6 Painfully Stupid Celebrity Journalism Fails

When an investigation was launched to verify his account, Relotius vehemently denied claims that he had made it all up, only to later admit that he never spoke to Kaepernick's parents. He's also never met Kaepernick. When confronted with these fabrications, as well as countless others, Relotius said he was mentally ill, and all the forging was a result of his fear of failing. Given that he's now facing embezzlement charges for allegedly asking readers to pay money into his personal bank account as donations to Syrian orphans, it's hard to feel sorry for a guy who, at the end of the day, just wanted all the awards.

Here's Fox News' Jesse Watters mistaking Gayle King for Robin Roberts earlier this year:

And here's E! News reporter Sibley Scoles mistaking Jenifer Lewis for Wanda Sykes before ... mistaking her for Jennifer Lawrence? Maybe entertainment news is not this person's forte.

"Oh, Lewis. Got it. Big hand for Jerry Lewis, everybody!"

That last one is even worse because E! News had recently hired Scoles to improve its inclusivity scores. But the faux that takes the pas is the time George Stephanopoulos confused the Boston Celtics' Bill Russell for Morgan Freeman. It's not like Stephanopoulos is some local news nobody; he's arguably one of the most recognizable anchors on TV. Thinking before he speaks is his whole-ass job.

EqyptAir, too, reminded everyone that the esteemed writer came with a resume:

Still, when absolutely nobody was buying these excuses, the HFPA themselves released a statement admitting that Takla-O'Reilly didn't write the entire piece herself, and may have borrowed quotes from other interviews. Disappointingly, they failed to cite the exact interview in which Barrymore did dismiss all those fat Western women she hates. You'd think that would have been bigger news at the time.

It's not clear why, in this exclusive interview, The Rock would claim that "whining snowflakes are draining positive change through their constant moaning" and "Generation snowflake or, whatever you want to call them, are actually putting us backwards," given that he's neither a conservative politician nor promoting a hacky Netflix special. That's because, according to a video he uploaded to Instagram, he didn't:

When The Daily Star was confronted about the story, they claimed that the interview was the work of a fly-by-night freelance journalist who gave the information to a staff reporter, who then wrote the piece under their own name without bothering to fact-check it. This is fairly standard practice for such tabloids ... which is exactly why nobody should have given the story any attention to begin with. But we're living in an age in which a strategically placed Facebook ad can convince your mom the Earth is flat, so that's life now.

One problem: Reeves' publicist says he never gave any such interview. Apparently the bulk of the "interview" was made out of conversations that only happened in the writer's head, held together with quotes from completely different interviews. Specifically, the writer admitted that the "lonely guy" quote came from an interview he'd conducted with the actor in 2003 ... which Reeves' publicist also says never happened.

Given that Reeves' people don't seem to have a reason to lie -- it's not like he'd admitted to hosting underground puppy bakes -- there are two possibilities: 1) The writer, Philip Berk, experienced such a dearth of creativity that he recycled an already-fabricated interview, or 2) He forgot he made it up, and then still found nothing wrong with presenting a 16-year-old quote as recent information. You know things are bad when your fuck-ups start having their own little baby fuck-ups.

By the way, if the name Philp Berk rings a bell, it's because Brendan Fraser accused the writer (another former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) of sexual assault. Berk's response to these allegations? "Mr. Fraser's version is a total fabrication." It's almost like professional liars have learned to scream "Fake news!" at other people before it can lobbed at them first. Crazy.

Zanandi also writes for Macaulay Culkin's trusted website. Follow her on Twitter.

For more, check out How Selfies Are Destroying Journalism:

Follow us on Facebook. It's free.