At least a dozen Hollywood actresses and a couple of actors are suing a cameraman by the name of Ellis Pearson for some very unusual photographs he has taken over the past three years.
According to sources, a dozen stars or more have signed a court order preventing Pearson from taking the photographs and selling them on the marketplace.
In fact the photo collector has been offered a tremendous price for purchasing the right to make a book of the photographs.
The judge will have a hearing the first Friday in October and determine the rights of those photographed and the cameraman to sell his shots.
So what is so bad about these pictures that a dozen, probably even more once the news is out, are wanting them to remain unseen? I mean, there are some pretty racy pics of most of them on the net and magazines now, some posted by the actors themselves.
It seems that amateur cameraman Pearson bought and reshaped an old French camera that was shaped like a pistol. After tinkering with it for years, Pearson tried it out. He shot Britney Spears who was terrified but soon calmed down when laid-back easy going Pearson showed her that it was only a camera by clicking the trigger and taking a photo of his own face. This brought a laugh and it was apparently forgotten.
Of course, Pearson HAS been approached by the police and even taken downtown twice but after everything has been explained, all charges were dropped or there were no arrests made after hearing his story and examining the "gun".
Then, about a month ago, the rumor surfaced that Pearson was selling the photographs to a book company to be mass produced. That was when several of Hollywood's famous (or their managers) finally remembered what had happened.
Here were about 75-125 photographs of well-known and even macho types glaring in horror at a gun being pointed at them! They thought they were about to die or at least, be shot.
No one wants those horrified pics published, but amazingly, they may be out of luck.
We'll see after the court hearing but expect there to be a lot of these books out before Christmas.
