by Nadia Cohen
‘Cynthia is emailing Brad to try to find out more about what has triggered this and reassure him that no one will lock a cut that he doesn’t feel good about. There’s really nothing to do right now. Feels like we’ll be dealing with whatever remaining issues there are tomorrow.’
‘So weird,’ De Luca responds. ‘So opposite the last time we spoke to him and literally agreed with all his notes.’
The Cameron Crowe movie Aloha, starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams, also received a lot of attention in the emails. In one exchange, Crowe and Pascal discuss the actors in the film, with the director writing: ‘Our acting is better here all around. Frankly, we have great options on all the performances except Bill Murray… who pretty much is what you saw.’ Pascal agrees that the movie ‘belongs to Bradley’.
But Crowe then alludes to Cooper’s eccentricities, saying: ‘Frankly, Bradley is such an odd bird getting him right is tricky but he’s fine now so lets just let him cook where he is and take care of our girl [Stone]. And her nuances — Little moves on her are huge as [you] know.’
‘Getting him right was the hard part,’ Pascal agrees.
Emma Stone clearly emerges as a favourite of the studio, and when Pascal emails to ask what she would like to do following the end of the Spiderman franchise, she makes it clear that she is tired of playing quirky, charming love interests, and replies: ‘I want to play a crazy person or a bitch or something extreme really different and fun.’
In response to the creation of the searchable database, Sony accused WikiLeaks of contributing to the damage done by the data theft, which it condemned as ‘a malicious criminal act’.
‘The attackers used the dissemination of stolen information to try to harm SPE and its employees, and now WikiLeaks regrettably is assisting them in that effort,’ Sony said in a statement.
The FBI investigated the initial hack in December 2014 and determined that it originated from North Korea in response to The Interview, a comedy that mocked the North Korean regime. However, some cyber security experts have said it is possible that Sony insiders could have been the culprits.
In early 2015 Amy Pascal stepped down from her high-powered post at Sony, although she later implied that she had actually been sacked. At the Women in the World conference she told journalist Tina Brown: ‘All the women here are doing incredible things in the world – all I did was get fired!’ She later described the experience as ‘horrible but strangely freeing’, although she added insult to injury by calling the celebrities she had discussed in her revealing emails as ‘bottomless pits of needs’.
For Jennifer meanwhile, the whole debacle worked out rather nicely – a few months after the leak it emerged that she would finally be earning more than her male co-stars. Seen as a chance for the company to put the scandal behind them, Sony Pictures agreed that Jennifer would be paid considerably more than her co-star Chris Pratt for their upcoming movie Passengers. While Pratt was expected to earn a $12 million pay cheque, Jennifer’s monumental deal – $20 million upfront or a 30 per cent share of the profits – was seen as ground breaking, since it still remains pretty rare for any female star to earn more than her male counterpart. And in the summer of 2015, five days after her twenty-fifth birthday, Jennifer Lawrence was named as the highest paid female actress in the world. Quite something for a happy-go-lucky girl from Kentucky.
CHAPTER SEVEN
A VERY MODERN SCANDAL
If Jennifer was left feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed about the size of her pay packet following the leak of the Sony Pictures emails, this was nothing compared to another, far more personal, hacking scandal that was to engulf her later in 2014.
She became the most famous victim of a disturbing leak of thousands of naked photos downloaded from a host of female celebrities private email and mobile phone accounts.
Jennifer did not seem hugely concerned over the salary discrepancies highlighted through the initial Sony incident – at least she did not speak out publicly. But the furore over the raunchy pictures being released to the public was considered not only a huge personal humiliation, as the images were seen by millions across the globe, but also the biggest blow to her career to date.
On 31 August 2014 a stream of incredibly intimate photos flooded onto the internet without warning, the work of anonymous hackers. As soon as Jennifer’s rep confirmed the explicit nude photos splashed across the web were definitely genuine, they immediately went viral and were viewed by millions.
Jennifer was understandably mortified that her private images, apparently taken to send to a former boyfriend, were being pored over by strangers. She took the rare step of issuing a statement, which was released through her representatives and made clear how furious she was, angrily slamming the move as a ‘flagrant violation of privacy’.
‘The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence,’ her statement added.
Anonymous hackers accessed not only Jennifer’s private Apple iCloud account, but also the private files of hundreds of other women in the public eye, and claimed to have scores of explicit photos of them ready to release to the public.
It quickly emerged that Jennifer was just one of many stars affected – it was rumoured as many as 423 celebrities could have been implicated in the widespread hacking operation. Although Twitter started to suspend the accounts of those who published the photos, as soon as the hack went public, an avalanche of new pictures was released, and the rapidly changing situation was becoming worse by the hour.
