Former HFPA president confirms she wrote 'fake' Drew Barrymore interview

The supposedly ‘fake’ Drew Barrymore interview from an Egyptian in-flight magazine that went viral is not fake after all.

The feature, in EgyptAir magazine Horus, began doing the rounds on social media this week, with claims that the strange quotes attributed to Barrymore could not reasonably be her’s.

Barrymore’s reps then appeared to confirm that it was indeed fake, telling the Huffington Post that she ‘did not participate’ in the interview, and that they were ‘working with the airline PR team’, presumably to resolve the situation.

However, EgyptAir stood by the piece, calling it ‘a professional interview’.

And now its author has weighed in too.

Aida Takla O’Reilly, the Egyptian-born former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the body which runs the Golden Globes, tweeted that they interview is ‘far from fake’ and ‘took place in New York’.

She added that the interview was later edited by the magazine – who also misspelled her name as Aida ‘Tekla’ – and had not happened in a one-to-one setting, rather a press conference where Barrymore was promoting her Netflix series The Santa Clarita Diet.

It’s also thought that the article was translated from Arabic, adding more confusion.

As well as grammatical errors, the feature begins with some pretty withering presumptions about Barrymore.

“Despite being unstable in her relationships most of her life, 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 play her most crucial role as a mother,” wrote Takla-O’Reily.

It goes on: “It is known that Barrymore has had almost 17 relationships, engagements and marriages; psychologists believe that her behavior is only natural since she lacked the male role model in her life after her parents’ divorce when she was only 9 years.

“Ever since that time, she has been subconsciously seeking attention and care from a male figure; but unfortunately things do not always go as planned and she has not yet succeeded in any relationship for various reasons.”

The piece also quoted that actress saying she was stepping out of the limelight and ‘will only resume my career when I feel that my daughters can depend on themselves’, despite her having appeared in several TV and movie projects in recent years.

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