Since the beginning of the paparazzi culture in the 1950s, when a freelance photographer captured Tazio Secchiaroli with two women who were not his wife, it has been their job to produce content and stir gossip about what is happening in celebrities' lives. Social media has allowed everyone to do that for themselves, and phones have given people the power to become unintentional paparazzi.
In recent years, privacy has not only been breached for celebrities' personal lives, but also their projects. Movies filmed in public now have unintentional behind-the-scenes footage by a pedestrian, leading to spoilers posted online months, if not years, before the project is released.
Privacy is rare for celebrities. It’s a known part of their career, but just because it is common doesn’t mean celebrities' private information should be public. Boundaries are breached even further when everyone has a camera with them at all times, and likely a social media account to post the photos on.
This breach ruins the excitement for movies. “The Devil Wears Prada 2" and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” have been filming in New York City, and there are already multiple photos and videos of the movies filming online.
The majority of these leaks are on TikTok, where the algorithm is set up for people to unexpectedly scroll onto a video. Many people who may not want to know anything about the movie before its release are unconsciously seeing spoilers of these projects from pedestrians filming the movie set.
“The Summer I Turned Pretty” production team cleverly tried to avoid this. When filming in Paris, they flew out one of the main actors of the show, Gavin Casalegno, to film scenes that purposefully confused the audience about what would happen.
All along, Casalegno’s character had no scenes in Paris. Though this was a clever plan to conceal the highly anticipated ending, production teams shouldn’t have to go out of their way to prevent these spoilers. If someone encounters a filming set, it's their right to film it, but posting it and upsetting people about the potential ending of a show months before it premieres is unnecessary.
Leaked photos of movie sets on social media ruin the anticipation movies try to build in the months leading up to their release. Many aspects, such as costume, set design and even dialogue, can be spoiled.
People have the right to want to see spoilers; there is no judgment when it comes to seeking behind-the-scenes footage, but it has become the assumption that everyone wants to see these spoilers, which is not the case.
If photos taken by paparazzi of a movie set are shared on social media, then spoiler warnings should become more normalized, especially on apps such as TikTok, where innocently scrolling can lead to an accidental spoiler for a project they may have wanted to keep a surprise.
Asking a celebrity to take a picture when you happen to see them in public is a subgenre of paparazzi work. A single photo can convey multiple reasons to the audience why the person depicted is in the area shown in the photograph.
This conversation goes beyond movies. Invading the privacy of celebrities has become far too normalized, and because of social media and smartphones, it is almost impossible for celebrities to cross the street without it becoming a story.
In an interview with Business Insider, famous pop star Billie Eilish opened up about paparazzi invading her privacy.
“It just makes me think, like, you can understand how celebrities go insane,” Eilish said.“Especially when they’re people who just want to live their life, and want to go meet up with somebody that maybe they’re not supposed to be seen with. ”
Grace Schmidt is a sophomore studying journalism and fashion merchandising at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Grace about her column? Email her at gs326823@ohio.edu
Insta: @graceschm1dt
