Writer J.K. Rowling and actress Sienna Miller have given a London courtroom a vivid picture of the anxiety, anger and fear produced by living in the glare of Britain’s tabloid media, describing how press intrusion made them feel like prisoners in their own homes.
The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter told Britain’s media ethics inquiry on Thursday that having journalists camped on her doorstep was “like being under siege and like being a hostage.”
Miller said years of car chases, midnight pursuits and intimate revelations had left her feeling violated, paranoid and anxious.
“The attitude seems to be absolutely cavalier,” Rowling said. “You’re famous, you’re asking for it.”
The pair were among a diverse cast of witnesses — Hollywood star Hugh Grant, a former soccer player, a former aide to supermodel Elle Macpherson and the parents of missing and murdered children — who have described how becoming the focus of Britain’s tabloid press wreaked havoc on their lives.
Rowling said she was completely unprepared for the media attention she began to receive when her first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, became a sensation. The seven Potter books have sold more than 450 million copies, spawned a hit movie series and propelled Rowling from struggling single mother to one of Britain’s richest people.
“When you become well-known ... no one gives you a guidebook,” she said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry amid a still-unfolding scandal over illegal eavesdropping by the News of the World tabloid. News Corp founder and chairman Rupert Murdoch closed down the newspaper in July after evidence emerged that it had illegally accessed the mobile phone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in its search of scoops.
More than a dozen News of the World journalists and editors have been arrested, and the scandal has also claimed the jobs of two top London police officers, Cameron’s media adviser and several senior Murdoch executives.
It has also set off national soul-searching about the balance between press freedom and individual privacy.
Rowling, 46, said media interest in her began shortly after the publication of her first novel in 1997 and soon escalated, with photographers and reporters frequently stationed outside her home. She eventually moved after stories and photographs revealed the location of her house.
“I can’t put an invisibility cloaking device over myself or my house, nor would I want to,” Rowling said.
However, she added: “It feels threatening to have people watching you.”
Rowling said she had always tried to keep her three children out of the media glare, and was outraged when her eldest daughter came home from primary school with a letter from a journalist in her backpack.
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