Anne Hathaway defends Jennifer Lawrence after reporter outburst

Anne Hathaway has come to the defense of Jennifer Lawrence after the actress was criticized for verbally attacking a reporter who was looking at his phone during a press conference at the Golden Globes.

Jennifer was answering questions backstage after winning a Best Actress Golden Globe for her role in Joy at the ceremony on Sunday (10Jan16) when Juan Pablo Fernández-Feo asked the Oscar winner a question and held up his phone to record the exchange, prompting Jennifer to interrupt him.

"You can't live your whole life behind your phone bro. You're just not gonna... You can't do that. You gotta live in the now," she said as she rolled her eyes and wagged her finger at him.

After he repeated his question about the Oscars, she interrupted again, saying, "We are at the Golden Globes, if you put your phone down, you'd know that."

The other journalists in the press room laughed at the exchange, but there was an online backlash to Jennifer's comments, with some calling her rude and obnoxious.

Now, Anne has jumped to the defense of The Hunger Games star, and vented her frustration at how Jennifer's comments were taken out of context.

"Dear the Internet," she wrote on her Facebook.com page. "It's become pretty clear that the Jennifer Lawrence "scolding" was taken out of context and that she was dryly joking with a journalist who was indeed using his phone to take photos of her.

"Let's not continue the sad but common practice of building people - especially women - up just to viciously tear them down when we perceive them to have misstepped. Jennifer is a beautiful, talented, wildly successful, popular, FOUR TIME OSCAR NOMINATED young woman. Please let us not punish her for these things."

Despite the criticism she's faced for her comments, Jennifer received some good news this week (ends17Jan16) as it was revealed she's up for a Best Actress gong at the Oscars next month (Feb16). Nominated for the fourth time, she's up against Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Charlotte Rampling, and Saoirse Ronan.

Jennifer previously won an Oscar for Best Actress in 2012 for her role in Silver Linings Playbook.