Ok, I’ll answer the most-asked questions first:

Yes, Lou Ferrigno ( the Incredible Hulk) is a VERY big guy.

Who’s the little guy next to him? That’s Ron Palillo, the actor who played Horshack on Welcome Back Kotter.

I can’t tell you anything about Eriq La Salle from ER because I never got near the guy.

And, Kathy Ireland is a peach.

Readers - and friends and family - love to hear about celebrities and what they’re really like. Magazines sell far more copies when a celebrity is on the cover and a publication that doesn’t cover celebrities at all has problems staying in business.

In the past 15 years I’ve lived in Orlando, I’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of celebrities coming to town. Universal Studios announced they were building sound stages here more than 10 years ago and since then nearly everyone seems to come here to make a film, appear at a convention or star in a TV special. They visit theme parks and make national news. My access to these people is dictated by their place in the fame curve and the personality of the individual celebrity. Nice folks are nice, even if they’re famous, and the reverse is true too

Battle of the 70s stars: Lou Ferrigno, once the Incredible Hulk on television, jokingly threatens the much smaller Ron Palillo, who portrayed the character Horshack on "Welcome Back Kotter."

In past few weeks I’ve had assignments that reflected this relationship. First, a group of personalities came into our downtown office to be interviewed and photographed. They were in town to attend a collectibles convention and were working the local media for publicity. I photographed the Hulk and Horshak, the guy who was the deputy on Dukes of Hazard and the real women whose baseball team inspired the movie A League of Their Own. They were all very nice and reasonable crowd formed in the newsroom - something that never happens when the Florida governor visits.

These folks may always be nice, but they certainly needed to be nice to the media in order to get coverage. Their biggest moments are probably behind them.

Someone at the top of the fame game is Eriq LaSalle, the dashing African American actor who plays a doctor in ER. The very popular television show was filming a segment in Central Florida, using rural locations to represent Mississippi. I spent several days on the phone with Gary the publicist from Warner Brothers but they would not let me on the set. They wanted to "protect the talent." and offered to supply photos their photographer would shoot.

So one day, just to cover myself, I drove 30 miles out town and wandered along the dirt roads, looking for signs of movie making. I spotted the grip trucks and pulled over. There was a police roadblock and I couldn’t see anything from there. I chatted the local security chief, knowing I’d see him again on the next production. I left without making a photo. It’s no skin off my nose but maybe 10 years from now LaSalle will be waiting in the Sentinel lobby along with former members of New Kids on the Block hoping I have the time to take their photo.

But back to the assignment several people - men and women alike - asked me about this week; Kathy Ireland, a three-time cover model for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

At 35 years old and now a mom of two, Ireland may be past her peak as a swimsuit model but she doesn’t seem to be slowing down in terms of work. She has a clothing line she is promoting through K-Mart and works on the board of directors of several charitable organizations.

Our fashion writer, a visiting photojournalism student from the University of Florida and myself met Ireland at the Disney/MGM Studios theme park. She was going into the Brown Derby restaurant with her parents, her 2 1/2 month old daughter, her manager and a make up stylist - all to eat lunch. I sat and chatted with her parents as the waiters took their orders and waited for the moment to get a photo.

Ireland’s parents were very down to earth and we traded kid stories. When she had a break with our reporter, Kathy was ready for the photo.

We went outside and I told her about the stories I’d heard about her when she was 11 and working her paper route. She laughed and sat down on the grass. In about three minutes, I had shot a roll of the easiest photos I’d made that week and I told her so. She did all the work by looking so natural. It was a photo of Kathy instead of another fashion shoot. I wish that the current climate with celebrities and photographers relations would blow over. The celebrities need the exposure, but some of them want to control everything, including who makes their pictures. Photographers, driven by the lucrative payoff of celebrity photos, become aggressive stalkers. Eventually photographers think all celebrities are ego-bound prima donnas and celebrities think all photographers are classless pigs. It’s not a good situation and it’s making it harder to make decent photos.

Kathy Ireland, former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.

Behind the Viewfinder - A Year in the Life of Photojournalism
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