As red carpet photos can attest, Sienna Miller was more than happy to pose for admiring photographers at Sunday night's BAFTA Awards. What a difference a year—and some overly aggressive, noncredentialed shutterbugs—makes.
Hours after losing out in the Rising Star category at the British answer to the Oscars, the Factory Girl star appeared in a London court to testify in the criminal trial of a friend who came to her rescue during a particularly harrowing paparazzi chase following last year's BAFTA ceremony.
Otis Ferry, the son of Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry, was facing charges for his white-knight antics in the cat-and-mouse chase on Feb. 12, 2007. Overeager photographers surrounded Miller's car upon her exit from a private after-party at London's tony Boujis nightclub.
"I felt scared and threatened," Miller said in her 30 minutes on the witness stand of the West London Magistrates Court. "Their actions were aggressive, to say the least.
"I believed it was particularly frenzied on this occasion because they did not know where I lived, and they were particularly keen to find out so they could follow me and get the pictures they wanted."
During the chase, the 26-year-old phoned her friend Ferry, who along with brother Isaac was following Miller back to her home. Otis somehow twice managed to approach to the paparazzi-driven vehicles and pull the keys out of their ignitions to stop, or at least slow, the dangerous pursuit.
The Interview star, no stranger to daily flashbulbs, said she was forced to slouch in the backseat of the Mercedes and described the prowling photographers as "lunatics."
"We were all quite shocked at the way they were driving," Miller said. "The reason they were being that reckless is they wanted to find out where I lived, which makes you fell quite hunted as a woman."
Miller, who, fashionistas will be pleased to know, donned a dark gray skirt suit for her turn in court, said paparazzi were already pursuing her even before she made it to her vehicle from the nightclub, at roughly 4:30 a.m. The shutterbugs had chased her to the point where she had to make a mad dash to the car.
"In any situation, if you are a woman and you are running and there are men chasing you, it's a threatening situation," she said. "They were really aggressive, driving really dangerously, undercutting, overtaking, flashing through the window at a moving vehicle."
Miller further claimed she felt "hunted" by the photographers that night, something that takes some doing, as the star told the court she was followed by no fewer than five paparazzi-manned vehicles on her way to the courthouse.
The 25-year-old Ferry, a pro-hunting campaigner in England, had pleaded not guilty to the two charges of criminal damages. Photographers claimed it cost them almost $400 to replace the keys the celebuspawn ripped from the ignition and hurled. The photogs claim they were never able to locate the keys.
While Ferry denied responsibility for the damages, he did cop to having performed the actions.
Following Miller's Monday testimony, the star's friend was cleared of any legal wrongdoing. While District Judge David Sampson called Ferry's actions "impetuous," he said they did not constitute any criminal damage. He also issued a terse warning to the offending paparazzi, telling them they would be wise not to hold out for any public sympathy in their plight, thanks to their relentless and often deadly pursuit of stars.
"Those members of the public who do not have a seemingly insatiable desire for celebrity pictures might not have much sympathy for the paparazzi, bearing in mind, no doubt, their treatment of the late Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton and, more recently, Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears."