Suzanne Bastien had a guilty pleasure. The Vancouver actress became obsessed with a website dedicated to singer Beyonce Knowles, particularly the "candids" section.
After all, she reasoned, she and the famed Bootylicious singer had the same body type. So if Beyonce could wear a certain outfit, then so could Bastien. But she soon became taken with the way the impeccably dressed and groomed star remains calm and pleasant amidst the near-constant swarm of fans and paparazzi who follow her.
"I just thought, 'what a life.' She obviously doesn't hate it. You never see her with her hand up to the camera," says Bastien. "I thought, 'I want to be that! I want to be in the middle of all the hecticness like that and be like 'hi.' "
Bastien has amassed a group of game friends in her quest, which is mostly a lark, though she still wants a burly, bald-headed fellow to act as her bodyguard. She's made several attempts, and secured some shots, though the Vancouver rain has proved a foil more than once.
And it seems she is on to something. Already, in Britain and the U.S., a person can hire their own paparazzi to tail them around town just like they were Mary-Kate Olsen or Jennifer Aniston.
Celeb 4 A Day launched last fall in Austin, and this month expanded to San Francisco and Los Angeles. According to the company's website, the $2,400 Mega Star package includes limo service, a bodyguard, a celeb-lookalike glossy, called "MyStar," cover and up to two hours of "Personal Paparazzi Treatment, including asking questions, vying for coverage, shouting your name and everything else you've seen on TV and want to experience for yourself!"
The website for the U.K.'s Personal Paparazzi features a photo of a person holding a hand up to the camera lens. San Diego's Private Paparazzi offers the "Star Treatment" for everything from bachelor parties to nights out on the town, promising "they'll never know you aren't famous."
Celebrities have been using the media for exposure since long before Federico Fellini cemented the term "paparazzo" in his 1960 film La Dolce Vita. But regular folk?
Keir Keightley, a University of Western Ontario associate professor who teaches courses that examine a range of cultural phenomenon and mass media, believes there are a number of factors at work.
For almost a century, Hollywood has tried to define our patterns of consumption, everything from fur to sunglasses to Armani suits.
"You could try to simulate wealth by putting on the trappings of wealth," he said. "The personal paparazzi thing is now offering you the opportunity to buy the trappings of fame."
The trend is also an indicator of the growing cult of "self-surveillance," he suggests.
Reality television -- where people are still "gladly and gleefully revealing the most shameful aspects of their existence" -- Facebook and YouTube are all indicators.
Though on the surface the idea seems "ludicrous," Keightley says like it or not, paparazzi-gone-personal is a sign of the media's very real effect on society.
"It just highlights the emptiness of the media and allows us to dismiss the media," he said. "But at the same time, the media are more and more defining what counts as reality."
