Celebrities Speak Out Following a Massive Leak of Nude Pictures

Nude pictures of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton are making the rounds on the Internet this weekend. As the story gained momentum on Sunday, Jennifer's publicist released a statement to the press, confirming the authenticity of her pictures. "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence," a spokesperson said. Kate's attorney released a similar statement on Monday, saying, "This is obviously an outrageous violation of our client Kate Upton's privacy. We intend to pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these illegally obtained images to the fullest extent possible."

Ariana Grande and Kirsten Dunst are among the group of women who have also been targeted. However, the alleged pictures of other stars have not yet been authenticated, meaning they could be the work of anyone with Photoshop. Victoria Justice, one of the victims in the scandal, took to Twitter to explain the pictures of her are not real: "These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended*," she wrote.

One of Victoria's fans came to her defense, tweeting an old picture of the Nickelodeon star making the same expression in one of the leaked images.

Meanwhile, several other stars, including Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, appeared on what has been deemed a "master list," which contains the names of other stars in alleged nude pictures that might be released. Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, one of the women on the list, reacted to the news on Twitter. "Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked," Mary wrote in a tweet. She followed it up with this pointed message: "To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves."

Later on Monday, Kirsten addressed the scandal, which was said to have been a result of a leak through Apple's iCloud service.

Apple is said to be investigating the iCloud claims, but experts doubt that Apple itself was hacked and said instead this was a security flaw in the software itself. What's more, there is new evidence that these pictures had been circulating amongst some Internet users in private for at least a few weeks before they were made public.