Ivy Stalker Cams: Over the Line? Or Just a Poor Allocation of Resources?

(Flickr pic by DNewey.)

According to the LA Business Journal, celebrity magnet The Ivy is tired of all the media publicity. The final straw: TMZ's use of a live, ongoing video stream outside the restaurant. According to the paper:

"I find it abhorrent and an invasion of privacy," said Richard Irving, co-founder of the Ivy restaurant on Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills, a longtime hangout for Hollywood celebrities and the photographers who follow them. "We've always had our share of paparazzi but this is much more invasive."

TMZ photographers recently began camping out for hours near about a dozen restaurants, hitting different ones on different days. The Ivy is a favored spot because it’s easy to film over its low-slung white picket fence and to get good shots of celebrities eating lunch on the patio.

Unlike TMZ's television show, which typically features 30-second video clips of celebrities coming to and going from restaurants, bars and courthouses, TMZ's unflinching electronic eye near the restaurants streams live video for hours at a time.

As the LABJ notes, there's only so much the Ivy can do. Its wide-open patio puts celebs out in the open -- and that's fair game for telephoto-equipped paparazzi.