Judge to decide on Barbra Streisand's "paparazzi" suit next month

LOS ANGELES, July 18 (AFP) - A Los Angeles judge said Friday he would decide next month whether to throw out a 10-million-dollar lawsuit brought by superstar Barbra Streisand against a photographer who snapped her mansion.

The singer, actress and producer sued amateur photographer and dotcom millionaire Ken Adelman in May for allegedly invading her privacy and putting her at risk by posting aerial pictures of her home on the Internet.

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But Adelman this week asked the judge to dismiss the suit, claiming Streisand was a celebrity who was simply trying to curtail his freedom of speech by trying to force him to remove the photo taken from his helicopter.

He said the photo of the Streisand estate was one of just 12,000 images he posted on the Internet to detail his survey of erosion of California's coastline for scientists and other researchers.

"It is not possible to provide the public with a complete record without the photographs of the coast that happen to include Ms Streisand's estate," he said in his suit.

"We do not believe in giving special treatment to wealthy coastal land owners."

Adelman's attorney, Richard Kendall, told the court that the star's suit "chills (Adelman's) free speech" rights and said Streisand should be accustomed to such behavior.

"For much of her life, Streisand has made herself, quite aggressively, a public figure," he said. "This isn't a case of someone saying, 'Barbra Streisand, 15.95 dollars, come and get it," he added.

But Streisand accused the airborne millionaire and his wife of compromising her security by giving details of the seaside estate in the plush Malibu area to potentially stalkers.

After nearly 11 hours of argument, Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman said the huge number of documents in the case made it likely that his decision would be delayed until August 18.

Streisand, 61, who is married to actor James Brolin, has been a major star since the 1960s and is known for such films as 1968's "Funny Girl," and the 1970s' pictures "The Way We Were" with Robert Redford and "A Star is Born."

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