Harry Styles Reportedly Sues Tabloid Over Fake Nude Photo

Don't mess with Harry Styles! The One Direction singer is reportedly taking legal action against UK tabloid the Daily Star after they published a Photoshopped, X-rated photo they falsely claimed was of Styles.

According to the Press Gazette, the 1D heartthrob is suing the tabloid for up to 100,000 pounds -- which translates to roughly $160,000 -- after they ran a cover story with the headline '1D HARRY X-RATED SEX PIC SHAME,' publishing a raunchy, Photoshopped pic that they claimed was a selfie Styles took himself.

Though the Daily Star quickly realized their error, changing the next day's headline to '1D HARRY FURY AT FAKED SEX PIC,' the damage had already been done. The story had been already spread like wildfire all across the Internet, something that the libel claim against the paper addresses quite clearly.

"Given the prominence devoted to the story in such a high selling newspaper, and the sensational nature of the allegation, it was inevitable (and no doubt, intended) that it would be widely picked up and repeated across the media and internet, as in fact it was," the libel claim states (quote via the Press Gazette).

Styles' claim also states that the paper alleged that the boy bander "acted in a deeply shameful and disgraceful manner by deliberately posting online an indecent and sexually explicit photograph of himself touching his groin for all, and in particular his highly impressionable young fans, to see, thereby causing serious outrage amongst the general public for his shockingly irresponsible behavior."

The Press Gazette reports that the paper apologized for their actions, stating:

"We said that Harry Styles of One Direction had posted explicit photos of himself online and we published one of them. In fact the pictures had been Photoshopped and were fake. They were not posted by Harry Styles and were not pictures of him," the Daily Star stated in late October (quote via the Gazette). "We apologize to Harry for any embarrassment and distress our article may have caused."

Directioners, what do you think of Harry Styles' lawsuit?

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