Drew Barrymore’s representatives say they are “working with” Egypt’s national airline after its magazine printed a bizarre “interview” with the star, written in broken English and strewn with critical comments about her personal life.
The interview went viral after it was spotted by political writer and Yemen analyst Adam Baron on board an EgyptAir flight on Tuesday. Baron uploaded an image of the article, which he described as “surreal”.
In the piece, the interviewer appears to shame the 43-year-old’s romantic history, noting her “unstable” relationships and “several unsuccessful marriages”.
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Citing “psychologists”, the piece speculates that since Barrymore’s parents divorced “she has been subconsciously seeking attention and care from a male figure”, adding that “she has not yet succeeded in any relationship for various reasons”.
The article goes on to claim that the actress was on “an unlimited vacation to play her most crucial role as a mother” to her two daughters, aged six and four.
Barrymore has not announced any plans to leave the industry, and has previously spoken about her life as a working mother. She currently stars in Netflix black comedy Santa Clarita Diet, recently renewed for a third series.
Other answers purportedly given by the Golden Globe winner “are filled with grammatical errors” and broken English, notes Variety.
For instance, asked about feminism, Barrymore apparently replied: “I cannot deny that women made a great achievement over the past century, there is significant progress recorded by people who study women status throughout history.”
The author of the article has since been identified as Aida Takla-O’Reilly, a veteran member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) who has twice served as the organisation’s president.
In a tweet, the Egyptian-born journalist denied that the interview was fake, insisting she had spoken to Barrymore “several times”. She added of the former child star: “I saw her grow up before my eyes.”
Barrymore’s representatives initially claimed that the actress “did not participate” in the supposed interview, telling HuffPost they were “working with the airline PR team” to establish what had happened.
The president of Barrymore's production company later told BuzzFeed News that the responses attributed to her in the article were “based on what [Takla-O’Reilly] says she heard Drew say at one of these [HFPA] press conferences”.
The email clarifies that Barrymore “did not sit down with EgyptAir for an interview”. For their part, the airline maintains that the article is authentic.
While the exact story remains unclear, Buzzfeed reports that a similar but noticeably less disjointed interview with Barrymore - also attributed to Takla-O’Reilly - appeared in Arabic-language outlet Ahram last month, suggesting “it could be that the whole thing is a mistranslation”.
