Press Hordes For Hire
By ALEXIA ELEJALDE-RUIZ and LOUIS R. CARLOZO | Chicago Tribune
The white SUV limo whisked 15 men from the Signature Room to La Pomme Rouge to Martini Park to Stone Lotus. Women hooted as the entourage darted between the limo and the swanky clubs. Bouncers ushered the men past long lines and around velvet ropes.
And a paparazzo pursued them, her camera flashing away.
What big shot caroused in Chicago that evening?
Why, it's Phillip Barker and his crew.
Phillip who?
A Buena Park, Ill., resident, Barker toils as an ad agency copy editor. But trailed by a snap-happy camera that November night, he did feel like a certain celeb:
" Britney Spears," he said with a laugh. "That's who we were joking about."
Inspired by a night of drinking with his buds, Barker recruited the shooter via Craigslist to act as his paparazzo for his friend Jason Layman's 27th birthday fete.
While real stars dodge paparazzi like roaches, regular folks who crave a taste of the glamorous life now turn to personal paparazzi to make them feel like stars.
"We had a lot of people screaming out to us," Barker, 30, recalled of the Nov. 10 festivities. "Lots of bars had lines down the street, but we'd go right in. … They thought we were famous."
Barker is not alone — new businesses are springing up to serve the starry-eyed.
Based in Austin, Texas, Celeb-4-A-Day offers packages from $300 (30 minutes, four paparazzi) to the $2,500 "MegaStar" treatment (two hours with six paparazzi, a bodyguard and publicist).
"We do enough to really give you the experience," said founder Tania Cowher, who adds that she welcomes anyone — including B-list celebs trying to stage a comeback.
After all, what's Hollywood without a little acting? "The everyday person has no idea if we're real or not." As for Cowher's present clientele, the goal remains simple: to spice up birthdays, bachelor parties and the like.
Cowher hatched her idea four years ago at a commercial photography school. But it wasn't until November that she acted on it.
Bored with shooting bank execs and such, she launched her website during a lunch break. Business started slowly. Then Time magazine called, and her phone has been ringing off the hook ever since.
"Everyone … thinks, at least once, 'I wonder what that's like,'" said Cowher, whose clients have booked her for events ranging from an 8-year-old's birthday party to a 65-year-old's wedding anniversary.
Cowher has bookings most every weekend — a New Year's Eve gig is already lined up — and she has expanded to Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
By ALEXIA ELEJALDE-RUIZ and LOUIS R. CARLOZO | Chicago Tribune
The white SUV limo whisked 15 men from the Signature Room to La Pomme Rouge to Martini Park to Stone Lotus. Women hooted as the entourage darted between the limo and the swanky clubs. Bouncers ushered the men past long lines and around velvet ropes.
And a paparazzo pursued them, her camera flashing away.
What big shot caroused in Chicago that evening?
Why, it's Phillip Barker and his crew.
Phillip who?
A Buena Park, Ill., resident, Barker toils as an ad agency copy editor. But trailed by a snap-happy camera that November night, he did feel like a certain celeb:
" Britney Spears," he said with a laugh. "That's who we were joking about."
Inspired by a night of drinking with his buds, Barker recruited the shooter via Craigslist to act as his paparazzo for his friend Jason Layman's 27th birthday fete.
While real stars dodge paparazzi like roaches, regular folks who crave a taste of the glamorous life now turn to personal paparazzi to make them feel like stars.
"We had a lot of people screaming out to us," Barker, 30, recalled of the Nov. 10 festivities. "Lots of bars had lines down the street, but we'd go right in. … They thought we were famous."
Barker is not alone — new businesses are springing up to serve the starry-eyed.
Based in Austin, Texas, Celeb-4-A-Day offers packages from $300 (30 minutes, four paparazzi) to the $2,500 "MegaStar" treatment (two hours with six paparazzi, a bodyguard and publicist).
"We do enough to really give you the experience," said founder Tania Cowher, who adds that she welcomes anyone — including B-list celebs trying to stage a comeback.
After all, what's Hollywood without a little acting? "The everyday person has no idea if we're real or not." As for Cowher's present clientele, the goal remains simple: to spice up birthdays, bachelor parties and the like.
Cowher hatched her idea four years ago at a commercial photography school. But it wasn't until November that she acted on it.
Bored with shooting bank execs and such, she launched her website during a lunch break. Business started slowly. Then Time magazine called, and her phone has been ringing off the hook ever since.
"Everyone … thinks, at least once, 'I wonder what that's like,'" said Cowher, whose clients have booked her for events ranging from an 8-year-old's birthday party to a 65-year-old's wedding anniversary.
Cowher has bookings most every weekend — a New Year's Eve gig is already lined up — and she has expanded to Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
Kevin Hagedorn, a real estate consultant and radio host in Austin, hired Cowher to create a surprise "media blitz" to celebrate the news that he and his wife were having a boy. He picked the $300 package, took his wife to dinner in downtown Austin, and ushered her out at a prearranged signal.
Paparazzi camera flashes blinded the couple, the shooters yelling: "Look over here! Look over here!"
Barker, who paid a free-lance photographer $200 to snap photos for five hours, wanted a tag-along lens so his friends wouldn't have to worry about taking pictures. They ended up loving their spotlight night. "As 15 narcissistic gay men, we kind of ate it up."
Private Paparazzi in San Diego charges $75 per hour per photographer, with most clients hiring one to three cameras, said client relations director Lindsay Chapin. The firm partners with a limo company for clients wanting the full celeb effect.
One client who hired Private Paparazzi for his wife's 40th birthday even arranged for autograph-seeking "fans" as she left a Savannah, Ga., restaurant. "It's this whole fantasy they're playing out in their mind, and they want to experience it for one night," Chapin said.
