Earlier this week, Scarlett Johansson was spotted by a group of photographers as she left the Jimmy Kimmel Live! studios in Los Angeles. The Avengers: Endgame alleges that the paparazzi, in a bid to find out where she and her child were staying, jumped into five cars with blacked-out windows and chased her across the city, running red lights in their desperation and putting “other drivers and pedestrians… at risk” in order to get the shots they wanted.

“The paparazzi consistently go to increasingly dangerous lengths to stalk and harass the people they are photographing,” she said via an official statement. “Even after Princess Diana’s tragic death, the laws were never changed to protect targets from the lawless paparazzi.

“Many paparazzi have criminal pasts and will perform criminal acts to get their shot.”

The actress went on to note that “it was my duty as a concerned citizen” to notify police of the incident, and has called for changes to the law for paparazzi, insisting they be classified as “criminal stalkers”.

“Women across the US are stalked, harassed and frightened and a universal law to address stalking must be at the forefront of law enforcement conversations,” she said.

“Until paparazzi are considered by the law for the criminal stalkers they are, it’s just a waiting game before another person gets seriously injured or killed, like Princess Diana.”

In 2017, Prince Harry and his brother, Prince William, emotionally discussed the events surrounding the car crash that killed their mother, Princess Diana.

Speaking in Diana: 7 Days, a new BBC documentary, Harry recalled the moment he first found out that his mother had passed away – and praised his father, Prince Charles, for the way he supported him and his brother through their grief.

“One of the hardest things for a parent to have to do is to tell your children that your other parent has died,” he said.

“How you deal with that I don’t know but, you know, he was there for us. He was the one, out of two, left and he tried to do his best and to make sure we were protected and looked after. But, you know, he was going through the same grieving process as well.”

When it came to the subject of the world’s press, though, Harry admitted that their lack of respect left him and his brother furious.

“I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her through into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her, while she was still dying on the back seat of the car,” recalled the prince.

“William and I know that, we’ve been told that numerous times by people that know that was the case.

“She’d had a… quite a severe head injury, but she was very much still alive on the back seat, and those people that… that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying on the back seat.

“And then those photographs made… made their way back to news desks in this country.”

Harry and his brother went on to defend the Queen’s decision to remain at Balmoral with them rather than return to London – an act which she was criticized for, as members of the public felt that she should support them instead.

Harry and William (aged 15 and 12 at the time) soon found themselves overwhelmed by the public show of grief; returning to London proved to be an utterly bewildering and – at times – frightening experience for them.

“They were grabbing us and pulling us into their arms and stuff,” revealed Harry. “I don’t blame anyone for that, of course I don’t. But it was those moments that were quite shocking.

“People were screaming, people were crying, people’s hands were wet because of the tears they had just wiped away from their faces before shaking my hand.

“It was so unusual for people to see young boys like that not crying when everybody else was crying. What we were doing was being asked of us was verging on normal then, but now…”

He pauses, before adding: “Looking at us then, we must have been in just this state of shock.”

Image: Getty