Celebrity magazine Hello! has apologised to George Clooney for running an interview that the star says was “completely fabricated.”
Celebrity magazine Hello! has apologised to George Clooney for running an interview that the star says was “completely fabricated.”
Quotes from the article — in which the actor supposedly talked about his marriage to British lawyer Amal Clooney — were picked up by other publications around the world.
The actor issued a statement to deny that he gave an interview to the magazine where he spoke about his wife Amal.
“Hello! magazine has printed an EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with me that has been widely picked up and reprinted. The problem is that I have not given an interview to Hello Magazine and the quotes attributed to me are not accurate.”
“In my experience, being misquoted is not unusual but to have an ‘exclusive interview’ completely fabricated is something new. And a very disturbing trend,” Clooney, 54, said in a statement. The magazine said it was “dismayed” to learn that the interview was fake as they had bought the interview from a “respectable independent agent.”
“Hello! magazine and the Hello! Group are very dismayed by Mr George Clooney’s statement that an interview with him that was published by the Hello! Group is not authentic,” the statement read.
“The Hello! Group bought the interview in good faith from a respectable independent agent, Famous, with whom it has dealt for many years and the agency and its writer were both credited at the end of the article in Hello! magazine as is customary,” the magazine said, adding they purchased the interview on the “unquestionable understanding” that it was “correct and accurate in all respects.”
“In the meantime, the Hello! group can only express its deepest respect for both Mr Clooney and his wife, Amal, and its sincere commitment to respectable and accurate journalism.”
But Clooney said in a statement “I have not given an interview to Hello! magazine and the quotes attributed to me are not accurate.” He said “to have an ‘exclusive interview’ completely fabricated is something new, and a very disturbing trend.”
Hello! said it had bought the interview in good faith from an agency, Famous. In a statement on Friday, it apologized “unreservedly to Mr Clooney and his wife Amal for any distress that publication of this piece may have caused them.”
