuttle to the mansion. But if you are big celebrity arriving late, I don't think you are going to take the shuttle. The other problem that the cul-du-sac the property is on doesn't have enough room to turn-around in. So that means you have to make a broken u-turn to go down the narrow street, which is not a problem in the intially, but becomes one after they start turning away cars when the valet lot is filled. Now you have a grid-lock of expensive cars on the street having to make a u-turn. I saw one celeb get fed up and park his Land Rover on the street in front of someone's home and then walk up to the event. Its a long walk, the driveway for the villa is like 100 yards long alone.

Events like this one have a formula. Take a good cause, Save the Music Foundation that is supplying millions of dollars for musical instruments for public schools, a few sponsors, Moet Champagne, Intel, Cadilllac, Esquire Magazine, add a few celebrities, some famous like Kiefer Sutherland, and some like Fabrice Morvan of Milli Vanilli, add your entertainment media, like ET, Access Hollywood, and a group of celebrity photographers that sell pictures to the tabloids and magazines, and you have an event. Well they had some up and coming bands play and they served drinks too.

For most people these parties are work. Its part of the Hollywood machine that employs a lot of people. From the valet guys parking cars, the caterers, the people putting up lights and backdrops with corporate logos and rolling out a red carpet to stage a place where celebs can be photographed and interviewed, the reporters and photographers, the publicists and even for the celebs themselves, its work. Everybody is promoting something, whether its a movie or TV project, or a bottle of beer. (St. Paulie Girl was a sponsor.)

And these parties/events are on every night of the year in LA. That's a lot of work.

Another Photo Backstage

Backstage at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Yesterday I was allowed a few minutes backstage at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Not exactly what it sounds like. More like an early morning media event where television and print media were allowed to take some photos and interview models that later that night would be taped for a TV show to be aired December 5th. The venue was at a ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, a hotel attached to the Kodak Theater, the same place where they hold the Academy Awards every year. They tried to replicate an Academy Awards type of red carpet too.