Mail Online has removed a story that the actor George Clooney wrote about for USA Today. He said the story, involving his planned marriage to Amal Alamuddin, was “completely fabricated.”
The July 7 Mail Online article by Hannah Roberts and Sara Nathan said Alamuddin is a member of the “Druze sect, a medieval offshoot of Islam, who are forbidden to marry outsiders.” The Mail reporters wrote that “There can be harsh penalties for those Druze who marry outsiders” and that Alamuddin’s mother objects to the marriage on religious grounds.
Clooney in 2013. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
Alamuddin’s mother is not Druze, Clooney noted in his piece.
Other news outlets have picked up the story, including the New York Daily News and Boston.com (which embedded an E! story about the Mail’s story).
Clooney wrote that he was less concerned about the inaccuracies than the Mail’s apparent intention to “exploit religious differences where none exist,” which he says is “at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous.” He continued:
We have family members all over the world, and the idea that someone would inflame any part of that world for the sole reason of selling papers should be criminal.
The Mail has “launched a full investigation,” it says in a statement.
