Mischa Barton says she is a victim of revenge porn
LOS ANGELES -- A sex tape featuring actress Mischa Barton is revenge porn, according to Barton’s attorney, who issued preemptive warnings this week amid reports the video is being shopped around, CBS Los Angeles reports.
“This is a painful situation, and my absolute worst fear was realized when I learned that someone I thought I loved and trusted was filming my most intimate and private moments,” Barton said in a press conference Wednesday.
“It has been reported that naked or sexually explicit images of Ms. Barton are being ‘shopped around,’” attorney Lisa Bloom said. “Ms. Barton does not consent to any disclosure of any such images. She believes she was recorded without her consent by someone she was seeing at the time.”
Several publications have reported recently that the tape exists, with a broker telling the Daily Mail the video shows the actress taking part in various sex acts with an unidentified man while wearing a black hoodie. The broker said the tape was being offered to various pornographic websites for $500,000.
“There’s a name for this disgusting conduct: revenge pornography,” Bloom said. “Revenge pornography is a form of sexual assault, and it is also a crime and a civil wrong in California. And we will not stand for it.”
“No woman should have to go through this,” Barton said.
Bloom said Barton “is courageously standing up for her rights” in fighting the release of any such images.
“I have a message for anyone who attempts to traffic in these photos or videos of Ms. Barton: We will find you, and we will come after you,” Bloom said. “We will fully prosecute you under every available criminal and civil law.”
So far, however, Bloom says she didn’t think the reported video or any images from it have been published, but won’t say whether they have gone to the police with the information.
Barton, best known for her role on the TV show “The O.C.,” made headlines in January when she was caught on video yelling at a neighbor while hanging over her backyard fence. Barton told People magazine later that she had been given a date-rape drug the night before, something she discovered when she checked into a hospital.