Do Celebs Have Any Right To Privacy?

Oprah might want to pay attention to this one. Singer Loreena McKennit won a judgment in London against an employee who wrote a tell-all book. The employee argued that the info -- which included personal and sexual relationships, her personal feelings about her fiancé who drowned in 1998, health and diet, her emotional vulnerability and detail of a property dispute -- was "banal and anodyne."

Lord Justice Buxton upheld all of the High Court judge's conclusions that various passages in the book were intrusive, insensitive and distressing and came under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act which governs the right to respect for private and family life.

Afterwards, Ms McKennitt said: "If an aspect of career places one directly in the public eye or if extraordinary events make an ordinary person newsworthy for a time, we still should have the basic human dignity of privacy for our home and family life."

McKennit has sold 13 million copies worldwide of her Celtic-flavored music. (Think Enya.) It's unclear to me whether McKennit's relative privacy about her personal life influenced the decision. But even if you're a blabbing worldfamous figure, why should photographers have the right to stalk your every move, take photos of you when you're in a private residence or area and why should employees get to describe every little detail of your life in tell-alls? It's a tricky balance but common sense says people deserve SOME privacy.