‘stalkerazzo’: meaning and origin

The depreciative noun stalkerazzo (plural stalkerazzi) designates a freelance videographer or photographer, characterised as being extremely aggressive in pursuing celebrities to video or photograph them.

Note: The plural form stalkerazzi is sometimes used as singular—cf., below, quotation 4 from the Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California, USA) of Friday 22nd March 1996.

The noun stalkerazzo is a blend of the following two nouns:
stalker, designating someone who keeps following or contacting someone else (especially a famous person or a person they used to have a relationship with) in an annoying and frightening way;
paparazzo (plural paparazzi), designating a freelance videographer or photographer who pursues celebrities to video or photograph them.

The plural noun stalkerazzi occurs, for example, in the following from The end of the pap show, by Anthony Barnes, published in The Independent (London, England) of Sunday 1st January 2006 [page 3, column 2]:

The Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson was heading for Disneyland to enjoy a day off with friends when a swarm of photographers began chasing her Mercedes. A tense game of cat-and-mouse ensued, lasting 45 minutes and only ending when Johansson’s car crashed into another that was carrying a family.
Nobody was hurt, but the actress was so shaken by relentless hounding from the paparazzi that she fled her home in Los Angeles for a while last year. From today, however, such aggressive tactics will be banned when a law comes into effect in California, designed to curb a new breed of baying photographers.
Dubbed the “stalkerazzi”, they stop at nothing to get the right shot. Lying in wait for a snatched shot is not enough. Instead, some engineer the action by goading, confronting or pursuing their prey. Many reckon the damage caused by ramming a lens into someone’s face or crashing their car will be worth it, because the returns on their shots are so lucrative. With worldwide syndication, pictures can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The earliest occurrences that I have found of the noun stalkerazzo (plural stalkerazzi) are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From the gossip column Rush & Molloy, by George Rush and Joanna Molloy, published in the Daily News: New York’s Hometown Newspaper (New York City, New York, USA) of Tuesday 10th October 1995 [page 19, column 2]:

The video paparazzo who says Robert De Niro gave him a bloody nose apparently is willing to make the problem go away if De Niro gets out his checkbook.
Yesterday, we broke the news that De Niro had to submit to fingerprinting and mug shots after freelance cameraman Joe Ligier charged that the star had punched him and grabbed him by his ponytail outside the Bowery Bar in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
Ligier’s videotape of the incident has drawn interest from “Hard Copy” and other tabloid programs. But word is the cameraman hopes his best offer may come from De Niro—since the reclusive star must dread the prospect of walking into a press-packed Criminal Court hearing next month.
[…]
De Niro’s lawyer Tom Harvey declined to comment. De Niro’s spokesman Stan Rosenfield sees Ligier as one of a new gang of video stalkerazzi who “lie in wait and provoke” celebs into ugly scenes. Rosenfield cited George Clooney, Will Smith and Tony Danza among the stars who’ve been baited into confrontations.

2-: From VIDEO ‘STALKERAZZI’: They angle for tabloid hit parade, by Robert Dominguez, Daily News staff writer, published in the Daily News: New York’s Hometown Newspaper (New York City, New York, USA) of Sunday 15th October 1995 [page 13, column 2]:

Spurred by tabloid TV shows willing to pay big money, a new breed of paparazzi is hunting celebrity prey with a new weapon—the video camera—hoping to provoke the rich and famous into looking small and mean on tape.
If he yells, it sells, is the modus operandi. And if the celebrity takes a swing at the camera, like actors Robert De Niro and Woody Harrelson allegedly did last week in separate incidents, video paparazzi stand to make more of a financial killing.
“Senior producers won’t ever say it to your face, but it’s understood that footage has to be ‘sexy,’ it’s got to have action, or it’s not worth their attention,” says a producer who has worked for numerous tabloid shows, including “A Current Affair” and “Hard Copy.”
“We’re not told to encourage it, but video paparazzi understand that if they get someone to go ballistic it’s money in the bank,” he adds.
“Stalkerazzi” armed with camcorders and attitude are a relatively new phenomenon, a by-product of the video age and tabloid television programs that feed the public’s insatiable taste for celebrity news and gossip. The market has become so lucrative that one veteran still photographer recently bought a camcorder just to be able to compete.

3-: From the gossip column Rush & Molloy, by George Rush and Joanna Molloy, published in the Daily News: New York’s Hometown Newspaper (New York City, New York, USA) of Tuesday 20th February 1996 [page 14, column 2]:

‘MONKEY’ MAKER OVER A BARREL
Michael Caton-Jones has gotten out the bear guns in his battle over “B. Monkey.”
The “Rob Roy” director wants to cast his discovery Sophie Okonedo in the part of a British street urchin. […]
Miramax wants Thandie Newton […].
“Contractually, Miramax has the right to casting,” said an inside source. […]
But the director is adamant. He’s enlisted the help of lawyers Ed Hayes and Tom Harvey, the same streetwise legal team that Robert De Niro used when a stalkerazzo allegedly tried to blackmail him.

4-: From the Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California, USA) of Friday 22nd March 1996 [page B1, column 5, & page B6, columns 1 & 2]:

Jurors Begin Deliberations in Baldwin Case
By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
VAN NUYS—Jurors in the Alec Baldwin battery trial must decide whether they believe the movie star or a “stalkerazzi” photographer who [sic] Baldwin punched, a defense attorney said Thursday.
“This is a case that comes down to credibility. It comes down to credibility between Mr. Baldwin and Alan Zanger,” attorney Charles English said in his closing argument. His hand on his debonair client’s shoulder, English asked: “Do you believe upon a reasonable doubt that this man is a liar?”
[…]
Baldwin is charged with one misdemeanor count of battery for allegedly breaking Zanger’s nose when the self-described celebrity stakeout specialist tried to videotape the homecoming of Baldwin’s wife, actress Kim Basinger, and their newborn daughter.
[…]
“You’re bringing your wife and baby home from the hospital—the first baby you’ve ever had—and this person is there to photograph it,” English said. “That’s really a very low kind of business to be in.”
Combining the terms for aggressive celebrity photographers and stalkers, English coined a new term for Zanger’s job: “stalkerazzi, someone who follows people around, follows people to their homes.”

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