Through the rearview mirror, Hollywood’s glitzy charm leaves many dreaming of the what-ifs. But for those under its relentless spotlight, there is little room for daydreams since privacy is a luxury the stars wave goodbye to the moment fame sinks in. Paparazzi lurk around every corner, while society demands they maintain a constant calm. However, that composure often goes missing in action. Just recently, two stars, Chappell Roan and Tom Holland, faced down aggressive paparazzi, reminding fans of past celebrity clashes where staying hands off was not quite so easy.

If you thought Roan and Holland’s paparazzi showdown set the bar for bad celebrity run-ins, check out these seven wilder encounters.

Paparazzi are like roaches—no matter how often they get squashed, they just keep crawling back. Years of cringe-worthy incidents have not slowed them down, and their recent clash with Tom Holland and Chappell Roan proves the point. But if there is one star tangled with these camera-wielding pests more than most, it is Ye, aka Kanye West. His skirmishes have become a legend’s stuff, practically cementing a love-hate saga with the shutterbugs.

One recent incident happened this past January when a TMZ reporter tried to grill him about his marriage to Bianca Censori outside Charlie Wilson’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in LA. After going off on a classic Ye rant, he even offered to pay the reporter double her salary—right before he swatted her phone away when she tried to take it back. And if you think that is wild, rewind to 2008 when his bodyguard smashed a photographer’s camera, ending in charges that eventually got dropped. 

Kim Kardashian is fiercely protective of her kids, and not even relentless paparazzi can keep her from going full mama bear. Last year, the SKIMS founder was approached by a photographer at North West's basketball game, where Ye was also present with Bianca Censori. Just hours earlier, Ye had made headlines over an alleged battery incident, which drew a swarm of paparazzi to Kardashian as she was leaving the game.

In a clip shared by Page Six, a photographer tried asking her about the incident, but Kardashian quickly shut it down: “Do not talk to me about that in front of my kids.” While Kardashian’s protective aura saved the paparazzi trials for her children, another teen was not so easily spared.

Paparazzi letdowns also remind one of the sour hours Selena Gomez faced as a child celebrity during her days as Disney's darling for The Wizards of the Waverly Place. In a Vogue interview years later, in 2021, Gomez revealed the haunting memory from when she was only 15.

Gomez claimed being stalked by “grown men with cameras” while at a beach with family in pursuit of her pictures in a swimsuit. While the paparazzi’s ways are not unknown to the world, the age bracket in which Gomez had to confront the chilling experience highlights just how unsparing the world of fame truly is. 

Justin Bieber entered the fame game early, like Selena Gomez, and had plenty of run-ins with paparazzi. But in 2013, one viral video captured a particularly heated moment when an agitated Bieber fired off a string of f-bombs at a paparazzo from inside his SUV. It all began when the photographer cursed and told him to "go back to America."

That provocation led Bieber to hop out of his car, only to be held back by his bodyguard. Later, Bieber tweeted about having a "rough morning," vowing not to let paparazzi get the best of him again. While the photographer claimed Bieber got physical, the singer lamented, calling for a more humane approach toward celebrities.

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Indeed, the star had every such ground for frustration since a year earlier, these relentless paparazzi landed him in between a wild car chase down the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley.

Though a newcomer to fame, Sydney Sweeney has swiftly become a fan-favorite and directors’ top choice. But with soaring demand comes the relentless, often invasive eye of the paparazzi. Despite her public criticism of this constant surveillance, Sweeney recently shared one of her most unsettling experiences with Glamor. She revealed the paparazzi overstepped all bounds, showing up at her family’s Florida home, yelling and demanding she come outside in a bikini for photos.

Sweeney dismissed rumors that she invited this intrusion, clarifying that risking her family’s privacy would never be on her agenda before throwing her own receipts into the skeptics' faces, admitting she even has photographic proof of paparazzi lurking in kayaks and hiding in the ocean bushes.

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While this experience stirred conversations in the industry, it took only a few weeks for the shutterbugs to keep up their bugging spirit.

It may seem like the paparazzi grow more audacious with the newbies of the industry, but in reality, this is far from the truth, since even the biggest veteran actors have not escaped these privacy breaches. In 2005, the Friends actor, Jennifer Aniston, filed a lawsuit against two magazine publishers for printing unauthorized pictures of her topless.

The star alleged that a photographer reportedly scaled an eight-foot wall over her fence to take photographs of her while she was sunbathing topless on her back porch. The photos ended up in magazines published by Man’s World Publications and Crescent Publishing Group, while Aniston’s lawsuit claimed the magazines violated her right to privacy by using a telephoto lens.

Although her lawyer said the matter was amicably solved, the settlement remained confidential, etching another bitter memory in the catalog of celebrity-paparazzi encounters gone wrong. 

Tom Cruise might be one of Hollywood's boldest stars, but there was a time when his real-life heroics took center stage during a paparazzi encounter. According to a report from 2021 by the New York Daily News, Cruise and his then-6-year-old daughter Suri found themselves leading paparazzi on a 20-minute chase through Manhattan's West Side.

As they left the Greenwich Hotel in a black Chevy Suburban, at least 10 cars and six motorcyclists gave chase, tailing them all the way to a heliport on 12th Avenue and West 29th Street. The SUV reportedly blew through red lights and clocked speeds 20 mph over the limit. While Cruise’s daring may have kept his daughter safe, not everyone has a Cruise around to ensure the mission is possible.

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What do you think of these 7 wild celebrity encounters with the shutterbugs? Let us know in the comments below!