PUBLIC FORUM : DIANA VICTIM OF `RAPACIOUS APPETITE' FOR TRASH.

The first reports of Princess Diana's death point to aggressive paparazzi chasing her down and her attempt to flee, resulting in a fatal crash. But the underlying cause can be traced back to millions of people buying tabloids at local grocery stores and tuning in to gossip shows on TV.

Paparazzi are aggressive only because they know that there is a lucrative market for celebrity photos to fill the covers of these same tabloids. As long as a single photo can command a prize of up to a quarter of a million dollars, stalkers armed with cameras will hunt down famous people to try to capture their intimate and private moments to feed the rapacious appetite of many people for this trash. The only way to rein in these uncontrolled leeches with cameras is to cut them off at the source. Stop buying tabloids and encourage others to boycott both the TV and printed media that feeds off the famous. Only by hitting them where it hurts, the money chain, will these tragic events be brought to an end. In memory of beloved Princess Diana, let us honor her with action and punish the industry that contributed to her death.

- Daniel Matonak

Canoga Park

Here come the Hollywood celebrity-types demanding laws against the papa-something, vultures who constantly cross the line of decency for a quick buck while the celebrities stand behind the First Amendment to produce the most titillating of garbage to garner a profit.

If these celebrities want the benefits of the First Amendment, they must accept the detriments.

The only thing that legally will work is an end to independent photographers' ability to sell their trash to the tabloids. The tabloids should take the responsibility of assigning photographers to celebrities, and therefore take responsibility for their actions in cases involving public figures.

- Mike Hannin

Newbury Park

To the readers of this letter:

If you even once ever bought one of those cat box-liner tabloids that splashed Princess Diana's most private life across its pages; if you even once boosted the ratings of those obscene expose TV shows that seem to make sages out of all those who think technology has ruined humanity; if you ever believed, even privately, that the sex lives of the famous are somehow your business - then you killed her. You contributed to the profits mania that led to that fatal chase by those photographers, who did not chase her for their health. They chased her for your blood money, which you freely gave them.

Want to atone? Boycott the shows. Boycott the tabloids. Vow that they are as bad for the emotional health of you and society, and now as bad for the physical health of celebrities, as were the cigarettes you gave up.

Instead of a tabloid, read books that aren't by or about celebrities. Read a good daily newspaper, too - like this one.

- Thomas E. Braun

Littlerock

It is truly sad when anyone dies prematurely. However, I think it behooves us to look at the life and death of Princess Diana through the lens of reality, not through the lens of fantasy. Princess Diana was, essentially, a good lady who had been thrown into some very bad situations from her childhood on, and was beginning to come out on top of them.

She had always been adored and followed by the press and, to her credit, used the press quite well to promote the causes she espoused. She was an extremely photogenic woman and she was a princess, a combination irresistible to any photojournalist.

Her sister-in-law, Princess Anne, is also extremely active and involved with various causes, if anything, more so than Diana. She, on the other hand is, to be generous, a long way from being photogenic and as a result gets very little coverage for what she does. However being photogenic, being a princess, overcoming the obstacles in your life and attracting attention to various causes does not qualify one for the sort of post-mortem deification we are seeing in the media.

Princess Diana was a nice lady who lent her name and position to helping people who needed help. She died tragically and prematurely. I feel badly for the children she left behind, but none of this qualifies her as another Mother Theresa. If anyone really feels deeply about Princess Diana's life and death, let them take up the causes she embraced. That would honor her memory. All the wailing, and hand-wringing, simply dishonors her and those positive things she stood for.

Indeed, it puts those doing it at the same level as those who chased her to her death.

- John McFadyen

Canoga Park

Where is one most likely to find the paparazzi and Phillip Morris in close contact - and in high-profile locations? At the checkout counter in most supermarkets, of course.

Morality cancer and lung cancer are appropriate bedfellows. This doesn't speak highly of the markets' opinion of our intelligence.

