Halle Berry & Jennifer Garner Join Forces to Support Anti-Paparazzi Bill That Would Make Photographing Their Kids a Crime

A-listers speak in front of California State Assembly Judiciary Committee in favor of bill that would modify current definition of harassment

Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner have both been there and done that—and they're so over it.

"I chose a public life," Garner, who's on the cover of the September issue of Allure, acknowledged today in Sacramento, testifying before the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety in support of a proposed anti-paparazzi bill that would make it a crime for shutterbugs to photograph children without their legal guardian's permission.

"My three children are private citizens," she said. "I love my kids. They're beautiful and sweet and innocent, and I don't want a gang of shouting, arguing, lawbreaking photographers who camp out everywhere we are all day, every day, to continue traumatizing my kids."

Berry, who also testified before lawmakers in Sacramento in June and has repeatedly tried to ward off paparazzi from bothering her daughter at school, had her own horror stories to share as well.

The pregnant Oscar winner said Tuesday that photographers have asked her 5-year-old child, "'How do you feel, Nahla? You may not see your father again. How do you feel about that?' 

"They say curse words and call me names, all trying to provoke some sort of response to sell a photograph."

Senate Bill 606, written by Sen. Kevin DeLeon of Los Angeles, would change the legal definition of harassment to include photographing or recording a child without the permission of a legal guardian.

The proposed legislation is expected to be heard by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Newspaper publishers have expressed concern that the bill could inhibit them from doing their jobs.