UK Boy Band One Direction Sparks Death Threats
Fans of U.K. boy band One Direction have been accused of sending out a series of death threats to a U.S. boy band also known as One Direction and an Australian radio worker known as Anna Crotti.
The nasty threats were prompted by recent news that One Direction are being sued by a U.S. boy band with the same name who allege that the 5-member British group stole their name.
Sony Music and Simon Cowell's record label, Syco Entertainment, were hit with a $1 million lawsuit that alleges that the popular U.K. band has created confusion among the U.S. band's fans after copying its group name and is ultimately diminishing its credibility, which resulted in death threats, according to The Sun UK.
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"There has been so much hate mail, like people threatening to cut our b---s off! The one that stands out for me is a girl saying she wanted to kill my father," the U.S. band's frontman, Sean O'Leary, told The Sun.
Another victim of hate mail is radio station secretary, Anna Crotti, who was approached for a date by a member of the UK's version of One Direction, Zayn Malik.
Malik and his band members were at the Nova radio network in Sydney, Australia where he met Crotti and gave her his number.
Although the pair had arranged to meet, Crotti was forced to cancel the date after being inundated with hateful messaged on her Facebook account.
"By the end of the day it got a bit too scary. Random girls were abusing me on Facebook. Girls were calling the radio station and giving me s---. Mothers even called me in tears, demanding to know if I knew where One Direction were because their daughters wanted to meet them," Crotti told the Herald Sun.
"I messaged [Zayn] and said, 'Maybe it's not a good idea we meet up'. It was just a bit too full-on. I know it's just typical teenage girl stuff, but I don't understand it," she added.
Some critics fear that 19-year-old singer, Lily Halpern, could also become victim of death threats at the hands of crazed One Direction fans, according to teen.com.
Halpern hinted at a blooming romance with One Direction's Harry Styles in a recent interview, and subsequently became a trending topic on Twitter where thousands of social networking users began tweeting nasty messages about her.
