Adrian Grenier in a scene from 'Teenage Paparazzo'. Courtesy Mongrel Media
Fans of Entourage’s Adrian Grenier will have a chance to meet the actor this weekend at a DVD signing in downtown Toronto. The actor/director will be signing his Teenage Paparazzo DVD on January 8 at HMV’s Eaton Centre location beginning at 3 p.m. The documentary, featuring Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Kevin Connolly, Paris Hilton, Whoopi Goldberg, Perez Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, etc., focuses on a 13-year-old paparazzo and our celebrity-obsessed culture.
Adrian Grenier became a celebrity by playing one on the hit TV series Entourage. The paparazzi quickly became unavoidable and Grenier considered it a simple relationship: celebrities using the media and vice versa. Although it was annoying, Grenier figured it was also relatively harmless — until he was snapped one night by 13-year-old Austin Visschedyk, who simply introduced himself as “paparazzi, dude.”
A true product of the Los Angeles celeb culture, Visschedyk was a full-fledged paparazzo, prowling club parking lots at 3 a.m. and chasing down limos for the “money shot” where the right photo can score $2,000.
Grenier became intrigued with the teenager. Determined to uncover what was going on, he decided to turn the cameras on the paparazzi and Visschedyk. As Visschedyk succumbs to the lure of fame, Grenier feels a personal responsibility for his influence on his subject’s life.
The film includes interviews not only with celebrities, but with the teenager’s parents, historians, psychologists, critics, publishers, and tabloid writers.
This marks the second documentary directed by Adrian Grenier, whose 2002 Shot in the Dark dealt with his quest to find the father from whom he’d been estranged for 18 years. It is produced by Grenier and Matthew Cooke, and narrated by Grenier and Thomas de Zengotita. Grenier also starred in The Devil Wears Prada.
Know of any other interesting movie-related news or events? Email tips@criticizethis.ca and let us know.
