Celeb Pre-School Is a Paparazzi Hot Spot
A Santa Monica, Calif., pre-school has become a paparazzi hangout.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 12, 2009 — -- All grown up now, Justin Henry, the child star of the 1978 hit movie "Kramer vs. Kramer," rarely finds himself in the spotlight, or in the crosshairs of a paparazzi camera lens.
But Henry and scores of other angry parents are accusing the snapshot hounds of putting their pre-school children in harm's way in their pursuit of lucrative celebrity photos.
"The paparazzi feel they are in some ways entitled because this is Los Angeles, that these people are celebrities and they signed up for this," Henry told ABC News. "That may be true, but for the people that are kind of caught in the middle, it's unfair."
In this case, "the middle" is the First Presbyterian Nursery School in Santa Monica, Calif., a renowned pre-school that boasts of kids from diverse backgrounds and focuses on the social and emotional well-being of the children as well as educational vitality.
The pre-school has long attracted celebrities. Currently, the children of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, and also of Meg Ryan, attend.
We know this because photos of the celebrity parents and their children are among thecountless shots featured in entertainment magazines around the globe. The photographers catch them in a parental routine shared by millions of other parents -- dropping off and picking up their kids from school.
While those photos may bring good money to the pockets of the photographers, the parents say the process of getting those shots has resulted in daily chaos, insults and even physical injury -- and they want city officials to do something about it now.
"The cars are following them [the celebrities] much like [they followed] Princess Diana -- they kind of screech, park illegally and they jump out and swarm," said Geoffrey Blake, a school parent. "It's akin to what happens when you throw a group of sharks chum."
"They really don't think about safety first," Henry told the Santa Monica City Council this week. "They shoot first and ask questions later. And it is really just a matter of time before someone gets pushed into the streets and one of the children gets seriously hurt. And we will wonder why we didn't do something about it when we could."
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