Actors are people who work for a living. While the public obviously provides them with fame, they also provide us with entertainment. Picture taking, having people approach them, signing autographs and such are basically part of their jobs as entertainers and for the most part I think celebs are pretty cool with that. However, in this particular case with Garrett, the ‘photographers’ clearly crossed the line. They mocked him, said defamatory comments to him, laughed at him, ran after him, circled him and cornered him. I’ve met Garrett before when he’s come into my store in Malibu. He really is a peaceful guy. He also organizes an incredible amount of charity work. He is or has been greatly involved with several different organizations to help people in need, and I’m not just talking about signing a check. He donates a great deal of time and energy to charity organizations. I personally find that highly admirable.
Obviously there is a difference between paps and Time magazine, it’s called professionalism. These men chasing Garrett across the parking lot were nothing more than street thugs harrassing him with slurs while shoving cameras in his face, and the face of his companion. There was zero professionalism. It was obvious.
While you are of course entitled to your opinion, perhaps you should take a closer look at the footage from that night. My personal favorite was the comment “Let’s circle him and ambush him.” Not a quote I can imagine coming from a photographer from Time magazine. Most of these photographers don’t work for a publication. They just have a camera, get the footage, then try to sell it to trash websites and television dumping grounds such as TMZ.
I don’t believe for a moment that the actors are crying over getting their pictures taken. I believe that they deservedly feel uneasy and perhaps threatened about being stalked, hunted down and harrassed. Personally, I don’t blame them one bit.

Oh, well, sorry, my mistake. I thought the topic of your article was about how celebrities need to ’shut up and get their pictures taken’. I didn’t realize that the main focus has now changed to whether or not we condone violence. Please accept my apologies for my misunderstanding and let’s discuss that.
First of all, Brad didn’t hit anyone. He slapped the camera and the camera bumped his head. He must have been seriously traumatized by this whole ordeal because he is filmed later at a pub with his fellow photographers laughing about the incident. As far as my store in concerned, if I had an employee who treated one of my customers the way these men treated Garrett, he would quickly be fired and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he got decked. Do you have any sons, Steve? What if this happened every day to your son on the playground or at school? You’ve spoken to authorities about it and, as you have pointed out yourself, they are within their legal rights to do this. Wouldn’t you at some point say to your kid, “Well, you’ve tried every other means to get these kids to back off. You’re much bigger than them, knock one of them on their ass.’ Of course I realize that these are men, not kids, and violence is of course never the right answer. However, for every one of these videos that get shown where an actor fights back, there are several more that have the actors do or say nothing, just sit back and take it. That footage obviously is rarely seen and it’s only the scenes like this one that get the attention. Unfortunately for these actors, this is the image that most people will see, and this is how they will be remembered. It doesn’t matter to me whether you personally care about Garrett’s charity work or not. I was simply pointing out that he isn’t the big hot head that gets portrayed here and was stating that he does a lot of good for the Los Angeles area. Every person has their breaking point, every one of us. Garrett is a nice guy. I imagine that Sean Penn, David Arquette and Keanu Reeves are as well. We’ve just seen them caught on tape reaching their breaking points with these people, and I think it’s a shame that for all the good work they do, this is how they are remembered.

Well said, but I guess in this topic we must learn to agree to disagree. You see value to paparazzi, I do not. You call them journalists, I do not. I suppose we all have what is important to us, and what you call free press is different than what I would call it. Let’s not even talk about government..I’ve a feeling we probably wouldn’t agree much on that topic either. I am glad that I stumbled upon your article, though. It provoked some thought into my otherwise uneventful day. Thank you for taking the time to converse politely with me. I appreciate a good debate, and if you don’t mind my saying so, I think we both brought up some interesting and valid points. For the record, I do think that Garrett should have just walked away. In retrospect I would imagine that he wishes he had done that as well, and now he will have to answer for his actions. I do acknowledge the frustrations that actors must face while dealing with day to day life in the public eye. Although their paychecks more than make up for the inconveniences of having their pictures taken, I just do not see the need for them to be mistreated, the same way I wouldn’t want that for anyone else. Have a pleasant evening.