HONOLULU – Rock legends Steven Tyler and Mick Fleetwood convinced a Hawaii Senate committee on Friday to approve a bill to protect celebrities or anyone else from intrusive paparazzi.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee approved the so-called Steven Tyler Act after the stars testified at a hearing, saying they want to fiercely protect the little privacy they have as public figures.

The bill would give people power to sue others who take photos or video of their private lives in an offensive way, such as using telephoto lenses or other advanced equipment to record them on their private properties.

Tyler said he asked Sen. Kalani English to introduce the measure after paparazzi took a photo of Tyler and his girlfriend in his home, and it was published by a national magazine as part of a report saying the two were getting married.

“It caused a ripple in my family,” Tyler said after the hearing. “I hadn’t told anybody.”

The Aerosmith frontman and former “American Idol” judge says his kids don’t want to go out with him in Hawaii because of the threat of photographers who sometimes get on boats to take photos of him from the ocean.

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“That’s what they do, they are just constantly taking from us,” Tyler said.

Fleetwood, the drummer from Fleetwood Mac, says he’s gotten used to the constant attention but realizes that it’s a “grim reality.”

“The islands shouldn’t represent this to people coming here,” Fleetwood said.

Tyler addressed Hawaii senators briefly during a general session following the hearing and received applause from lawmakers.

During the hearing, Senate judiciary committee chair Clayton Hee scrapped the bill’s original contents — which were largely drafted by Tyler’s lawyer — and replaced them with language from a related California statute.

The California law was originally passed in 1998 in response to the death of Princess Diana, then amended in 2009 to permit lawsuits against media outlets that pay for and make first use of material they knew was improperly obtained.

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Applegate quitting ‘Up All Night’  

LOS ANGELES – Christina Applegate says she’s bowing out of NBC’s “Up All Night.”

In a statement Friday, the actress says the show has taken a “different creative direction” and she’s decided to move on to other projects. She called the sitcom a great experience and says she’ll miss her co-workers.

“Up All Night” starred Applegate and Will Arnett as a couple with a new baby. The show has struggled in the ratings and has seen several changes in its producer ranks.

It also was set to change formats, shifting from a single-camera to multi-camera approach when it returned for the rest of its second season.

NBC declined to speak about the future of “Up All Night,” which last aired in December. The sitcom isn’t currently in production.

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No hint of ‘Ron Weasley’ in Grint’s new film

BERLIN – Harry Potter star Rupert Grint says he enjoyed a change of scene from the young wizard’s adventures when he starred alongside Shia LaBeouf in “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman,” one of the competitors at this year’s Berlin film festival.

Grint plays a drug-addled traveler in the movie, set in Bucharest, which screened at the festival Saturday. It centers on an improbable romance between an American traveler played by LaBeouf and a troubled Romanian musician, played by Evan Rachel Wood.

Grint played Harry’s friend Ron for 11 years in the Potter films.

 


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