To be fair, she didn’t say she was giving a talk, guess it could have been a side conversation. It would seem more likely in a little side conversation.

However, at least when it happened to me, the other person remembered the paper but not the author, so it seems weird to refer to the paper by author. Also it feels weird even if he did remember to throw in the “et al”. It’s extra weird for her to declare that she is “McCarty et al”, since she is saying she is “and others”. It feels like a detail thrown in to make the exchange sound more “sciencey”, when it doesn’t make sense.

Since I had it happen to me, I’m sure it’s happened to other paper writers, but this exchange doesn’t sound like a realistic way for it to go down. So it’s at least massaged for dramatic effect.