Comedian Whitney Cummings tweeted out a photo of her own nipple yesterday in an effort to thwart followers who had tried to blackmail her with the photo.
In a Twitter thread, Cummings explained back in April she had posted an image of herself eating a lychee fruit in the bath to her Instagram story without realizing her nipple was exposed in the photo. She quickly deleted the image, but not before some followers were able to screenshot it.
1) In April I accidentally posted an insta story that showed nipple. Once I realized, I deleted. The people who took screen grabs are trying to get money from me, some said they have offers to sell them, some are asking for money to not post the photo.
— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) August 12, 2019
She then posted the nude image, along with a screenshot of the attempted blackmail; someone had sent her the screenshot with the message: “How much would it cost to not share this photo?” Cummings tweeted, “They all must think I’m way more famous than I am, but they also must think I’m way more easily intimidated than I am. If anyone is gonna make money or likes off my nipple, it’s gonna be me. So here it all is, you foolish dorks.”
Cummings also pointed out the lengths women have to go through when they have their private photos stolen.
When a woman in the public eye is extorted, we have to spend time, money and energy dealing with it, hiring lawyers and security experts, and living with a pit in our stomach about when and how we will be humiliated. Y’all can have my nipple, but not my time or money anymore.
— Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) August 12, 2019
A few hours later, Cummings tweeted she was also receiving threats that people had hacked her iCloud and had access to her photos. She wrote, “I’ll be honest, I stand by most of my nudes. Frankly I’m way more embarrassed by all the inspirational quotes I’ve screen grabbed.”
People began tweeting out their own embarrassing photos, and other supportive messages to the comedian with the hashtag #IStandWithWhitney. Bert Kreischer posted an extremely close photo of his testicles, and wrote, “#IStandWithWhitney Hey @WhitneyCummings I hate what those dorks tried to do to you – here’s an embarrassing picture of my testicles after I fell on a waterslide.” So thanks for that hackers.
This isn’t the first time celebs have shut down extortion attempts by simply posting their own nudes. 21-year-old actress, model and singer Bella Thorne posted her own nude photos in June after she had been hacked herself and blackmailed with the photos. In November 2017, musician Sia, famously known to keep things private (mainly her face), tweeted a nude photo writing, “Someone is apparently trying to sell naked photos of me to my fans. Save your money, here it is for free. Every day is Christmas!”
Even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a run-in with blackmailers, but instead of posting the photos himself, he described the photos with great detail in a blog post. “Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten,” he wrote.
So it sounds like hackers and blackmailers might have to find new ways of extorting celebrities. Or maybe they could just get real jobs and quit being terrible people.
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