A cybersecurity expert has claimed that the contact details of Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro and several other Hollywood heavyweights were reportedly exposed online following a data breach linked to the Tribeca Film Festival. According to The Telegraph, the actors’ private phone numbers and email addresses became public after multiple databases connected to the festival were uploaded online. The cybersecurity expert has called it one of the largest celebrity-related data exposures on record.
How was the breach discovered?
The Telegraph reported that the leak was first flagged by cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler, who came across the exposed information last month. As per findings shared by Fowler, four breached databases allegedly contained close to 666,000 records dating from 2019 to 2026, all tied to the annual film festival founded by De Niro in New York. The report states that Fowler alerted the Tribeca Film Festival about the exposure just days before its 12-day event began on June 3.
Describing the scale of the incident to The Sun, Fowler said, “There were many, many household names in the records who could have been targeted with malware.” He added, “There were names, phone numbers and email addresses.”
“What was really interesting was that there was a folder that captured their device information based off the email. It would say what version of an iPhone they were using, if they were using Safari [a web browser], what version of the software they were using. That could give the bad guys a lot of additional information,” Fowler further said.
Who all in Hollywood were impacted?
Those whose contact information was allegedly exposed include film directors Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and Danny Boyle, along with actors Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lawrence and Winona Ryder, in addition to Jolie and De Niro, as per the report. Other names on the list reportedly include Neil Patrick Harris, Rami Malek, Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.
Citing a source close to the matter, the report said that a majority of the leaked contact details actually belonged to managers and agents representing the celebrities, rather than the stars themselves. This suggests the breach may have originated from festival-related contact databases used for professional coordination, rather than direct personal accounts.
Festival’s response and current status
The Tribeca Film Festival responded to Fowler’s disclosure by stating that it “takes matters of data security very seriously and is actively investigating this issue.” The organisation has since removed the databases from public access, the Telegraph reported. It remains unclear how long the information was accessible online or whether it was accessed or misused before being taken down.
The Telegraph also clarified that there is no suggestion the Tribeca Film Festival was directly responsible for the alleged leak, and the organisation has not issued any further public statement on the matter beyond its initial response.
The Sun reported that the Tribeca Film Festival had yet to issue a public statement on the breach at the time of its report. The incident adds to a growing list of high-profile data exposures involving public figures, once again raising questions about how personal and professional information tied to major cultural events is stored and secured online.