Clooney Calls Daily Mail's Lie 'Premeditated'

Actor refuses to accept tabloid's apology
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 11, 2014 6:41 AM CDT
Clooney Calls Daily Mail's Lie 'Premeditated'
This Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014 file photo shows American actor George Clooney interviewed by Fabio Fazio during the Italian State RAI TV program "Che Tempo che Fa", in Milan, Italy.   (AP Photo/Giuseppe Aresu, File)

George Clooney is thanking the Daily Mail for its apology to him, but he's not accepting that apology. After Clooney complained that the British tabloid "insinuat[ed] religious tensions where there are none" by running a story claiming his fiancée's mother objected to the engagement since Clooney is not a member of the Druze religion, the Mail apologized and said the story was "based ... on conversations with senior members of the Lebanese community." But, as Clooney points out in USA Today, the original article doesn't cite "senior members of the Lebanese community," it cites "a family friend." "So either they were lying originally or they're lying now," Clooney writes.

Worse, the Mail already knew its story about Amal Alamuddin's mom was false, because back in April, the tabloid had published an article referencing the fact that Alamuddin's mother herself is not Druze. "What separates this from all of the ridiculous things the Mail makes up is that now, by their own admission, it can be proved to be a lie. In fact, a premeditated lie," Clooney writes. "So I thank the Mail for its apology. Not that I would ever accept it, but because in doing so they've exposed themselves as the worst kind of tabloid. One that makes up its facts to the detriment of its readers and to all the publications that blindly reprint them." Click for his full response. (More George Clooney stories.)

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