George Clooney is rejecting an apology from the Daily Mail over a story that his fiancee’s mother opposed the wedding, saying the British tabloid’s mea culpa can’t be trusted.
In another op-ed in USA TODAY published Friday, the two-time Oscar winner slams the Daily Mail's printed apology. Clooney says its description of sources for the original story clashes with the sources cited in the story itself.
“So either they were lying originally or they're lying now,” Clooney says in the USA Today op-ed.
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The Daily Mail story, which was published Monday but has since been taken off the tabloid’s website, said that Amal Alamuddin’s mother was a member of the Druze religion and opposed the marriage on religious grounds.
In an op-ed published in USA Today on Wednesday, Clooney said that neither of those things is true, and he accused the Daily Mail of endangering his family by stirring up religious animosity.
The tabloid apologized later Wednesday, saying in a statement:
"The MailOnline story was not a fabrication but supplied in good faith by a reputable and trusted freelance journalist. She based her story on conversations with a long standing contact who has strong connections with senior members of the Lebanese community in the UK and the Druze in Beirut."
But in the new op-ed, Clooney says that the original story cited a family friend as the source. He also says that an April 28 Daily Mail story about the engagement announcement notes that Alamuddin’s mother is not Druze.
“So I thank the Mail for its apology. Not that I would ever accept it, but because in doing so they've exposed themselves as the worst kind of tabloid,” Clooney says in the new op-ed.