Ritchie gets a restraining order against 2 paparazzi

A Los Angeles judge has granted a temporary restraining order against two paparazzi accused of stalking Nicole Richie and her children.

The order, signed Friday by L.A. Superior Court Judge David S. Cunningham, requires that the men, Eduardo Arrivabene and Ivon Miguel, stay at least 100 feet away from Richie and her children, Harlow Madden, 2, and Sparrow Madden, 6 weeks.

In a statement attached to the order, Richie said that she was involved in a car crash on Oct. 5 as the men were attempting to photograph her with her family. Since then, she said, the men’s harassment “occurs on a daily basis. . . . I am fearful that [their] continued presence may cause yet another accident, this time with my infant children in the vehicle.”

Richie, the daughter of singer Lionel Richie, is perhaps best known for her television series with then-best friend Paris Hilton, “The Simple Life,” in which the two women lived for a month in rural Arkansas. Since then, she has become a multimedia force, designing jewelry and clothing lines and writing a semi-autobiographical novel. Pictures of Richie and her partner, singer Joel Madden, are frequently splashed across supermarket and mainstream magazines.

Despite numerous run-ins over the years between celebrities and photographers attempting to capture their every move, the granting of such a restraining order is rare. That’s partly because of 1st Amendment protections and the fleeting nature of celebrity; as fortunes ebb and flow, so do the packs of photographers who follow stars.

In the early 1970s, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis went to trial to obtain an order against photographer Ron Galella, who had pursued the former first lady and her children. In interviews three decades later, Galella said that the trial made him more famous and helped him earn more money.

In the last few years, the prices paparazzi photos can fetch have soared so high that photo agencies have begun putting full-time teams of photographers on certain celebrities.

In the restraining order, Richie said the men have sat outside her house, waiting for her to leave, following her and her family “almost daily, stalking our home, as we try to go about living our lives.”

Richie’s attorney, Mark Geragos, called the men’s conduct dangerous. “There’s a fine line between being a paparazzo and a stalker, and these two clearly crossed it,” he said.

A follow-up hearing is scheduled for Nov. 16.

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