The Daily Mail: so bad that George Clooney is actually responding to one of its articles. The story—which has since been taken down but is still excerpted on other sites including the New York Daily News—claimed that the mother of Clooney fiancée Amal Alamuddin objected to the engagement since Clooney is not Druze. First things first—it's not true; Clooney's future mother-in-law isn't even Druze, Clooney writes in a response via USA Today. But more importantly, the article is dangerous: "It says they joke about traditions in the Druze religion that end up with the death of the bride," Clooney writes. "Let me repeat that: the death of the bride."
"I'm, of course, used to the Daily Mail making up stories—they do it several times a week," Clooney writes, and he doesn't usually 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. ... The idea that someone would inflame any part of [the] world for the sole reason of selling papers should be criminal." The Mail, he notes, has never seemed to care whether its stories are actually true. But "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." The Mail has now apologized, the Huffington Post reports, and it says a "full investigation" has been launched. (More Amal Alamuddin stories.)