by Sarah Todd

Created on: July 24, 2008

When intimate photographs of a topless Sienna Miller cavorting with married co-star Balthazar Getty appeared in the tabloid media this week, the actress instructed her lawyers to sue the publications for violation of her privacy. It's not the first time this has happened last year Miller won damages from two newspapers after they printed pictures of her filming a nude scene for a film.

Today privacy in the world of celebrity seems an elusive dream. Consider the abundance of tabloid magazines and newspapers, all devoted to the cult of celebrity and fuelled by the paparazzo's relentless pursuit of their subjects. Modern celebrity is a lucrative business, both for the individual and his or her support network. Agents, secretaries, bodyguards are employees necessary to a modern celebrity. A high profile is vital, so aspects of a celebrity's personal life are as public as the roles played on the screen or the songs on their latest album. The public wants to know who they are dating, which designer they wear, what food they eat and which fellow celebrities are considered friends.

While Miller is entitled to take action against what she sees as an intrusion into her private life, there are a few considerations that could work against her. She was not photographed in the privacy of her own home, but on a boat just off the Italian coastline. She was in the public domain in the middle of the peak tourism season. As a young, famous and very beautiful young woman she must surely have realised she is a magnet for the paparazzo's prying lenses. The publicity fallout is enhanced because Getty is a married man and a father of four children - the youngest is not even a year old. Miller appears to be more concerned about the damage to her image done by the nude photographs and less interested in the pain caused to Getty's family.

Miller is no stranger to controversy, and while time will tell if this latest episode will damage her career and her celebrity status there's no denying the amount of press coverage she's now receiving. This incident is manna to the tabloid media, as is another incident that occurred this week. When it was reported Christian Bale was arrested after an incident in his hotel room where he is alleged to have physically attacked his mother and older sister the media went into a frenzy.

Bale is renowned for his dedication to his profession, and his dislike of the celebrity culture. The world only learned he'd become a father several months after his daughter's

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