Comedian and writer Whitney Cummings says she is being “extorted” by someone who took screen grabs of a photo she posted (and immediately deleted) on Instagram that accidentally gave a peek at her nipple.
“In April I accidentally posted an insta story that showed nipple,” she said in a Twitter thread Monday. “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.”
Reps for Cummings didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cummings, who created the CBS sitcom “2 Broke Girls” and was a producer and writer for the “Roseanne” revival, came out verbally swinging at her accused extorters in the series of tweets, making it clear to them she’s not going to buckle.
“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,” she wrote as caption to the nip slip pic.
“When a woman in the public eye is extorted,” she continued, “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.”
Cummings said that she won’t post the names of the creep who threatened her, thinking they might just be “dumb kids” with “stupid ideas” that might come back to haunt them later in life. “I wouldn’t want the stupid ideas I had when I was a teenager to follow me around forever,” she joked, “or else every time someone Googled me, they’d see me shoplifting a NO FEAR t-shirt.”
Those on social media reacted swiftly in her support, creating the hashtag #istandwithwhitney, which started to trend. Cummings, of course, reacted with humor. “Nobody is more bummed than me that #istandwithwhitney isn’t about Whitney Houston,” she wrote.
In a follow-up tweet, Cummings indicated that she had no plans to hire lawyers or security experts to pursue a legal case. “Y’all can have my nipple, but not my time or money anymore,” she wrote.