Moment of Truth: Ron Galella and Leon Gast on the Revealing Paparazzo Doc Smash His Camera

The whole time I was watching the film, I kept wondering, "Why? Why the relationship with Jackie?" Finally you address why, but have you thought any more about it yourself since that interview, on the spot?

RG: I think it's a romance between the camera and the subject. I think she loved it. Once, the only time she grabbed me, she was coming out of 21 with Ari [Onassis]. She grabbed my wrist and pinned me against the limo with her elbow: "You've been hunting me for two months now!" She was angry, but she was flattered that I was pursuing her. And I think she loved it.

LG: And we had exactly that same question. We were shooting it and editing it pretty much at the same time -- cutting, shooting, cutting, shooting. After we had a rough cut, we all asked the question: "Why? Why was he obsessed with her?" And we asked it a couple of times, and finally he did say, "I've thought about it: I didn't have a girlfriend, and she was..."

RG: My girlfriend.

LG: "...kind of my girlfriend." And that answered the question, and we hoped that enough. But you're asking if he thought it was more than that, so...

RG: Well, naturally, to me she was a great figure. A former first lady. I respected her! I put her on a pedestal by spending all this time pursuing her. When she'd go to the 21 club it might be four hours before she came out -- sometimes in 12 degree weather. So it's my passion to get these pictures, you see?

LG: He has patience!

In the film, Floyd Abrams calls you the "price tag of the First Amendment." How would you respond?

RG: To me, she was fair game just like other celebrities. In court she claims I invaded her privacy and harassed her, but that's not true. First of all, she was in public areas when I shot her: streets, the park, wherever. Airports. It was all legal property. I didn't harass her. But to win the case, she lied in court and had people lying for her. She said I jump out of bushes. I jump into bushes to get the picture, off-guard. Like the pictures of John on the bike in the park? On the pedestrian path? I hid in the bushes to get those pictures. Then she said, "Oh, it's you again." Then she ordered the agent not to let me shoot anymore, and that's when she said, "Smash his camera, Mr. Connelly!" But he didn't.

LG: Listen, Floyd Abrams is probably the most renowned First Amendment scholar in the country. But I think that Floyd thinks of freedom of the press as freedom of the "press" -- not the "press the way it was expanded to cover Ron Galella."

Finally, Ron, what do you think of your heirs? The tabloid paparazzi, the TMZ videographers and the like?

Oh. It's a sad scene. I don't like it. It's too much. They go too far. I do think they harass the stars: They get in their way, the star trips... See, the old paparazzi in Italy? They tried to create an incident to sell the pictures. That's the old-fashioned way -- to provoke. Some of these paparazzi today try to do that. They try to make an incident so they can make a saleable picture by provoking them. To me, that's unethical. I would never do such a thing. And when Brando slugged me and knocked five teeth out, I did not provoke it. He called me over! He said, "What else do you want?" I said to take off his [sun]glasses; it was nighttime in Chinatown. His answer was a punch to my jaw.

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