Hot on the trail of Angelina Jolie

 

CNN Producer Bud Bultman

By Bud Bultman

We're barreling down the streets of Beverly Hills and Angelina Jolie is in our sights. Her black Range Rover, just ahead. I'm in the middle of a pack of paparazzi in pursuit of the red-hot actress, and my adrenaline is pumping.

I'm starting to realize what drives these guys. It's the thrill of the chase. Not to mention the huge bounty they can bag with an exclusive photo of a star.

I'm riding along for the upcoming "CNN Presents" documentary, "Chasing Angelina: Paparazzi and Celebrity Obsession." Frank Griffin, a laid-back Brit who co-owns the paparazzi agency Bauer-Griffin, has allowed my crew to tag along with one of his photographers. Ben, who asked us not to use his last name, is working with two other photogs from Bauer-Griffin, all hot on Jolie's trail.

But let me back up. The life of the paparazzi isn't all fast cars and fat paychecks. They spend quite a lot of time in the slow lane, sitting around and wasting money.

"It's more mundane than anything else. It's sitting and waiting," Griffin said. "There's always a celebrity who's prepared to do a cartwheel on Sunset Boulevard without any underpants on. It's going to happen. Every day there's a $10,000 picture, and it's just the question of knowing where it is and being there."

The night before our Angelina chase, I rode along with Ben on a stakeout of the other woman in the Brangelina saga, Jennifer Aniston.

Griffin got a tip that the woman Brad Pitt left behind was going to show up at a furniture store opening in West Hollywood. She might even arrive with the new man in her life, actor Vince Vaughn. A shot of the two of them together would sell well.

Four hours later, Ben left his perch outside the store empty-handed -- no Jennifer Aniston, no Vince Vaughn, not even a Jake Gyllenhaal, who, according to the source, would be a definite show. (I had to wonder whether the tipster was the owner of the furniture store, who I imagined sent out invitations to A-list celebs in hopes one would make an appearance.)

'Pay the right money, you can get it'
With the paparazzi, it's all about the information. Bauer-Griffin keeps a database of more than 500 celebrity license plates and addresses, as well as the tail numbers of celebrities' private airplanes. They work much like detectives, cultivating a network of well-placed, well-paid sources, ranging from valet parking attendants and hotel clerks to people inside the celebrity industry.

"They also pay off people you would never even think of, like people in the California Department of Motor Vehicles, people in air traffic control, people in the airline industry," Peter Howe, author of the book "Paparazzi," told us. "I mean, I would have thought it was pretty hard to get a passenger manifest after September 11th. But if you know the right people, and you pay the right money, you can get it."

Griffin has an uncanny ability to take all those bits of information and determine where celebrities are, and where they're going.

I overheard him on the phone running down a list of stars and the hotel rooms where they're staying. He even had the inside scoop on Brad and Angelina's travel plans: "Brad and Angelina did not fly into Nice today. I think they are going to fly into England the 24th."

Last year, Griffin was able to piece together several tips to pinpoint the hotel where Aniston and Vaughn were staying in Chicago.

"One of our photographers was going around the high rises that all overlook the hotel and trying to get a vantage point to see where they were," he said. "And just as he was looking down at the hotel, they walked out on the deck."

The result? Exclusive pictures of the couple canoodling on the hotel balcony. It was the shot that first confirmed they were more than just friends. Although he was reluctant to give the exact price, Griffin said that set of pictures fetched upward of $250,000.

US Weekly reportedly paid half-a-million dollars for the exclusive photos of Brad and Angelina on a beach in Africa that confirmed they were an item.

Author Howe said it's just a matter of time before someone pays a million dollars for a photo. There's speculation the first exclusive photo of "Baby Brangelina" could command more than $1 million.

Catching Angelina
It's that prospect of snagging a big-money photo that has the paparazzi desperately seeking Angelina. Which is one of the reasons shutterbug Ben is tailing the A-list actress -- and cursing when she runs the red light in front of him. He runs the light as well.

So there we are -- finally catching up with Angelina and following her into the parking lot of the Federal Building just outside Beverly Hills.

Ben's on his Nextel walkie-talkie, plotting logistics with his paparazzi colleagues. They have her Range Rover cornered. Ben grabs his camera. I can feel the excitement, the anticipation -- like a hunter with his prey in the crosshairs.

"Jolie's out! Jolie's out!" Ben shouts on his Nextel. I see the actress walking toward the Federal Building with daughter, Zahara, in tow. Ben starts snapping away as she approaches.

I'm not thinking, "Wow, I'm seeing Angelina Jolie up close!" I'm not thinking about the ethics of tailing her, about whether the paparazzi go too far, or about whether we're invading Angelina Jolie's privacy.

I'm thinking, I imagine, like the paparazzi -- we're hitting the jackpot, scoring one of the hottest actresses on the planet. And, I have to admit, I feel a bit of pride when I see those pictures splashed across the pages of In Touch and People magazines days later.

With the paparazzi being labeled "scum" and "sleazebags" and blamed for celebrity accidents, I ask Griffin how he justifies what he does.

He has a simple answer: "If the only job you can do is street sweeping, then be at least the best street sweeper on the block. And that's what I've tried to do. There are obviously conflicts of conscience. And I really genuinely don't want to hurt people. But I try to be as professional as I can with my job."