Yesterday the noxious Daily Mail printed a particularly batshit article — even for Daily Mail standards — in which they invented that Amal Alamuddin‘s parents frown upon her upcoming marriage to George Clooney for strict religious reasons. George Clooney is having none of it.
The original Daily Mail article (which has since been taken down, although remnants of it exist on the Internet) claimed that Amal’s mother is angry that her daughter isn’t marrying a member of the “Druze sect, a medieval offshoot of Islam, who are forbidden to marry outsiders.” The Mail also cheerfully noted that “Reports of women being murdered for disobeying the Druze rules have been previously reported.”
In an op-ed for USA Today, Clooney slammed the article as “completely fabricated” and irresponsible:
The Daily Mail has printed a completely fabricated story about my fiancée’s mother opposing our marriage for religious reasons. It says Amal’s mother has been telling “half of Beirut” that she’s against the wedding. It says they joke about traditions in the Druze religion that end up with the death of the bride.
Let me repeat that: the death of the bride.
He does not usually respond to tabloids, he writes, even though they make up dumb shit all the time (Amal’s mother isn’t even Druze, for instance). However:
The irresponsibility, in this day and age, to exploit religious differences where none exist, is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous. 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 Daily Mail, more than any other organization that calls itself news, has proved time and time again that facts make no difference in the articles they make up. And when they put my family and my friends in harm’s way, they cross far beyond just a laughable tabloid and into the arena of inciting violence.
Yep. It’s possible to be a garbage-tabloid filled with mean-spirited celebrity fanfiction without being grossly Islamophobic. You tell them, George. [USA Today, Poynter, NY Daily News]
ZACHELLE LIVES: Zac Efron and Michelle Rodriguez were photographed making out in a nightclub in Sardinia; Zac wore sunglasses inside and Michelle clung steadfastly onto a pipe while it happened. Ah, to be young and in love. (Images at the link) [TMZ]
Blake Lively‘s lifestyle site will launch later this month. Says Lively, “The main element of it is that it’s about storytelling, and it’s about living a very one-of-a-kind, curated life, and how to achieve that.” Um. It sounds like Gossip Girl for the private pizza oven-owning set. “RISE AND SHINE, BITCHES. YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT SHAPE QUINOA WAS MOLDED INTO LAST NIGHT,” etc. [Page Six]
- Laverne Cox is going to guest star on Bravo’s first original scripted series, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. She’s playing a Pulitzer Prize-winning war journalist and LGBT activist (!!!!). YES. [ONTD]
- Here are some photos of Taylor Kitsch and Gerard Butler chatting and grinning and holding beers like the most affable of bros. [ONTD]
- This is an entire article devoted to the fact that Rihanna was spotted carrying “the least expensive (& smallest) Louis Vuitton purse.” It is only $1,500, so it may as well be one of those sacks on a stick that cartoon vagrants carry around. [ONTD]
- Courtney Love is going to play a preschool teacher in the next season of Sons of Anarchy. She will join other new cast member Marilyn Manson, who is also playing a preschool teacher (ha ha, just kidding, he’s playing a white supremacist). [Billboard]
- Kristen Stewart cut her hair, which is orange now, into a short hair-shape that I have not the language to describe. It looks cool? Do I sound hip? Help. [DListed]
- Kim Kardashian ate a churro very gracefully at the Jersey Shore. This is how you would eat churros in the presence of the queen. [E!]
- “Dakota Johnson Dresses for Christian Grey in Sexy Leather Outfit at Chanel Fashion Show.” 1) She is wearing a button-up made of leather. 2) Christian Grey is not real. Thank you for your time. [Just Jared]
- Cara Delevingne posted a video of what it looks like to be ambushed by paparazzi, and it looks terrifying. She just wanted to get home and see her bunny in piece >:( [MTV]
Image via Getty.