Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan attract and encourage the paparazzi by behaving badly, according to Los Angeles police chief William Bratton. In an astonishing outburst on Thursday Bratton claimed photographers have calmed down since "Britney started wearing clothes (and) Lindsay Lohan has gone gay", referring to the actress' rumoured romance with DJ Samantha Ronson. He said in an interview with local TV station KNBC-TV, "If the ones that attract the paparazzi behave in the first place, like we expect of anybody, that solves about 90 per cent of the problem. The rest we can deal with. "If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God, and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don't seem to have much of an issue." Bratton refused to appear at a Los Angeles City Hall meeting scheduled for the same day, attended by rocker John Mayer, to discuss ways to restrict aggressive paparazzi. He insisted "we have sufficient laws on the books" to deal with the paparazzi.