The History and Controversy Over How Paparazzi Got Its Name and Paparazzi Laws in Europe

If it Wasn't for Italian Director Federico Fellini, the Paparazzi in America Would Be Named Something Else

Strange how Italian words become so entwined into American culture that we just accept them as something that's always been there for decades. It's only been about 48 years since the word paparazzi managed to skip across the pond from Europe and into the American lexicon. And if the paparazzi in Hollywood knew what their name meant as an obscure casual word in Italy, they'd probably want to go back to what they were known as before the early 1960's. Before paparazzi became what we know them as, we just shockingly acknowledged these people as real press photographers.

Anybody who's studied foreign film would know exactly where the term paparazzi (or actually paparazzo) came from. Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" in 1960 had a pivotal character in the story who happened to be a press photographer by the name of Paparazzo. This character accompanies the Marcello character in the film (played by Marcello Mastroianni) and has long been rumored to be based on an odd Italian word called "papataceo" that's a description for an annoying buzzing sound coming from a mosquito.

That right, it's quite clear that Fellini understood the annoyance of press photographers quite early and perhaps unknowingly applied a whole new term to them via the name of a character. Rome in those days was already considered a city that was celebrity-obsessed with full intention of Fellini to reflect that universe in "La Dolce Vita." It was also known as one of the worst places on Earth for celebrity photographers who would almost go to as many lengths as Hollywood paparazzi today to get a photograph of an Italian movie star.

The only difference is that 1960 Rome was fortunate to not have been obsessed with driving SUV's that could potentially run a celebrity off an embankment somewhere during a chase. Somehow I have the feeling that Italy still get perplexed when seeing the type of vehicles we've used here in recent years. They always did and always will be the types who have paparazzi riding around in small, compact cars that are almost the equivalent of a little buzzing mosquito that can squeeze into tighter places to get photographs easier.