Misquoted  Malkovich cancels Israel trip

John Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year after a PR firm hired by the show attributed quotes to the actor that the company had written.

Malkovich, who is a leading Oscar contender for his role in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, was due to appear in The Music Critic, a theatrical-musical satire composed by the Jewish violinist Aleksey Igudesman, in Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium on 13 April.

A press release circulated on 5 September quoted Malkovich as saying he was “thrilled to return to Israel” and looked “forward to meeting the warm Israeli audience once again, to whom I feel a strong closeness and solidarity”.

The actor, 72, was alerted to the quotes after reading them in the Hollywood Reporter, which picked them up from the Jerusalem Post. In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter on 8 September, Malkovich said that a “PR company hired by the Israeli promoter drafted a quote for the article that was attributed to me, though I never made the statements that were quoted, nor was I consulted before they were printed.”