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I am very pleased to report that [the] National Enquirer was prevailed upon not to publish a story,” Shields’s attorney, Gerald Lefcourt told People. “Further, it has or will be apologizing publicly. Finally, it has agreed to make a generous donation to further research on dementia and to encourage others to do so.”

The tabloid says that the reporter was not on assignment, but working as a freelancer.

After the incident Shields said, “They then drove my 75-year-old mother around looking for a tabloid story. As anyone knows who has a parent who suffers from dementia or Alzheimer’s, it is one of the most difficult experiences you can go through as a son or daughter. The idea that the National Enquirer took advantage of her state is reprehensible and disgusting.”

Alzheimer’s sufferers may still have a rich recall of childhood memories, beloved songs and complex activities, such as playing tennis, but not remember the name of a grandchild.

But the significance of such memory lapses depends on how forgetful you always have been and whether you were focused and paying attention when you learned someone’s name or set off to get something in the next room. Distraction often causes lapses in people with perfectly intact cognition — mainly because the initial stimulus was incompletely processed.

“You never really learn it if you don’t pay attention,” says Small, author of “The Memory Bible” and a new book, “iBrain.”

When a person who has always been meticulous about keeping appointments starts missing them, that is a worrisome change. A person who has always been a bit disorganized or easily distracted may have other problems, including attention deficit disorder or chronic depression.

If the memory lapses are consistent with a lifelong pattern, our experts say it’s unlikely to be Alzheimer’s disease.