Let’s say you’ve arrived at LAX airport and you happen to look, kind of, like Jamie Lynne Spears, and it–kind of, looks like you are carrying a baby. From this LA Times article’s account, you’d be surrounded by some paparazzi in a wild flurry as they snapped your picture hoping to sell it to TMZ, Perez Hilton, or some other celeb loving publication.
That’s what happened Wednesday night when Jamie Lynne Spears was to arrive at the airport with new baby in tow. Spears did show up, but the paparazzi were going after a decoy. [Although, by this account, she wasn’t a decoy–but someone who just happened to look like Jamie Lynn Spears who the police were helping get through the airport in the flock of paparazzi. I’m confused.]
At any rate. Supposing you weren’t a decoy, but someone who REALLY does look a bit like Jamie Lynn Spears? What Wednesday’s story does illustrate is that LAX is becoming increasingly a paparazzi paradise for snapping pics as celebrities haul themselves and their luggage through the airport.
Big deal, you might think. But, according to what I read, it’s having an influence on travel for the rest of us. Sure, you may not be hounded by people trying to take your picture, but when Kanye West was arrested earlier this week, it gummed up the airport’s flow. Security was busy handling Kanye West’s arrest outside the passenger security areas of Terminal 4. As exciting as it may have looked to be part of the melodrama, what about catching that plane?
The article also said that such nonsense creates flight delays for everyone else–not just the celebrities whose pictures are in high demand. The article also talked about how people happened to be at the airport the same time when Britney Spears was flanked by photographers who were vying for a good angle while she was making her way on the escalator.
It’s not that she was on the escalator by her lonesome. As the paparazzi flocked, some people were knocked askew. From the article’s description, it sounds like celebrities make it through the airport often, so much so that photographers stake themselves out there daily.
If you want to see what it’s like to be a celebrity, figure out which one you look like, head to the airport and try to act like you don’t want your picture taken. Might be fun—or not.
The question is. Is the photo of Jamie Lynne Spears or the decoy? I think it’s the decoy.