‘Prometheus’ Cast Charlize Theron Irks Twitter Users Over Rape Comment; Press Intrusion Makes Sean Penn’s Girlfriend Protective?

"Prometheus" cast Charlize Theron's rape comment in talking about press intrusion caused a social media maelstrom as Twitter users called the statements of Sean Penn's girlfriend hypocritical.

The comments were published on MailOnline with Cliff Murray writing: "your timing is shocking given the brutal rape and murders in India. Get Real!"

Mark Merryweather added: "How dare Charlize Theron compare press intrusion to rape - try telling a victim of rape that."

And Zenobia Bharmal chimed in: "So Charlize Theron compared Press intrusion to rape whilst giving an interview to a member of the press... she's a hypocrite and disgusting."

Another Twitter user said: "How stupid to comment about press intrusion the same as being raped. Makes my blood boil!!"

"Prometheus" cast Charlize Theron's rape comment was uttered during the press tour for her new movie "A Million Ways to Die in the West." When asked by Sky News  if she ever Googled herself, she replied in the negative, and then said: "When you start living in that world, and doing that, you start feeling raped."

The interviewer then asked her to qualify her statement and she said: "Well, when it comes to your son and your private life. Maybe it's just me."

"Some people might relish in all that stuff but there are certain things in my life that I think of as very sacred and I am very protective over them," she added.

"Prometheus" cast Charlize Theron's rape comment wasn't the first time a celebrity likened the violation in reference to privacy, Sky News reported.

Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" series apologized in 2010 after suffering from Internet backlash over her comment that watching photographs taken of her by paparazzi was like "looking at someone being raped.

"I really made an enormous mistake - clearly and obviously," Kristen Stewart toldPeople.

"And I'm really sorry about my choice of words. I've made stupid remarks before, and I've always reasoned: 'Whatever. They can think what they want ... 'Violated' definitely would have been a better way of expressing the thought."