Berry and Garner appear before the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety to support a new law which will prevent paparazzi from taking pictures of celebrities' children.
- Aug 14, 2013
AceShowbiz - Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner have enough of undesirable paparazzi encounters. The Hollywood stars, who are also mothers, appeared before the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety on Tuesday, August 13, to help push through a new bill which will impose heavier penalties to paparazzi who follow celebrities and their children's every move.
In the meeting, Berry recalled a scary paparazzi encounter when she was with her young daughter, whose custody was being fought over in court. "[The photographer] said, 'How do you feel, Nahla? You may not see your father again. How do you feel about that?' " the "X Men: Days of Future Past" star said, as quoted by Wenn.
"They say curse words and call me names, all trying to provoke some sort of response to sell a photograph," the expecting mother explained to the audience. Following the incident, her daughter asked, "Why did they say that to me, mommy? What does that mean? Who are these men and why are they following us?"
Fighting back her tears, Garner testified at the Tuesday meeting, "Being stalked has been hard for me, but it is beyond what a child should have to endure. I am an actress but I am a mom first. My children aren't actors or celebrities. They're just kids like your kids or anyone else's and, just like you want to protect your children, I want to protect mine."
"They're beautiful and sweet and innocent, and I don't want a gang of shouting, arguing, lawbreaking photographers who camp out everywhere we are all day every day to continue traumatizing my kids," the actress, who recently told Allure magazine that she did not want to "lose" her identity and get known as "the wife of" Ben Affleck, added.
