Even though audience members are supposed to have their phones locked away, one viewer uploaded a video featuring actor Jesse Williams naked. 

Nude Video From “Take Me Out” Leaks

The Actors Equity Association, Second Stage, and stars of Broadway’s “Take Me Out” condemned a leaked video of the play that captured actors during a nude scene. 

Actor Jesse Williams, best known for his role in “Grey’s Anatomy,” is seen fully naked in the clip, which was taken by an audience member despite the show’s no-phone policy. It was uploaded online Monday night. 

The Actors Equity Association, a labor union representing thousands of theater workers, addressed the leak on Tuesday via a statement by its president Kate Shindle.

“As actors, we regularly agree to be vulnerable on stage in order to tell difficult and challenging stories. This does not mean that we agree to have those vulnerable moments widely shared by anyone who feels like sneaking a recording device into the theater,” Shindle said. “Whoever did this knew not only that they were filming actors without their consent, but also that they were explicitly violating the theater’s prohibition on recording and distribution.”

Shindle equated the leak to “sexual harassment and an appalling breach of consent.” 

“Taking naked pictures of anyone without their consent is highly objectionable and can have severe legal consequences,” Second Stage, which is producing “Take Me Out,” echoed in a statement. “Posting it on the internet is a gross and unacceptable violation of trust between the actor and audience forged in the theatre community.”

Second Stage said it implemented a strict phone-free rule at the show, meaning attendees had to lock their devices in a pouch during the performance. The group said it is “appalled” that this policy was violated. Additional security will be added to upcoming shows to enforce the rules. 

Second Stage is also “actively pursuing takedown requests” of the video. 

Leak Slammed As Disrespectful

Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who stars alongside Williams in the play, said the leak showed “disrespect” towards his fellow castmates. 

“Anyone who applauds or trivializes this behavior has no place in the theater,” he wrote on Twitter. 

The videos leaked on the same day Williams earned a Tony Award nomination for his role in “Take Me Out.” The show is also nominated for Best Play Revival, and Ferguson and Michael Oberholtzer are nominated alongside Williams for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

While speaking on “Watch What Happens Live” following the leak, Williams said the nude scenes were not a big deal. 

“It’s a body, once you see it, you realize it’s whatever, it’s a body,” the actor said. “I just have to make it not that big of a deal.”

See what others are saying: (The New York Times) (Entertainment Weekly) (CNN)

The singer has been known to post revealing photos since the end of her restrictive conservatorship.

Britney Spears Posts Nude Photos

After Britney Spear’s posted several nude photos on Instagram Monday, fans celebrated the singer’s choice to embrace her body and newfound freedom.

The “Toxic” singer shared a series of photos taken during a trip to Mexico before she became pregnant. In the pictures, she covers her bare chest with her hands and places an emoji between her legs. 

“Don’t underestimate the power of doing it myself and shooting with a selfie stick,” she wrote. 

Last year, Spears was freed from a conservatorship that restricted her freedoms for thirteen years. During that time her father and others appointed to direct her personal life and estate controlled her finances, career, and medical treatments. Spears claimed she was forced to wear an IUD birth control implant, attend invasive therapy sessions, and take heavy medications. She has equated the arrangement to abuse on multiple occasions. 

Over the last year, Spears has frequently posted nude or near-nude images of herself on Instagram, but the latest batch caused some people to criticize the singer. In the comments on her photos, some argue that these posts prove she is erratic or unwell. Some claimed that because she has two children and another on the way, she should not use her post-conservatorship freedom to share images like this. A few even suggested someone needs to “step in” to help Spears. 

Fans Defend Spears

Many of her fans found these comments to be inappropriate and invasive, arguing Spears should be allowed to do whatever she wants with her body.

“The most interesting thing about Britney Spears being freed from conservatorship is that now the internet considers itself her conservator,” one person wrote, adding that none of us know the status of her mental health, and therefore, should not comment on it. 

Others argued there is a double standard, as many other female celebrities post nude and are not quickly labeled as “crazy” the same way Spears is.

Spears was placed under her conservatorship in 2008, around the same time she was the subject of near-constant public ridicule and harassment from paparazzi. Because public criticism about Spears’ life and choices fueled the effort that led to her father controlling her, many thought it was cruel to again attack her now that she has her life back. 

“Britney Spears had her freedom stripped from her for years,” one person wrote. “She can do what she wants now and maybe everyone should shut the fuck up about it.”

“It’s sad more people are concerned about Britney Spears posting nudes than they are about the surveillance in her bedroom, her phone comms being captured in real time (including w her attorney), and her earnings being dissipated as others made millions,” another said. 

Many perceive the images as Spears’ way of empowering and expressing herself after being forced to live in silence for so long.

“She doesn’t need your permission to be, love, and express herself,” one Twitter user said.

From the earliest points in her career, Spears was sexualized and exploited, even as a child and teenager. Some found it startling that audiences accepted this version of Spears while she was underage, but are condemning it now that she is making the choice herself as an adult woman. 

“It’s the ultimate irony: from the moment teenage girls are old enough to be considered ‘fair game’ we tell women they ‘should’ be sexy,” Victoria Richards wrote in an op-ed defending Spears in The Independent. “Then shut them down the moment they have the self-confidence to show it. We ‘slut-shame’ them, tell them they’re ‘too old’ to look good or assume there must be something terribly wrong. As a woman, you simply cannot win.”

See what others are saying: (The Independent) (Jezebel) (USA Today)

The complaint claims that shareholders “suffered significant losses and damages” because the company withheld information from investors. 

Netflix Hit With Lawsuit

Netflix is being accused of misleading its investors about its slowed growth in a class-action lawsuit filed by a shareholder on Wednesday.

The suit comes roughly two weeks after Netflix reported a 200,000 net loss of subscribers in its first quarter, marking its first loss in over a decade. As a result, the company’s stock dropped by over 35% in one day. It projects it will lose another two million subscribers in its second quarter. 

The company also faced a stock tumble in January when it admitted it had “over-forecasted paid net adds” in the fourth quarter of 2021. 

The complaint, filed in San Francisco, claims Netflix violated federal securities laws. It was filed by Fiyyaz Pirani, a trustee of Imperium Irrevocable Trust, on behalf of those who acquired or owned Netflix stock between Oct. 19, 2021, and April 19, 2022. 

“[Netflix] made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects,” the lawsuit states. “Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that Netflix was exhibiting slower acquisition growth due to, among other things, account sharing by customers and increased competition from other streaming services.”

It also claimed that Netflix failed to warn investors that it was having “difficulties retaining customers” and, as a result, was losing subscribers on a net basis, adversely affecting its financial results.  

Because of these “wrongful acts and omissions” shareholders allegedly “have suffered significant losses and damages.”

Recent Troubles For Netflix

Netflix attributed its April loss to a variety of factors, including password sharing, emerging competitors, global economic imbalance, and its recent choice to pull service from Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine. It also admitted that “COVID clouded the picture” of the company’s reality by temporarily boosting growth in 2020. 

The shareholders are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. 

The complaint further alleges that Netflix “carried out a plan, scheme, and course of conduct” intended to “deceive the investing public” into purchasing “Netflix’s securities at artificially inflated prices.”

Netflix has not issued a public response to the lawsuit. 

See what others are saying: (Axios) (Deadline) (Variety)