Mail Online has taken down a story about actress Kate Beckinsale losing weight after she complained to the press regulator.
Beckinsale was unhappy with a diary piece in the Daily Mail and online in July last year that said she “has spoken about the ‘difficult’ time she is going through”, sharing details including about her mother’s recent illness.
It also reported on a conversation between Beckinsale and a Mail reporter at a recent charity event touching on her health and family circumstances.
The online version had the headline: “Kate Beckinsale opens up about the ‘difficult’ time she’s going through with her mother’s cancer.”
Beckinsale complained under the accuracy, privacy and subterfuge sections of the Editors’ Code of Practice.
Beckinsale claimed the reporter had misrepresented herself as part of a welcoming committee at the gala event, dressed in evening wear, approaching the actress at the end of the red carpet. She said she therefore spoke about her private information without realising she was talking to a journalist.
But the Mail said the reporter had been invited to attend the event as a journalist, was standing in the press area of the red carpet, and that “just because someone mistakenly does not realise someone is a journalist does not mean that there has been any subterfuge or misrepresentation”.
Beckinsale also said the online headline “gave the misleading impression that she had provided comments to the publication connecting any possible recent weight loss to her mother’s cancer diagnosis” when this was not the case.
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The Mail said in response that “the use of the first-person singular in such pieces is a well-known and uncontroversial device”.
It nonetheless offered a print correction with the following wording: “A headline to diary item on 25 July article inaccurately summarised comments made by Kate Beckinsale. We are happy to make clear that she did not say that her recent weight loss was due to her mother’s illness, and we apologise for any distress caused.”
Beckinsale rejected the offer and the complaint escalated to the Independent Press Standards Organisation. At this point the Mail offered to remove the online article alongside printing the correction, with an additional apology to Beckinsale’s mother.
Beckinsale accepted this offer and IPSO did not determine whether there had been any breach of the Editors’ Code.
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