Early this week, a doctored image of local actress Rebecca Lim was circulated on the internet and on forums. Said image of Rebecca was digitally manipulated by an internet user to show off an indecent exposure of the actress’ side cleavage and nipple, which is unlike the original photo taken at an official work event.
On Wednesday night, Rebecca posted the original photo on her social media account and wrote: “Thank you everyone for your concern and support, especially to my loved ones who are innocent and unfortunately placed in such an embarrassing and distressing situation. To you-who-did-it and the people spreading it, shall we stop spreading negativity and lies? This is the original.”
In a phone interview with Toggle, the 29-year-old, who just got back from a family vacation, said of the doctored image, “I woke up to quite a couple of messages that day from friends who have attached pictures of this picture. Initially it was quite a shock because it’s not something that you’d wake up to and I don’t remember having a wardrobe malfunction that day.
“On closer inspection – on a more lighthearted tone – [I went] “Eh, wait a minute. I don’t have that underwear. That’s kind of old fashioned.” (Chuckles) So I immediately referred to the pictures I took on the event and got my managers to find more pictures and concluded it was a fake.”
Rebecca shared that she only showed the picture to her siblings at first because she didn’t want to ruin the whole vacation. “It was (distressing) in some way. It’s the first time and hopefully the last time that I will encounter something like that… My head was quite painful from all that thinking and everything but there’s nothing a few cups of instant noodles won’t cure,” she laughed candidly, “We went to the grocery store, bought a few packets, pigged out, drank a beer and went to bed.”
The actress shared that the photos came to her attention about four days ago, but she was hoping it’d die down and didn’t want to comment further on it. But when she received the same doctored image from her friends in Malaysia and Thailand, she decided she had to say something about it.
“There are people who say that I’m doing this for attention but my conscience is clear. I’m doing it for a very clear purpose to tell the person who did it and the person who thought it was humour and had spread it around via chat groups and websites that it’s not right,” she said.
“You might say that it’s fake but even if it’s real, I don’t think anyone has the right to circulate this sort of obscene pictures without permission. Not like anyone wanted this to happen and it’s even more appalling when people make it up as a joke,” said Rebecca, who later added, “I don’t feel sorry for myself, but I feel sorry for my parents especially my grandparents and all those who love me because they have been very concerned about this picture, because initially everyone thought it was a real picture.”
Due to depart for Cambodia tomorrow for a series of work events, Rebecca shared that she finally had a good night’s rest yesterday, after posting her take on the photo on her Instagram. Hoping to send across a positive message to her peers through this episode, she concluded, “With the internet and with technology, it’s impossible to totally stop this, but I think we just have to be united on this front. If something does happen to someone, don’t treat it as a joke, don’t circulate it amongst your friends and don’t give them what they want – the eyeballs to the pictures or the site traffic. It’s just boosting their ego.”
A good thing came out from this incident, however, said the actress. “It brought my family closer together. Whatever I posted on Instagram last night was a combination of feedback from my family as well. Honestly, if not for them, a support group of friends and managers, I’d be helpless about this whole situation.”
Her artiste management, The Celebrity Agency, released an official statement on their Instagram account two days ago: “A false and distasteful photo of Rebecca Lim has been circulating online. Pls (sic) disregard it.”