CNN
(CNN) — Sandra Bullock is one of the highest-profile actresses in Hollywood and also one of the world’s most photographed moms. It’s hard to pick up a tabloid that doesn’t feature a photo of the Oscar-winner with her adopted 3-year-old son, Louis Bardot. And now Bullock is speaking out in support of a new law that increases penalties for paparazzi harassing the children of celebrities.
“We are fair game, I get it,” Bullock told CNN at her handprint and footprint ceremony outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday. “Children should be allowed to be children and not be sold. You’re taking a picture of a child and selling it!”
California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed the bill, which increases the penalties for intentional harassment of a child because of their parents’ employment.
The effort gained momentum after actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner testified before the California Assembly Judiciary Committee in August to support the bill. The pair opened up about the hellish conditions faced by their children as a result of aggressive paparazzi.
Bullock commends the two on their fight.
“I think it’s brilliant,” she explains.”The girls worked so hard, the attorney worked so hard, and I think it’s a good sign.”
According to a release from the governor’s office, the new law “increases the maximum jail time for harassment of a child or ward because of the person’s employment from six months in the county jail to a year in the county jail.”
It also imposes increasingly stiff fines: For a first violation, a fine not to exceed $10,000. For a second violation, it’s $20,000. For a third violation, it’s $30,000.
The “Gravity” star made a rare choice to bring young Louis with her to a media event, a decision Bullock is quick to defend.
“Today, I brought him out because this was a family day. It was the one exception that I make.”
“And this way,” she continued, “when he’s 16 and he hates me, I can take him to this moment and say, ‘Look, people said really nice things about your mother…’ ”
The current Vogue magazine cover star reveals her son becomes fearful for his own safety and that of his mom when going out.
“When you go to school, or you’re at an airport, the reason he doesn’t like this is because he’s used to people running at him, and he thinks they’re going to hurt mom or hurt him.”
Bullock is thankful for the law and what it will mean as a mother and one of the Hollywood’s biggest stars.
“This’ll be great. This will allow children to be children. … I’m so grateful.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
