Michael Graeter is considered Germany’s most well known society reporter. He uncovered an affair between Gunter Sachs and Brigitte Bardot, and he went barhopping with Jack Nicholson. We spoke with him on the occasion of his talk on June 27 at the exhibition “Paparazzi!”.
Michael Graeter, on whom the celebrity reporter Baby Schimmerlos in the satire "Kir Royal" from the 1980s is based, writes a column about stars and starlets for the "Münchener Abendzeitung." The "FAZ" called the 73-year-old the "chronicler of the glittery world of celebrities." On the occasion of the exhibition "Paparazzi!", the SCHIRN organized a talk on June 27 with Graeter and Ulrich Sonnenschein, an editor for the Hessischer Rundfunk.
SCHIRN MAGAZIN: Has anyone ever bushwhacked you with a camera?MICHAEL GRAETER: Of course, once when I'd entered the limelight myself. I was freelance at the time, and my manager hadn't paid the employer's contributions to the medical insurance company. I was sentenced, at first on probation. Then, because I once drove too fast to my dying father, I had to go to jail. When I was released, a couple of paparazzi ambushed me. By the way, I think they're very important; they translate journalism into action, because they take straightforward pictures. People want to know who's with whom, who isn't with whom anymore--such a photograph is worth more than a thousand words. When I look at pictures in which people are posing, my feet fall asleep. I often have photographs shot in such a way that it looks like they were done spontaneously, as if someone is just coming out of a hotel, for example.
SM: First the photograph, then the story?
MG: Today, the picture is the most important thing. It used to be that the story was there first, and then you took an image from the archives or got a new photograph. Today, you don't produce a story anymore if the appropriate picture isn't there.SM: You work with paparazzi?MG: There are several photographers with whom I've already worked for years, and then there are independent paparazzi, of course, who offer me pictures. Or I know, for instance, that Madonna is staying in a hotel with a new suitor, and I send a paparazzo there to stand in front of the door.
SM: What were the juiciest secrets that you revealed in your career?
MG: For example, the romance between Brigitte Bardot and Gunter Sachs, the affair between Prince Ernst August of Hannover and Princess Caroline of Monaco, or the rambles of the soccer player Luca Toni, who rushed around Munich like Don Juan.SM: In all cases, a photograph was the proof ... MG: Exactly. And everything has to happen very fast. Because the kick I get from my job is being the first to land the story.
SM: How did you manage to do that with Sachs and Bardot?
MG: A friend of mine, an immigration officer at the airport in Munich, called me after he stamped their passports. I knew Gunter Sachs and could imagine where he wanted to go with Bardot: to a yacht. So I simply made a phone call and suggestively asked if the two of them were already there. A woman answered that everything was ready and that they could arrive at any moment. So I got into my convertible with a photographer and drove there. I saw Brigitte Bardot first--a fantastic chick; God really exerted himself. Sachs asked me to wait three days before publishing the story so that they wouldn't be interrupted on their vacation. We were trembling when we did on the third day. Naturally, any number of paparazzi showed up afterwards, but the two were already long gone. SM: Lots of people associate the celebrity press and paparazzi with a lack of morals. The picture's needed at any price.MG: I've always maintained good relationships with celebrities; I've never been bad-mouthed. I've also never done anything bad except to bring news into the world.
SM: The death of Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris after being pursued by paparazzi, triggered a vigorous discussion.
MG: That's the biggest hoax of the century; would-be journalists put this myth about the death chase in the newspaper. One can't speak at all of a chase. Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed left the hotel unimpeded; the paparazzi didn't arrive at the scene of the accident until ten minutes later. A camera isn't a Kalashnikov. The driver was drunk; he wanted to make an impression and stepped on the gas. I know the street; I almost went airborne on it once in my sports car.
SM: What does research look like for you? It's said that you once went barhopping with Jack Nicholson in Munich ...
MG: That has more to do with having an experience than with research. And you need a good network so that you get called, for example when a star checks into a hotel. It was really easy with Nicholson. He was in town to promote his movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." The movie company boss called me and asked me if I couldn't help by showing him a good time. So we picked him up from the airport, went into a bar, and I requested a couple of ladies.
SM: Who are the greatest paparazzi of all time?
MG: There's not just the one paparazzo; they're a whole pack. Some of them have settled in Hollywood, for example, and drive around all day to take pictures of stars. There are also a lot of them in Italy and Spain. But the best photographs are chance hits anyway. In Germany, things are more complicated legally; here we have a right to one's own picture, for example. If I take a picture of Heidi Klum, she can come along with an injunction. The most beautiful photographs were taken in the 1960s in the Via Veneto in Rome, in the days of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Marcello Mastroianni. Then, people went there to get into the newspaper. This street was always something the high altar of the paparazzi. But it's long since fallen into a deep sleep.