Jolie-Pitt Love

Paparazzi frame up Angelina Jolie as she makes her way to the CTA platform near the Harold Washington Library. (Tribune photo by E. Jason Wambsgans / August 17, 2007)

Tires screeching, we wheeled around the corner of Rush and Chicago, barely missing a pack of pedestrians. "Sorry folks -- watch it!" the photographer yelled as he pounded the accelerator of his SUV and sped east on Chicago.

He was on the hunt, chasing a black Ford Expedition belonging to the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt entourage, and it had just departed the Peninsula Hotel. I'd been interviewing the photographer in his SUV, and when the chase began I went along for the wild ride.

He and the dozen other paparazzi tailing the Expedition had no clue who was inside. At the moment, though, the vehicle's human cargo was beside the point. Thanks to the caprices of a traffic control aide, eight taxis, a Ford F-150 and an OfficeMax truck, the photographer -- with me, slightly nervous, in the passenger seat -- was trailing his quarry by several blocks.

Then word from a fellow photographer and friend came in over the two-way radio, announcing that the Expedition was nearly at Lake Shore Drive. Cursing, my driver floored it, using the turn lane to bypass traffic. As he reached the Drive, his cell phone rang. Another photographer was right on the Expedition's tail, and he was willing to give directions.

The SUV's speedometer quickly reached 80, well over the Drive's 45 m.p.h. limit. Per instructions, he exited at Wilson and headed west, using the wrong side of the street as a passing lane and narrowly avoiding several head-on collisions as he snaked in and out of traffic. Finally, sweating and out of breath, he pulled up behind a line of paparazzi at a stoplight.

Then, for the first time that day, he reached into the camera bag at my feet, pulled out a camera and slung it around his neck. We weren't done yet.

Our chase began at the Peninsula, the luxury hotel where Pitt, Jolie and their ever-expanding brood stayed while Jolie was in Chicago shooting the movie "Wanted." When I arrived there that morning, I saw no signs that a dozen or so paparazzi were staking out the hotel.

I later found out that most remained in their cars, hiding behind their tinted windows and making the most of the air conditioning. Several said they paid the valet at Rosebud on Rush $40 a day to secure parking spots with a view of the Peninsula and its loading dock, where Jolie and Pitt loaded up their SUVs before attempting to venture outward. A paparazzo might have left his car for the occasional cigarette break or to run to the Giordano's across from the Peninsula for a slice of pizza, but the ones who knew what they were doing stayed out of sight, watching, until their quarry presented itself.

The paparazzi are a secretive lot. Some are tight-lipped because they want to safeguard their turf and tipsters. Others worry about the negative publicity that accompanies their work. The paparazzo I was with asked that we not use his name because he was concerned it would upset some of his clients, acknowledging the hypocrisy of invading others' privacy while protecting his own.

"People do a lot of things in this business that they aren't happy about, that they don't tell everybody else about," he said. "People know who I am. It's just a little different when you make the paper and you're the poster child for an organization."

While some photographers work full time as paparazzi, many alternate chasing stars with more conventional gigs.

"Sometimes, the people who do this work for the local newspaper and are just [photographing celebrities] on the side to make some money," said Francois Navarre, founder and president of X17, which is one of the largest paparazzi agencies in Los Angeles.

The paparazzi are aware of the negative implications associated with their job. Critics say that their pursuit of their targets borders on stalking, and that the high-speed chases they instigate endanger celebrities and innocent motorists. But most paparazzi are quick to say that they're just another part of our celebrity-driven culture, that the stars are perfectly aware when they're being photographed and that many don't exactly mind when they see their faces in People magazine.

"We aren't trespassing; we're just trying to get a story," said Raul Rodriguez, a paparazzo from L.A. who came to Chicago in pursuit of Jolie. "I haven't seen any pictures from when she's been here where she looks upset. She's smiling, enjoying her work, enjoying being with her kids and Brad.

"It's part of the game," he added. "We're basically contributing to their publicity."

Rodriguez said that in the eight years he's been photographing celebrities, he's never been involved in a car accident. But he acknowledged that sometimes things can get out of hand when the paparazzi are chasing a target.

"In L.A., it's really tense," he said. "There are people who don't have the skills to drive. They're nervous. They want to get the photos."

Driving in Chicago has been more sedate, he said, although the city's numerous one-way streets and the abundance of pedestrians on the Magnificent Mile, near the Peninsula, have caused occasional snags.

It might seem odd that Jolie and Pitt's brief jaunt to Chicago has drawn Rodriguez and other paparazzi away from the star-laden streets of New York and Los Angeles. But Jolie and Pitt are at the top of the celebrity A-list not necessarily in terms of talent, but in terms of their ability to draw readers to celebrity magazines.

"It changes every week, but they're always in the top 10," Navarre said. "Right now, No. 1 is Britney [Spears], then Katie Holmes, then Angelina."

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