Neil Patrick Harris Muses on Death of Justin Bieber Paparazzo and Whether Law Should Be Passed Protecting Celebs

NPH offers up his opinion on whether society can prevent tragedies such as the one that occurred yesterday

By Josh Grossberg Jan 03, 2013 5:20 PMTags
Watch: Neil Patrick Harris on Paparazzi Laws

Neil Patrick Harris doesn't have a magic bullet to solve the problem of invasive paparazzi. But he probably wished he did.

Attending Wednesday's 50th anniversary ceremony for Hollywood's famed Magic Castle, the How I Met Your Mother star was asked by reporters if a law should be passed to prevent the kind of tragic incident that occurred a day earlier when an overly aggressive photographer was struck and killed by a car while trying to snap pictures of Justin Bieber's Ferrari.

Needless to say, Harris offered up a nuanced answer.

"There's so many thoughts. I don't know where you begin with that without sounding like you're taking a stance one way or the other," he replied. "I certainly think that being a public person, a celebrity people are interested in, means they're going to want to know all about you. And the minutiae of your daily life is sort of up for public consumption."

The 39-year-old actor—himself no stranger to the attention of shutterbugs, though he admits not to the degree of some other film and TV stars—added that he's seen firsthand photogs breaking laws, including committing traffic violations, to get their shots. But he wondered whether society could legislate against such behavior.

"I don't know where the line is," Harris noted. "I mean if the paparazzi stopped at every red light, they'd lose the picture. But they're not the only people that run red lights. So you can't come down on them hard."

NPH sympathized, however, with his fellow celebrities who've been stalked and had their privacy violated by paparazzi.

"But I do think it's trying for people who are trying to live their lives in an everyday way to be constantly accosted by not only people wanting their photo but being abrupt and derogatory in order to get a facial expression," Harris concluded. "That can't be fun. I'm thankfully not that exciting so I don't get a lot of that. But yeah, it sucks when people die."

In the wake of the photog's death, Bieber told E! News in a statement that it was his hope the tragedy will "finally inspire meaningful legislation and whatever other necessary steps to protect the lives and safety of celebrities, police officers, innocent bystanders and the photographers themselves."