They say all publicity is good publicity, but this seems a little over the top.

I mean, sure, the world of journalism can be competitive, but that’s no reason to start conducting imaginary interviews with celebrities.

EgyptAir is denying claims that an interview with actress Drew Barrymore, featured in its in-flight magazine, is a fake.

here’s the thing – according to the BBC, Barrymore’s representatives said she “did not participate” in the interview.

The article, which contains a number of grammatical and spelling errors, was spotted by political analyst Adam Baron.

Baron posted pictures of the piece on Twitter on Tuesday, describing its contents as “surreal”:

This is the intro to the article:

“Despite being unstable in her relationships most of her life,” the article begins, “despite the several unsuccessful marriages and despite the busy life of stardom that dominated her life for several years; the beautiful American Hollywood actress Drew Barrymore has recently decided to temporary [sic] take an unlimited vacation to lay her most crucial role as a mother.”

Hold up.

Let’s read that again: ‘Drew Barrymore has recently decided to temporary take an unlimited vacation to lay her most crucial role as a mother.”

It gets weirder:

The article went on to praise the 43-year-old for “her previous graceful body” after giving birth.

The actress is quoted as saying: “I feel overwhelmed when someone tells me that I have regained my image and managed to lose that extra weight.

“However, I find this a great opportunity to encourage every woman who is overweight to work on regaining her beauty and body, especially that it is not as hard as one may think.”

Uhm…

EgyptAir is maintaining that it was “a professional magazine interview”, and the article’s author, Aida Takla O’Reilly, insisted it was “genuine and far from fake”.

Aida Takla O’Reilly is an Egypt-born former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which organises the annual Golden Globes awards.

Stars often participate in press conferences for HFPA members, who use the resulting quotes in articles that are published internationally.

Barrymore’s representatives said she did not “technically… sit down with EgyptAir for an interview” but that the quotes were drawn from one such press conference.

That’s all good and well, but it’s generally a good idea to get the permission of the person that you’re quoting.

And if you’re going to fake an article, hire an editor.

[source:bbc]