The white SUV limo whisked 15 men from the Signature Room to La Pomme Rouge to Martini Park to Stone Lotus. Women hooted as the entourage darted between the limo and the swanky clubs. Bouncers ushered the men past long lines and around velvet ropes.
And a paparazzo pursued them, her camera flashing away.
What big shot caroused in Chicago that evening?
Why, it's Phillip Barker and his crew.
Phillip who?
A Buena Park, Ill., resident, Barker toils as an ad agency copy editor. But trailed by a snap-happy camera that November night, he did feel like a certain celeb:
" Britney Spears," he said with a laugh. "That's who we were joking about."
Inspired by a night of drinking with his buds, Barker recruited the shooter via Craigslist to act as his paparazzo for his friend Jason Layman's 27th birthday fete.
While real stars dodge paparazzi like roaches, regular folks who crave a taste of the glamorous life now turn to personal paparazzi to make them feel like stars.
"We had a lot of people screaming out to us," Barker, 30, recalled of the Nov. 10 festivities. "Lots of bars had lines down the street, but we'd go right in. … They thought we were famous."
Barker is not alone — new businesses are springing up to serve the starry-eyed.
Based in Austin, Texas, Celeb-4-A-Day offers packages from $300 (30 minutes, four paparazzi) to the $2,500 "MegaStar" treatment (two hours with six paparazzi, a bodyguard and publicist).
"We do enough to really give you the experience," said founder Tania Cowher, who adds that she welcomes anyone — including B-list celebs trying to stage a comeback.
After all, what's Hollywood without a little acting? "The everyday person has no idea if we're real or not." As for Cowher's present clientele, the goal remains simple: to spice up birthdays, bachelor parties and the like.
Cowher hatched her idea four years ago at a commercial photography school. But it wasn't until November that she acted on it.
Bored with shooting bank execs and such, she launched her website during a lunch break. Business started slowly. Then Time magazine called, and her phone has been ringing off the hook ever since.
"Everyone … thinks, at least once, 'I wonder what that's like,'" said Cowher, whose clients have booked her for events ranging from an 8-year-old's birthday party to a 65-year-old's wedding anniversary.
Cowher has bookings most every weekend — a New Year's Eve gig is already lined up — and she has expanded to Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
By ALEXIA ELEJALDE-RUIZ and LOUIS R. CARLOZO | Chicago Tribune
The white SUV limo whisked 15 men from the Signature Room to La Pomme Rouge to Martini Park to Stone Lotus. Women hooted as the entourage darted between the limo and the swanky clubs. Bouncers ushered the men past long lines and around velvet ropes.
And a paparazzo pursued them, her camera flashing away.
What big shot caroused in Chicago that evening?
Why, it's Phillip Barker and his crew.
Phillip who?
A Buena Park, Ill., resident, Barker toils as an ad agency copy editor. But trailed by a snap-happy camera that November night, he did feel like a certain celeb:
" Britney Spears," he said with a laugh. "That's who we were joking about."
Inspired by a night of drinking with his buds, Barker recruited the shooter via Craigslist to act as his paparazzo for his friend Jason Layman's 27th birthday fete.
While real stars dodge paparazzi like roaches, regular folks who crave a taste of the glamorous life now turn to personal paparazzi to make them feel like stars.
"We had a lot of people screaming out to us," Barker, 30, recalled of the Nov. 10 festivities. "Lots of bars had lines down the street, but we'd go right in. … They thought we were famous."
Barker is not alone — new businesses are springing up to serve the starry-eyed.
Based in Austin, Texas, Celeb-4-A-Day offers packages from $300 (30 minutes, four paparazzi) to the $2,500 "MegaStar" treatment (two hours with six paparazzi, a bodyguard and publicist).
"We do enough to really give you the experience," said founder Tania Cowher, who adds that she welcomes anyone — including B-list celebs trying to stage a comeback.
After all, what's Hollywood without a little acting? "The everyday person has no idea if we're real or not." As for Cowher's present clientele, the goal remains simple: to spice up birthdays, bachelor parties and the like.
Cowher hatched her idea four years ago at a commercial photography school. But it wasn't until November that she acted on it.
Bored with shooting bank execs and such, she launched her website during a lunch break. Business started slowly. Then Time magazine called, and her phone has been ringing off the hook ever since.
"Everyone … thinks, at least once, 'I wonder what that's like,'" said Cowher, whose clients have booked her for events ranging from an 8-year-old's birthday party to a 65-year-old's wedding anniversary.
Cowher has bookings most every weekend — a New Year's Eve gig is already lined up — and she has expanded to Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
Kevin Hagedorn, a real estate consultant and radio host in Austin, hired Cowher to create a surprise "media blitz" to celebrate the news that he and his wife were having a boy. He picked the $300 package, took his wife to dinner in downtown Austin, and ushered her out at a prearranged signal.
Paparazzi camera flashes blinded the couple, the shooters yelling: "Look over here! Look over here!"
Barker, who paid a free-lance photographer $200 to snap photos for five hours, wanted a tag-along lens so his friends wouldn't have to worry about taking pictures. They ended up loving their spotlight night. "As 15 narcissistic gay men, we kind of ate it up."
Private Paparazzi in San Diego charges $75 per hour per photographer, with most clients hiring one to three cameras, said client relations director Lindsay Chapin. The firm partners with a limo company for clients wanting the full celeb effect.
One client who hired Private Paparazzi for his wife's 40th birthday even arranged for autograph-seeking "fans" as she left a Savannah, Ga., restaurant. "It's this whole fantasy they're playing out in their mind, and they want to experience it for one night," Chapin said.