He’s well used of being in the public eye but George Clooney is not happy with the coverage surrounding his upcoming wedding to Amal Alamuddin.
The actor, who is expected to marry the human rights lawyer later this month in Italy, was apparently enraged by recent suggestions that Amal’s mother Baria was objecting to the wedding as Clooney is not a Muslim.
The reports, printed in The Daily Mail earlier this week, claimed that Amal’s family were part of the strict Druze religious sect and wanted her to marry someone within the same religion. However, in a lengthy address, Clooney said that the information was “completely fabricated” and “cross far beyond just a laughable tabloid and into the arena of inciting violence”.
“I seldom respond to tabloids, unless it involves someone else and their safety or well being. 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.
First of all, none of the story is factually true. Amal’s mother is not Druze. She has not been to Beirut since Amal and I have been dating, and she is in no way against the marriage — but none of that is the issue. I’m, of course, used to the Daily Mail making up stories — they do it several times a week — and I don’t care. If they fabricate stories of Amal being pregnant, or that the marriage will take place on the set of Downton Abbey, or that I’m running for office, or any number of idiotic stories that they sit at their computers and invent, I don’t care.
But this lie involves larger issues. 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.
They must be so very proud.”
