Emma Watson is currently the focus of nearly every other news out there, however, this one she’d hope she could avoid. A few of the Beauty and the Beast actress’ semi-nude photos were leaked on the “dark web”. The photos, which were taken while Watson changed clothes for fittings, have created an unanticipated scandal for her.
“Photos from a clothes fitting Emma had with a stylist a couple of years ago have been stolen,” said Watson’s publicist. “They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further.” Watson has already called for legal action against the controversy.
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The images are not accessible to an average web surfer as they were uploaded to the “dark web”. Emma Watson has previously been threatened with such pictures of her in 2014. After she had started to advocate gender equality, people threatened to leak nude photos of her on the internet to spoil her image. However, Watson stated that she knew they were empty threats for such pictures of her didn’t exist to the best of her knowledge.
Emma Watson is set to appear as Belle in upcoming Disney film Beauty and the Beast. (Courtesy: Walt Disney Studios)
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“I knew it was a hoax, I knew the pictures didn’t exist,” she had said. “The minute I stepped up and talked about women’s rights I was immediately threatened, within less than 12 hours I was receiving threats,” she added.
Back then, Emma had vented her discontentment over being attacked for being a feminist. She tweeted, “Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.”
Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.
— Emma Watson (@EmmaWatson) September 1, 2014
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Along with Watson’s semi-nude photographs, American actress Amanda Seyfried also had her nude photos leaked. Seyfried has also initiated legal action. Both Watson and Seyfried are the latest victims of same age-old offence. Earlier, several actresses including Jennifer Lawrence have had their photos leaked online.
Lawrence, whose accounts were hacked from where her photos were stolen, was pretty shaken-up about the incident and called it a “sex crime”. The man responsible, Edward Majerczyk, was recently sentenced to nine months in prison.
