HOLLYWOOD — Tune in an episode of the E! channel's "Celebrities Uncensored," and it's hard to say who acts worse — the celebrities shown behaving badly or the paparazzi that goad them into bad behavior.
Or, perhaps, the E! channel itself, which would seem to encourage the paparazzi by airing a show that makes entertainment out of their encounters with celebrities. Particularly their unpleasant encounters.
Not surprisingly, Mark Sonnenberg, E!'s executive vice president of entertainment, doesn't see it that way. He insists that the footage all comes from one member of the paparazzi, who is also an executive producer of the series. (The exec said it was from the paparazzi's "library," but it somehow seems inappropriate to call video of Tommy Lee brawling outside a Hollywood nightspot part of a "library.")
"There might be copycat people who want to go out there, but we're not buying from other people," Sonnenberg said.
If you haven't watched E!, it's sort of wall-to-wall celebrities — like a full day of "Entertainment Tonight." Some of the channels' programming — such as "E! True Hollywood Story" — is addictive, but it's never going to be confused with "Masterpiece Theatre." And much of it is trashy fun ("Almost Famous: Vegas Showgirls") or just plain garbage ("The Anna Nicole Show").
And if you haven't seen "Celebrities Uncensored," E! is going to unspool a 15-hour marathon of the show on Monday beginning at 8 a.m.
Essentially, "Celebrities Uncensored" is the human version of "When Animals Attack." Sometimes those animals are the celebrities and sometimes they're the paparazzi. And, frankly, it's hard not to laugh when Sonnenberg defends the show.
"What we like to do is tell the story. You see the photographs in the paper, but with the video, you see what actually happened, so it's all there," he said.
Sonnenberg pointed to a recent episode that showed the video behind a widely circulated photo of Brittany Murphy and Winona Ryder kissing. While the photo seemed provocative, the video showed that the two were just goofing around. Which is all well and good . . . but still doesn't explain the Tommy Lee video (and lots of others like it).
And it certainly appears that some members of the paparazzi are looking to become famous by provoking confrontations with celebrities — confrontations that could get them camera time on "Celebrities Uncensored."
It's analogous to when fans used to run on the field at televised sporting events until the networks decided to stop putting those fools on camera.
Sonnenberg said "Celebrities Uncensored" grew out of a limited-run series that E! ran earlier this year, "The High Price of Fame," which included celebrities "dealing with the paparazzi and the fact that their private life is not necessarily their private life. I think that this show is a raw form that shows not only the intrusion that is made into their lives 24/7, but also the cooperation between the celebrities and the press for publicity."
I can't argue with him when he points out that Hollywood press is used by celebrities just like it uses them and that it's difficult to say who acts worse.
"I think it depends on the celebrity and the paparazzi," Sonnenberg said. "I think there's good and bad. I think some celebrities seek out the press. . . . There's good and bad in all this. There's people who go too far in terms of the press, and there's celebrities whose behavior in public is silly."
And E! is right there exploiting every minute of it. Some viewers are sitting at home glued to it — the same way drivers rubberneck traffic accidents.
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com