Actresses Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried take legal action over hacked photos

Movie stars Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried launched legal action Wednesday after private pictures were stolen and posted online, while Mischa Barton spoke of her anguish over a leaked sex tape.

Although the photographs of 26-year-old Watson merely show her trying on outfits, the images of Seyfried and Barton show them in a series of compromising and sexually explicit poses.

Watson’s publicist said her stolen pictures were taken during a fitting she had with a stylist “a couple of years ago,” without offering further details about the circumstances of the shoot or how the images had ended up in the wrong hands.

“They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further,” he said.

Media reports said the pictures had been shared on the so-called “dark web” - an encrypted part of the internet not easily accessible by users lacking specialist knowledge.