- Lou Robins

Van Nuys

I have never purchased a tabloid newspaper. At every checkout counter in supermarkets, however, these rags are lined up, headlines blatting gossip at every person who passes through. So I learned that Princess Diana was the No. 1 paparazzi target.

They killed their golden calf. This woman's life is a great tragedy. My heart goes out to her sons.

- Cathy Caccavella

Tujunga

If Diana's demise does nothing else, it may open the eyes of the ``blinded English'' population.

Do not in your entirety worship the ``crown.'' The person who wears it must have the blessing of the people. Lady Diana is, and will be forever, ``The princess of everyone.''

- William F. Greenwell

Northridge

I am an expatriate Brit, living in the United States since 1981.

Naturally, I am shocked and saddened that such a young and vibrant woman should lose her life. What I wanted to address here is the new word suddenly being coined by the media: ``stalkarazzi.'' It seems to me that the media were all too willing to deal with the so-called ``paparazzi'' on an open basis prior to this tragedy. Now, all of a sudden the media is attempting to create a distinction between different types of paparazzi. They are trying to categorize these bounty-hunter photographers.

In my opinion there is no separate category, there is no ``new breed,'' there is no ``stalkarazzi.'' These photographers are the same as they have always been, regardless of what new buzz word the media attempt to come up with in order to sanitize their own possible involvement with the paparazzi.

- Julia S. Denney

Austin, Texas

Webster's defines terrorism as a means to coerce and to fill with anxiety. I, along with thousands of others, have been watching the events in the death of a wonderful young woman, which was caused by terrorists.

I have also watched these so-called purveyors of slime and deceit say that the things - I hate to call them people - that harassed this poor woman, along with many others, were only trying to make a buck.

Whereas, other terrorists carry guns, the paparazzi's weapons are cameras, which in this particular case were just as deadly and caused the death of someone who was trying to make a difference in this world.

In my book these creatures are all one and the same, and should be tried under the laws that deal with terrorism. Better yet, after conviction, let's parachute them into the mine fields that Princess Diana was trying to eradicate.

- Jim Flynn

North Hollywood

N. Hollywood making comeback

``NoHo redevelopment unable to create buzz'' (Daily News, Aug. 18) claimed that the North Hollywood Redevelopment Project has been slow to generate benefits to the community. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When redevelopment was introduced in 1979, North Hollywood had been in steady decline for some 25 years. The community was struggling with pockets of homes and apartments in varying states of disrepair, and a deteriorating commercial strip was dotted with pawn shops and the remnants of businesses that had deserted the area for nearby new shopping centers.

True to its purpose, the North Hollywood Redevelopment Project has made major advances in accomplishing goals sought by the community. Consider the following:

Redevelopment has helped rehabilitate nearly 900 of the 2,900 homes and apartments that existed in 1979.

The Community Redevelopment Agency has assisted in creating nearly 900 units of new housing, many of them specifically providing for large families and reducing overcrowding in much of the area.

Redevelopment has assisted in developing nearly 500,000 square feet of office and retail space, and associated parking. The booming 16.5-acre commercial district paved the way for the return of the television industry to North Hollywood, where the headquarters of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has become a major tourist attraction and helped launch the burgeoning NoHo Arts District.

Some 30 live performance theaters and the hugely successful NoHo Theater & Arts Festival draw more than 500,000 patrons annually.

New office and commercial space in the area has helped to retain or create over 1,100 jobs in North Hollywood.

While these solid signs of recovery are evoking a new confidence, we agree that improvement programs must continue if North Hollywood is to realize its full potential.

The third amendment to the North Hollywood Redevelopment Plan, chartered by the community and approved by the Los Angles City Council in November 1995, simply continues efforts and cooperation among the community, the private sector, the CRA and other units of government to ensure the bright future North Hollywood deserves.

- John Molloy 

Administrator

Community Redevelopment Agency

Los Angeles 

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Photo

Photo: Princess Diana, Prince Charles and their sons in 1995.

Associated Press