I would like to build a web site that uses uncopyrighted images of
individual celebrities. Specifically, I would like decent-resolution,
2 in. x 1.5 in. images of celebrities posing (like this one:
http://images.askmen.com/top-99/2006/pictures/cameron-diaz-pics.jpg).

I do not want images captured by paparazzi (such as
http://www.derekhail.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/4-12-06%20-%20Cameron%20Diaz%20thong%204.jpg).

Where can I find a database or web site with a large number of such
images? I found one
site, http://www.celebrityzone.co.uk/, which claims that its images
are not copyrighted. But its image size is small and number of celebs
is small as well.

I don't think that this is possible, but maybe one of my colleagues
would prove me wrong:
- several court cases have maintained that people have - to some
extent - rights on their image even when the copyright has been
lifted;
- in addition, an "official" photo is also usually the property of the
photographer or the publisher;
- and in cases of both the photographer, the publisher and the
celebrity dead for years (say, pictures of Charlie Chaplin from the
1920s), there is still the issue of estate claimants.

It depends on the purpose of your site, but sometimes you can get
permission to use photos without paying royalties or imfringing
copyright, by contacting the copyright holders.

I'm certainly no intellectual property expert, but in addition to the
politicalguru's very astute comment, I'd just comment that it's
*possible* that photos taken as actors' officially-released publicity
photos or movie/television studios' officially-released publicity
stills *might* be considered fair game for this sort of usage. These
would be images that are prepared and released with the specific
intention of their being disseminated. In that case, it's not so much
that the photos are copyright *free* (i.e. that they have no copyright
status) but that the copyright holder (the photographer and/or the
actor/studio commissioning those photos) has agreed to waive its
copyright.

Again, I'm no expert, so that might not be technically right. (And it
doesn't really address whatever rights-of-publicity control people are
granted over the use of their image may apply.) But taking a
perfunctory look at the celebrityzone.co.uk website mentioned above, a
lot of the photos there just look & feel like publicity shots and
stills; I can't quite see how the site could assert that the images
are anything close to "copyright free" if they didn't think they were
that sort of promotional imagery.

And, even if that's true, I have no idea how an aspiring webmaster
might get ahold of a lot of such imagery...