Jared Leto is suing TMZ and its parent company Warner Bros. Entertainment, after the gossip site posted a video which Leto claims was stolen.
In the video, Leto is seen in his home recording studio listening to Taylor Swift’s latest album “1989” to get inspiration for his band Thirty Seconds to Mars. Some of it he didn’t like, but other parts he did. He even went so far as to say that he wanted to “steal” parts of her music. At the end of the video, Leto can be heard saying “I mean f*ck her. I don’t give a f*ck about her. It’s whatever works for us”.
As you can imagine, Leto was criticized online by Swift’s rabid fan base, and I’m sure he truly didn’t mean to offend her. He apologized on Twitter shortly after the video was made public.
It’s unclear if Leto knew he was being recorded, but he certainly didn’t expect his comments to be posted online for the world to see. In the lawsuit, Leto claims his team notified TMZ that the footage they obtained was stolen, but they decided to publish it anyway.
This story gets a little awkward because Leto is about to star in Suicide Squad for Warner Bros., but everyone should have the right to have their private moments remain private. The Hollywood Reporter has Leto’s full statement:
“Last Sunday, I was alerted that TMZ had acquired personal and private video footage of me in my home and that they were planning to leak it on their site. My team notified TMZ immediately that I fully owned the footage and that their source had absolutely no rights to sell it. They chose to post it anyway. Let’s be clear. This was stolen footage. This was an invasion of privacy. And it was both legally and morally wrong. Regardless of who we are, we should all be able to talk freely in the privacy of our own homes without the fear that our unfiltered thoughts or actions will get broadcast to the world. We have the right to privacy and security and when we don’t have protections in place to safeguard those things, we lose the freedom to speak loudly and clearly – right or wrong – about anything and everything we choose to. I have chosen to file this lawsuit not because I want to, but in hopes it will encourage more people to stop trafficking in stolen goods, to follow proper legal procedure and so that it may motivate additional consideration for the harm these acts can create, especially when the only intention is to simply further the bottom line for the companies and corporations that commit these acts.”
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
