Stolen nude photos of Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, supermodel Kate Upton, Ariana Grande, Kirsten Dunst, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and others were leaked online by an unknown hacker in what appears to be one of the largest security breaches involving celebrities, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The illegally obtained photos were posted Sunday.
“This is a flagrant violation of privacy,” the “Hunger Games” star’s camp said in a statement issued to various media outlets, including Variety. “The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.”
For a while in the afternoon, “anyone” turned into quite a large number: Searching for Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton or related hashtags on Twitter yielded hundreds of retweets of several nude or near-nude images. Hours later, Twitter appeared to have responded, and the flow of images decreased, the Times reported.
While the Upton photos — one of which appears to include Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, also in the buff — were not confirmed, actress Winstead of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer” fame seemed to acknowledge that shots of her were legit.
“To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves,” Winstead wrote.
Ariana Grande’s people told Billboard that pictures of the former Nickelodeon star were fake, while actress Victoria Justice tweeted the same about alleged shots of herself.
The hacker or hackers behind the stolen photos first posted them on the image-based online bulletin board 4chan, according to BuzzFeed. How or from where the pictures were obtained was unclear Sunday night.
— City News Service
