Earlier this week, "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart was on jury duty, and now details about the case she sat on are emerging. Stewart was reportedly a member of a Los Angeles County jury that was deciding the fate of a man accused of trying to solicit a prostitute.
Stewart sat on a three-day trial; the defendant was found not guilty of trying to pay an undercover police officer for sex. The man pleaded not guilty, with his defense attorney arguing that since he does not speak English very well, he didn't understand the situation he was in with the undercover cop and was therefore innocent.
TMZ further reported that when the trial was over, Stewart asked to keep her juror badge and was allowed to. However, a security guard who posed for a photo with the actress at the courthouse earlier this week may be in hot water for snapping a shot of Stewart.
The security guard reportedly asked to take a photo with Stewart, who did so. The photo was then posted online by the guard's friend's wife before it was quickly picked up by various media outlets and made public. Now it seems that the people involved may have violated some rules and may lose their jobs for taking a picture with the actress.
"Cancelled because unfortunately the photo that went up from Kristen in court was stolen and put on several blogs and got to the media and reached the ears of the court," the wife wrote online. "Right now my husband and the security guard are in trouble for it having gone up and second because it is confidential when celebrities are in court. Now I feel bad. ... I am really scared, because I think it is possible that they could lose their jobs."
Kristen Stewart has called her turn as a teen runaway-turned-stripper and prostitute in "Welcome to the Rileys" the most personal performance of her career. According to director Jake Scott, audiences will see an entirely new side of the "Twilight" superstar in the indie flick.
"It's an emotionally naked performance," Scott told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival. "She really exposed herself in that way."
One way in which she didn't expose herself was in the flesh. While Stewart does show off some skin onscreen, she never appears fully in the nude, nor do any of the scenes play as sexy. Instead they're dark, often sad portraits of a young girl forced into compromising situations and the pitiful men who prey on her vulnerability. Highlighting these story elements, rather than salacious ones, was something Scott set out to accomplish.
"I don't think the film's about a stripper," he said. "I think the film's about a damaged child who happens to be a stripper. I actually de-emphasized that part of it. It's too easy to get caught up and seduced by the idea of the stripper."
Scott and Stewart did do some research in New Orleans. They visited strip clubs and talked to the dancers, learning their stories as a way to present an accurate portrait of a teen in crisis. "Some of them were more reliable than others," he said. "Kristen actually ended up working with a girl who was a very good, useful guide for her. She went and danced in the strip club. She learned the ropes.
"She went for it," Scott added. "She got dirty. I think she was dying to do something like this. I think it comes across, to really investigate something outside of her life realm."