The photos were originally posted on the image-sharing forum 4chan, and the anonymous hacker has since spoken out, claiming he preferred not to be known as a hacker but instead as a collector of images. But he went on to claim that he had more than sixty naked selfies of Jennifer in various compromising positions, as well as video footage of her allegedly performing a sex act.
Apple’s iCloud storage system was immediately placed under heavy scrutiny as the mass hacking, which was quickly dubbed the biggest celebrity scandal in history, raised dozens of security questions about how it had been possible to access so many security protected systems without passwords.
A master list was printed with names of many of the other alleged victims who had fallen prey to the hackers, which was said to have included both British and American actors, models, reality stars and musicians including Rihanna, Michelle Keegan, Cara Delevingne, Cat Deeley, Kelly Brook, Glee star Lea Michele, Aubrey Plaza, Candice Swanepoel, Hilary Duff, Kaley Cuoco, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, Kate Bosworth, Victoria Justice, Emily Browning, Jenny McCarthy and Hayden Panettierre – all apparently in similar compromising positions.
Horrified Twitter users quickly rallied round to support Jennifer after the explicit photos of her were shared online, and many people refused to look at them as a matter of principle.
One user declared: ‘I’d be quite proud if I looked like #JenniferLawrence’.
‘So the person who leaked Jennifer Lawrence’s nudes has lists and lists of names he has and I feel so sorry for them,’ added another fan.
But some users could not hide their glee and excitement about having free access to what could be considered pornographic images, as the photos took over their Twitter feed.
‘Today is a good day,’ wrote one fan.
‘The best way to start the week,’ added another.
Until that fateful day 4chan was just a little-known website where users could anonymously post photos and videos, as well as comment on others’ posts. Users did not need to register an account before participating, so it was entirely unregulated.
The site was split into various boards, each with its own specific content from video games and music to photography and snaps people wanted to share of their favourite celebrities. Many fans urged police to find those responsible for setting up and maintaining the site, while singer Ariana Grande and actress/singer Victoria Justice came forward, saying the photos of
them were fake.
Model Kate Upton confirmed there were genuine photos of her that had been leaked, and her lawyer issued a statement on her behalf, saying: ‘This is obviously an outrageous violation of our client Kate Upton’s privacy. We intend to pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these illegally obtained images to the fullest extent possible.’
Upton later told the Evening Standard: ‘It was very difficult. It’s an invasion of my privacy and it’s not OK. It’s illegal. People don’t have a right to look at those photos or to judge them.’ She added that she had fantasised about leaving social media sites including Twitter and Instagram, but had been unable to do so because they were important for professional purposes.
Equally horrified, Jennifer refused to make any apologies about keeping naked pictures of herself on her computer, and hit back at the hackers who stole the provocative shots during an emotional interview for a cover feature in Vanity Fair magazine’s November 2014 edition. Speaking about the photo-theft incident for the first time, Jennifer said: ‘It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime. It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change.’
She went on to say that the law should be rewritten so those responsible for any violation of privacy could be prosecuted like all other sex offenders, including rapists and paedophiles, adding anyone who had viewed the explicit pictures should ‘cower with shame’.
But her fury turned to sadness as she explained how she had taken the nude selfies for her boyfriend at the time, and although she did not name him in the interview, it was believed to be actor Nicholas Hoult as they spent much of their relationship apart due to conflicting filming schedules.
The couple met while co-starring in 2011’s X-Men: First Class, and in one interview Jennifer had said that they liked having a long-distance relationship as it meant they could keep their independence.
‘I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years,’ she told Vanity Fair in November 2014. ‘It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you.’
She also admitted that she had been incredibly concerned about the effect the leak would have on her work opportunities at a point when she had just become a huge star: ‘I was just so afraid. I didn’t know how this would affect my career.
‘Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this,’ she said. ‘It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. It does not mean that it comes with the territory.
‘It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world.’
When the photos were first leaked over the internet, Jennifer recalled that she had sat down and tried to compose a statement, but the right words were hard to find. ‘Every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry. I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for,’ she told Vanity Fair.
‘Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me.
‘Even people who I know and love say, “Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.” I don’t want to get mad, but at the same time I’m thinking, “I didn’t tell you that you could look at my naked body”.’
Another major consequence was that she had to break the news to her father that naked images of her were available to be viewed by millions of people online. Fortunately, Gary took the news far better than she expected.
Jennifer explained: ‘I don’t care how much money I get for The Hunger Games, I promise you, anybody given the choice of that kind of money or having to make a phone call to tell your Dad that something like that has happened, it’s not worth it.’
