Newspaper apologises for embarrassing typo in Julia Roberts headline

A local newspaper became the laughing stock of the town – and now the world – after publishing a rather unfortunate typo in a headline about Hollywood actress Julia Roberts. 

New York state paper The Post-Journal published a seemingly innocent article about Roberts over the weekend, only to later discover it had printed a very incorrect headline.

The text should have read “Julia Roberts finds life and her roles get better with age” but was instead printed as “Julia Robert finds life and her holes get better with age”.

@TheEllenShow can’t believe this headline in our local paper… Julia Roberts will be glad to know her holes are getting better with age😂😂 pic.twitter.com/gvZkOsBjyN

— elizabeth (@eadavisus) December 9, 2018

What followed was an Associated Press article in which Roberts spoke about her changing roles and how she was shifting away from the romantic comedies that made her famous early in her career.

“With age comes more complexity of possible parts,” Roberts said. “You know, I’m happy and I have fun at home, so it would take a lot for someone to say: ‘Look, you can play this part where you’re happy and have fun.’ Well, I just do that at home!”

The newspaper was promptly alerted to its mistake by amused readers and published a correction in its next edition. However, it was a case of too little too late as local residents had already shared photos of the blunder online. 

One local woman even used Twitter to alert talk show host Ellen DeGeneres to the gaffe, sending the photo viral in the process. 

Thankfully, the newspaper can take solace in the fact it’s not the only publication to make a major stuff-up in recent years as The Washington Post Express also fell victim to a rare public error in 2017.

Trying to draw attention to a women’s rights march that took place the day after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the publication accidentally printed the symbol for the male gender instead of the female on its cover. 

Washington Post's 'Express' magazine celebrates women's protest march with the largest typo ever. jc pic.twitter.com/Ws2yPxEONz

— Minds at Work (@minds_at_work) January 6, 2017

People on social media didn’t let it go unnoticed either with one person describing it as a “Major design fail by Washington Post Express… [that] sets a high bar for all design fails to come”, while another labeled it “pathetically hilarious”.

https://www.facebook.com/washingtonpostexpress/photos/a.10150753591695775/10154806501665775/?type=3&theater

Read more: ‘World’s Largest Typo’ embarrasses major publication

To their credit, the paper’s editors issued a statement on Facebook about their error, saying: “We made a big mistake on our cover illustration this morning and we’re very embarrassed about it. We erroneously used a male symbol instead of a female symbol. This is how the cover should have looked. We apologize [sic] for the mistake.”

Starts at 60 isn’t immune to unfortunate typos either having let a few slip through the cracks over the years, including one that told readers to mix recipe ingredients in a “bowel” rather than a “bowl”.

Perhaps the most famous newspaper typo in Australia though came from the Financial Review in 2014, when it published a front page that still contained the sub-editors’ dummy text including the words “world is fukt”. 

Did this give you a laugh?