George Clooney Slams Daily Mail Over ‘Fabricated Story’ About Fiancé Amal Alamuddin’s Mother

George Clooney slammed the Daily Mail over a recent report by the British tabloid, which claimed that the mother of the actor’s fiancé, Amal Alamuddin, was against their upcoming marriage because Clooney is not Druze.

In a statement to USA Today, which was published Wednesday, Clooney claimed that the Daily Mail “printed a completely fabricated story about my fiancée’s mother opposing our marriage for religious reasons.” The Daily Mail, citing close family friends, had reported earlier that Alamuddin’s mother, Baria, wanted her to marry a Druze, a small Middle-Eastern religion found primarily in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Syria, and that she had been telling “half of Beirut” about her disapproval of their marriage.

“I seldom respond to tabloids, unless it involves someone else and their safety or well being,” Clooney wrote, in the statement. “First of all, factually none of the story is 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."

Clooney also wrote that he does not get upset about "fabricated stories" in general, but “the irresponsibility, in this day and age, to exploit religious differences where none exist, is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous.

"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."

The Daily Mail had reported that several women who did not abide by the strict Druze rules have been murdered.

“It says they joke about traditions in the Druze religion that end up with the death of the bride,” the 53-year-old actor wrote, in the statement. “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 “Gravity” star and the 36-year-old British lawyer reportedly got engaged in April. While the couple has not confirmed the engagement, Alamuddin was spotted wearing a ring on her left ring finger at the time.