George Clooney

George Clooney issued a damning statement about the Daily Mail this morning. Published in USA Today, Clooney denounces a piece that the Mail ran claiming that his fiancee's mother opposed the marriage. Clooney writes:

"I want to speak to the irresponsibility of Monday's Daily Mail report. I seldom respond to tabloids, unless it involves someone else and their safety or wellbeing. The Daily Mail has printed a completely fabricated story about my fiancee's mother opposing our marriage for religious reasons. It says Amal's mother has been telling 'half of Beirut' that she's against the wedding. It says they joke about traditions in the Druze religion that end up with the death of the bride. Let me repeat that: the death of the bride."

The actor goes on to say that the story is false and dangerous, and concludes:

"The Daily Mail, more than any other organisation that calls itself news, has proved time and time again that facts make no difference in the articles they make up. And when they put my family and my friends in harm's way, they cross far beyond just a laughable tabloid and into the arena of inciting violence. They must be so very proud."

Mail Online has since apologised to Clooney and removed the article in question. Despite this rare climbdown, Clooney is not the only notable person to criticise the tactics of the Daily Mail in recent years. The paper has had the tables turned on it several times. Here are four others who have taken on the media giant.

Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry at the National Television Awards Photograph: Ian West/PA

Stephen Fry wrote an impassioned blog about the paper and its tactics after it criticised his remarks on the Sochi Winter Olympics. He didn't hold back with his language, saying that the editor Paul Dacre was a frothing autocrat and adding that: "the only good thing to be said about his Mail is that no one decent or educated believes in it. Which is what you can say about psychics, mediums, homeopathy and the casting of runes, but that makes it, like them, more exploitative and wicked, not less."

Ed Miliband

'For some it is almost axiomatic that a leader with Ed Miliband’s temperament and personality – measured, understated – is not going to be the sort of person who will come out on top.' Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

When the Daily Mail ran an attack piece on Ralph Miliband, his son Ed made his anger clearly heard. The original article was headlined "The man who hated Britain" and suggested that Miliband senior felt no loyalty to the UK. The leader of the Labour party said at the time: "I'm speaking out as a son. I was appalled when I read the Daily Mail on Saturday and I saw they said he hated Britain. It's a lie. I'm even more appalled that they've repeated that lie today and they've gone further and described my father's legacy as 'evil'. 'Evil' is a word reserved for particular cases and I wasn't willing to let that stand."

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer. Photograph: Brian Rasic/Rex Features

Musician Amanda Palmer chose a more unusual way to reply to the Mail when it published a piece about her breast being exposed at a music festival. Palmer uploaded a video to YouTube, where she sings a song directly addressing the newspaper while she undresses. The lyrics included the verse:

"Dear Daily Mail,

you misogynist pile of twats

I'm tired of these baby bumps, vadge flashes, muffintops

where are the newsworthy COCKS?

if Iggy or Jagger or Bowie go topless the news barely causes a ripple

blah blah blah feminist blah blah blah gender shit blah blah blah

OH MY GOD NIPPLE"

Lily Allen

It sounds as if Lily Allen isn’t entirely ­certain about her return to music, or of where she fits in the pop landscape of 2014, writes Alexis Petridis

Lily Allen had a slightly different take on the paper when she discussed its tactics in an interview with the Observer. After the Mail ran a piece documenting the singer's fluctuations in weight, Allen said she nearly went through with liposuction and surgery. Yet, like millions of others around the world, the singer says she can't stay off the Mail website: "The Mail Online is like carbs – you know you shouldn't but you do. Probably two or three times a day. I hate them – it's an atrocity, really. But I still go on it. It's my homepage. These lyrics are a message to them, in part. We keep going back because they've made us feel so shit that we have to compare ourselves, to say 'haha she's fat too', in order to feel better."