Paparazzi is a plural term (paparazzo being the singular form) for photographers who take candid photographs of celebrities, usually by relentlessly shadowing them in their public and private activities. Celebrities claiming to have been hounded by such photographers often use "paparazzi" and even "stalkarazzi" as a derogative term. News agencies commonly use the word in a broader sense to describe all photographers who take pictures of famous people.

Etymology

The word paparazzi was introduced by the 1960 film La dolce vita directed by Federico Fellini. One of the characters in the film is a news photographer named Paparazzo (played by Walter Santesso). In his book Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson writes that Fellini took the name from an Italian dialect that describes a particularly annoying noise, that of a buzzing mosquito. In his school days, Fellini remembered a boy who was nicknamed "Paparazzo" (Mosquito), because of his fast talking and constant movements, a name Fellini later applied to the fictional character in La dolce vita. This version of the word's origin has been strongly contestedFact: date=July 2008. For example, in an interview with Fellini's screenwriter Ennio Flaiano, he said the name came from a southern Italy travel narrative by Victorian writer George Gissing, "By the Ionian Sea." The book, published in 1901, gives the name of a hotel proprietor, Signor Paparazzo. He further states that either Fellini or Flaiano opened the book at random, saw the name, and decided to use it for the photographer. This story is documented by a variety of Gissing scholars and in the book "A Sweet and Glorious Land: Revisiting the Ionian Sea" (St. Martin's Press, 2000) by John Keahey.

Restrictions

Due to the reputation of paparazzi as a nuisance, some states and countries (particularly within Europe) restrict their activities by passing laws and curfews, and by staging events in which paparazzi are specifically allowed to take photographs. In Germany and France, photographers need the permission of the people in their photographs in order for them to be released (see model release).

The presence of paparazzi is not always seen as vexatious; the arranger of an event may, in order to make the guests feel important, hire a number of actors who pretend they are paparazzi (so-called faux-paparazzi). Fact: date=September 2008

Paparazzi usually sell their work to dozens of magazines and newspapers that publish such photos for their readers and subscribers, and hence many paparazzi feel that they are helping celebrities and public figures in general by increasing their visibility. Still, these photographers often earn large sums for a particularly good, or revealing picture.