Wednesday, September 30, 2020

A profile of the 38-Year-Old "Paparazzi Who Follows Around Popular Teen TikTokers For A Living"

Buzzfeed:
Greene went all in on becoming a full-time paparazzi. But when he realized that a lot of his footage of B- or C-list celebrities (like Christina Milian and Jenna Dewan) was being turned down by tabloid giants, he began posting them to YouTube in 2014. These B- or C-list sightings would gain an audience online, and so Greene began posting more clips of what he couldn't sell. That's how the Hollywood Fix was born.

At the start of the pandemic earlier this year, his channel seemed to take a dramatic shift away from capturing traditional celebrities and onto social media celebrities. Over the past few months, the Hollywood Fix has exclusively pivoted to TikTok stars. Greene said this wasn't a calculated move as much as it was a consequence of COVID-19.

"When you scroll through [my feed] over the years, it's all mainstream celebrities like Jennifer Garner or Hilary Duff," he said. "But when COVID hit, these guys left town and just disappeared. All the celebrities just dried out. I'd go out and work an eight-hour shift and come home with an empty memory chip."

He said it seemed like the only notable people in Los Angeles who were still in town and out and about were influencers and TikTokers.

"I said, Let me shoot kids that have millions of fans on TikTok and let me see how it'll do," he said. "It just blew up. It's almost like following a high school drama but in real life."

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When BuzzFeed News asked Greene about these concerns, and where he draws the line, he said he sticks to standard paparazzi rules.