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Anne Hathaway Refuses to Shake Journalist’s Hand Because She’s Afraid of Ebola

Alexis Puig takes story to Twitter, causes a fuss

Oct 28, 2014 16:31 GMT  ·  By
Anne Hathaway strikes a pose at the premiere of “Interstellar,” Chris Nolan’s most recent film
   Anne Hathaway strikes a pose at the premiere of “Interstellar,” Chris Nolan’s most recent film

On November 7 (and on November 5, but only in select locations), Christopher Nolan’s most recent film, the star-studded “Interstellar,” comes out. All members of the cast, including Jessica Chastain, Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, have been making countless appearances over the past few days to promote it.

Even Nolan, who isn’t exactly a fan of playing the media game, had to come out and sell his movie to audiences, but it’s Hathaway who’s getting the most attention right now: and that’s because she allegedly refused to shake the hand of a journalist because she was too afraid that she might catch Ebola.

The whole story, according to the journo

Alexis Puig flew all the way from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Los Angeles, to meet with Anne and the rest of the cast and Nolan, to talk about the film, which is inarguably one of the most anticipated releases of the year.

Even before the meeting was over, he went on Twitter and told his followers that, for the first time in his career, he had a celebrity refuse to shake his hand. That celebrity was Anne, who apparently thought that Argentina was a third-world country and she was running the risk of catching Ebola from touching the journo.

For the record, you don’t catch Ebola by touching another person’s hand, not unless they have a laceration and their blood or pus makes contact with your own. So, that would imply two lacerations, one on the person and one on you.  

Puig also said that Nolan, McConaughey and Chastain were “great in the interviews,” and all shook his hand without as much as making one single hesitative gesture. “Take that Anne!” he boasted on Twitter, in Spanish.

His original messages are available below.

The whole story, according to Hathaway

Because of the Ebola “frenzy” sweeping the media right now (and the American public), the story got picked up almost immediately after Puig went public with it.

So, in almost no time, Anne was again at the receiving end of a lot of hatred and even more criticism, just when she’d come back into the spotlight after a self-imposed hiatus because of the hate campaign carried out against her during Oscars 2013 season.  

This time, it’s for nothing, her publicist says in a statement to the Daily Mail: she didn’t refuse to shake the journalist’s hand because she feared he might give her Ebola, she did it because she didn’t want to give him anything.

“That is nonsense – she wasn't shaking anyone's hands because she was coming down with a cold and didn't want to get anyone sick,” the publicist says.

We’ll see if this statement is enough to convince Anne’s detractors, or whether she’ll be forced to address the controversy in one of her future appearances / interviews.