Hello! magazine apologized to George Clooney Friday after running an "exclusive" interview with the actor that turned out to be fake.
The interview was picked up by various other outlets, including Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, The Sun and The Evening Standard, Clooney said in a statement.
"The problem is that I have not given an interview to Hello! magazine and the quotes attributed to me are not accurate," he said. "In my experience, being misquoted is not unusual, but to have an 'exclusive interview' completely fabricated is something new. And a very disturbing trend."
Hello! magazine ran the interview online. In part, it said Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Alammudin, "have a rule whereby we are never apart for more than a week."
The story was removed from Hello! magazine's website after the tabloid confirmed the interview was, in fact, fabricated.
In a statement posted to the magazine's website, the Hello! Group, which includes Hello! magazine, said it bought the interview in good faith from another agency, Famous. Later the group learned the interview was culled from various other interviews.
"Hello! Group bought the material ... from a trusted independent agent, who assured us it was an authentic one-to-one interview with Mr. Clooney," Hello! Group said. "We apologize unreservedly to Mr. Clooney and his wife Amal for any distress that publication of this piece may have caused them and further apologize for conveying the impression that he gave an exclusive interview to Hello!."
It's not the first time Clooney has dealt with fabricated tabloid reports.
In 2014, he slammed a report from British tabloid the Daily Mail that claimed his mother-in-law, Baria Alamuddin, opposed the union between Clooney and her daughter based on religious grounds.
The Daily Mail later apologized for the story.
Cox Media Group