Actress Jennifer Garner also suggested that those who looked at the photos were guilty of more than just casual curiosity. Speaking to Loaded magazine in the aftermath of the leak, she said: ‘It’s an invasion. It’s violent. It’s a violent abuse of women. It just makes me want to hurt somebody.’
The day after the leak became worldwide news, the anonymous uploader behind the scandal spoke out for the first time, saying he was disappointed by how little money he had made from the controversial move.
Posting on 4chan, using the same IM (Instant Messaging) as the person who posted the snaps of Jennifer, he wrote: ‘I didn’t take the money and run. S**8 got weird once I started posting samples.
‘People wanted shit for free. Sure, I got $120 with my bitcoin [a form of digital currency] address, but when you consider how much time was put into acquiring this stuff (I’m not the hacker, just a collector), and the money (I paid a lot via bitcoin as well to get certain sets when this stuff was being privately traded Friday/Saturday) I really didn’t get close to what I was hoping.’
He went on to claim to have video footage of Jennifer and said that his organisation would be accepting PayPal donations in exchange for viewing the brief film.
In the post he added: ‘I know no one will believe me, but I have a short Lawrence video. Is way too short, a little over 2 minutes and you only get to see her boobs. Anyways, if somebody wants it let me know how i can upload it anonymously (i don’t want the FBI over me, and you don’t wanna know how I got this video.)’
The alleged hackers claimed to have stolen the snaps from Apple’s iCloud Photostream service, which automatically shares iPhone photos with all of the user’s other computer devices and tablets, and stores them online, calling into question how secure the password-protected system really was.
It was thought that the hacker could have gained access simply by guessing the stars’ passwords, or resetting their accounts by gaining access to their email addresses and answering the few relevant security questions required.
Bryan Hamade, the man behind the hugely popular online forum Reddit – which was thought to be behind a previous Apple iCloud hack – was forced to deny that he was responsible for the nude photo leak: ‘I am not the original leaker. The real guy is on 4chan posting intermittently,’ Hamade told the Daily Mail.
At first Reddit had been among the sites to spread the intimate photos of many stars, including Jennifer and even Olympic gold-winning gymnast McKayla Maroney, who was pictured underage. Although Reddit pulled the posts after heavy pressure from the celebrities and their lawyers, the site kept plenty of other boards alive, which featured stolen compromising images of ordinary people – mostly women and many of them ex-girlfriends of bitter subscribers to the site. The site’s administrators were roundly criticised for having one rule for celebrities, another for normal people.
But after a few months the company bowed to pressure and decided to be a little more proactive, starting to crack down on unauthorised photos whether or not those pictured were famous. Reddit vowed to crack down on the unauthorised posting of private nude photos. The promise was made in a larger blog post about planned administrative changes to the site. Under the proposed new policy, Reddit would scrub itself clean of a racy and compromising sexy picture if someone in the snap complained that the image was uploaded without their permission. ‘Last year, we missed a chance to be a leader in social media when it comes to protecting your privacy – something we’ve cared deeply about since Reddit’s inception,’ the blog read. ‘At our recent all hands company meeting, this was something that we all, as a company, decided we needed to address.
‘No matter who you are, if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct is posted or linked to on Reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on Reddit.’
The post was clearly referring to the mega-leak of nude photos stolen from Apple iCloud accounts, which later became known as ‘The Fappening’, a popular way to describe the hack.
Of course there were those who
felt little sympathy for the stars who were embarrassed by the leaks, and some even suggested they should never have taken such explicit pictures in the first place.
In a bid to promote password security, Strathclyde University produced a poster, saying: ‘Bet Jennifer Lawrence wishes she’d used a StR0nG_Pas5w0Rd%.’ The image attracted widespread criticism on social media, with the Glasgow-based university being accused of ‘victim blaming’. An image of the poster was tweeted by one student, who said: ‘Pretty shocking victim blaming here. Will you take it down?’
It was soon withdrawn, and the university said the poster should never have been made. Strathclyde University tweeted: ‘The posters are being removed now. They should not have produced and we are looking into how this happened.’
A spokesman for the university later said: ‘The posters are in bad taste and have now been removed from campus. The sentiment expressed is not consistent with the values of this university.’
Within hours of the high-profile leaks becoming public knowledge, the very first steps were being taken to consider how the law might address such theft, and Jennifer found herself at the centre of key political debates. The Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee held a meeting to discuss the topic, entitled ‘Jennifer Lawrence’s Hacked Photos: A “Sex Crime?” The Legal Underpinnings of Digitally Exposed Private Images and What Congress Needs to Know’.
Among the influential speakers were Mary Anne Franks, associate professor of law at the University of Miami School of Law, and Emma Llansó, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology.
