Yahoo Finance Sienna Miller on the paparazzi's treatment of Britney Spears: "It was assault"
Sienna Miller identifies with the horrifying experiences of Britney Spears, as she says she was a “victim” of paparazzi harassment, too. The public suffering of Spears was recently brought to light through the recent documentary Framing Britney Spears.
In an interview with The Guardian, Miller detailed how, while watching the heartbreaking documentary by the New York Times, she recognised the faces of the same paparazzi photographers who also harassed her.
“Everyone in the culture was complicit in what was being done to girls at that moment,” she explained. “I was definitely a victim of that and I couldn’t handle it. I don’t know how anyone could. It was assault.”
“And I think the reaction from a lot of women under that kind of scrutiny at the time was to just lose it a little bit. You’re in a perpetual state of anxiety.”
She continued: “You’re living this video-game existence, being hunted relentlessly. Watching the documentary, I could really relate to those moments where she cracks because it’s unmanageable. It is aggressive and terrifying and you lose control. That’s their intention.”
In 2008, Miller successfully sued tabloids by using human rights legislation to secure her privacy.
“I could have not gone out. Or worn what I wanted. I could have changed my life in some way,” she remembers. “I just took them all to court instead.”
Three years later in 2011, Miller testified at the Leveson inquiry after winning £100,000 in damages from the News of the World (the now-closed tabloid paper), which hacked her voicemail, reports The Guardian.
The actress recalls feeling dehumanised after reading emails about her that circulated between reporters at the paper.
“The disgusting way they spoke about me, journalist to journalist,” she said. “The lack of consideration that this was a human being.”
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