George Clooney

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations had some harsh words for George Clooney and Ben Affleck this weekend.

In a taped interview that aired on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS Sunday, Mohammad Khazaee called "Argo" weak saying, "The producer of the film that is known as ambassador of peace, as I heard, should be ashamed...I would like to invite the producer and the director of the film to travel to Iran, and when they travel to Iran, the day after they will apologize from the big nation of Iran for producing such a weak film" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported, Barack Obama did a lavish fundraiser at the Nokia Theater in Hollywood on Sunday.

According to comedian Jimmy Kimmel, the President was in Los Angeles "with his agent taking meetings in case it doesn't work out next month" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary).

Charlie Rose and Gayle King gushed over network forebear Walter Cronkite on Tuesday's CBS This Morning, as they interviewed left-leaning presidential historian Douglas Brinkley about his new book on the journalist. King touted Cronkite as a "legend," while Rose played up the former CBS Evening News anchor's friendship with actor George Clooney and his father. Both anchors ignored how Brinkley documented the anchor's unabashed slant to the left and sometimes unethical conduct.

CNN's Howard Kurtz relied on Brinkley's book in a May 21, 2012 article for The Daily Beast as he pointed out that Cronkite was "far more liberal than the public believed, and he let it show in unacceptable ways." Kurtz also spotlighted some of the deceased journalist's "more serious infractions." But instead of mentioning these details, King zeroed-in on an anecdote of Cronkite attending stripteases as a supposed example of how the anchor was "a very human being, too."

He's a college dropout who has yet to hold elected office.

Yet CNN's Piers Morgan on Friday night said, "Whenever I see George Clooney, I always get a sneaking feeling that we may one day be considering him as a serious candidate for president" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

For months, the Obama-loving media have been carping and whining about all the money going to conservative Super PACs in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling back in 2010.

Yet as you can see from the following segment on MSNBC's Martin Bashir show Thursday, the press are giddy over the prospect the president will raise up to $15 million at actor George Clooney's campaign event later this evening (video follows with transcript and commentary):

If only President Barack Obama were a Republican, then the public would realize he has been “a very successful” President, but Democrats, actor/activist George Clooney fretted, “are just very poor...at explaining” their accomplishments. The assessment from Clooney, who also declared “the President that I voted for, I’m very proud of,” came in a Meet the Press online “Press Pass” sit-down with David Gregory aired on the real Meet the Press. Clooney imagined that if he and Obama were Republicans:

In January, many thousands of Americans coming in on planes, trains, and automobiles to protest abortion for the "March for Life" were relegated to the bottom of the front page of the Metro section (and about 11 pro-abortion activists got equal billing). But just one protester was awarded a huge splash across most of Saturday's Style section. That would be one George Clooney, going through the typical liberal trespass-arrest protest at the Sudanese embassy.

"In tails and cuffs" were the large words above a 5-by-7-inch picture of Clooney in plastic handcuffs. Under Aaron Leitko's byline, these words came in subhead type: "A good way to close out a hectic week in Washington: Orchestrate your own arrest. For a good cause, of course." There were only five paragraphs of honorific text (some of it highlighted in yellow), but four color pictures. All told, it splashed eight inches across and 18 inches down to the bottom of the page -- 144 square inches of front-page Style goo.

Occupy Wall Street attacks income inequality and the richest 1 percent, adopting as its slogan ''we are the 99 percent.'' In October, its protesters staged a ''millionaires march' 'in New York City, parading to the homes of wealthy citizens such as Rupert Murdoch and David Koch. But only some riches bother the Occupiers, who have ignored the massive wealth of celebrities in their own ranks.

The top 25 richest celebrities supporting Occupy Wall Street, according to the website Celebrity Net Worth, possess a combined net worth just over $4 billion.

Parade Magazine, the nationally distributed Sunday newspaper supplement had a cover reading "GEORGE CLOONEY FOR PRESIDENT" on Sunday. "In his new movie, at least," it said in smaller type.

Inside we were supposed to read a "candid conversation" with CNN political analyst David Gergen -- who was entirely too candid in describing how hanging out with Clooney at his Lake Como villa in Italy led to a "nasty hangover" and "nonstop fun." Apparently, there was Gergen swimming in underpants in the middle of the night. Is this how journalists behave to "soften up their subject"? Clooney can't just wine and dine with the women. He also knows how to seduce journalists into giving him what he wants: puffball publicity. Gergen wrote:

It's one thing for my favorite political podcaster, the National Review's John Derbyshire, to assert, as he is often wont to do, that multi-culturalism doesn't work.  But George Clooney?

Yet that was the point the actor seemed to make, appearing on Morning Joe today to discuss the recent referendum in which the people of southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly to secede from the north.

View video after the jump.

George Clooney on Friday exposed Bill Maher's ignorant hatred for conservatives.

During a discussion with the actor, director, and activist on HBO's "Real Time," Maher pathetically said, " I don't think conservatives are bad people. I think they have a hard time being empathetic to people who are not like them at all."

Clooney's answer will not only surprise you, but also visibly stopped Maher in his tracks (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Tell me if this movie doesn't have "bomb" written all over it. First of all it is being written by Aaron Sorkin. Secondly it is being produced by George Clooney. Finally, the movie theme has BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) at its center. Is this not the perfect formula for yet another leftwing movie that is destined to die at the box office? How long before Hollywood finally figures out that such movies are always doomed to fail bigtime? 

The most recent such box office failure of a leftwing film is "Che" which so far has grossed a grand total of only a million bucks. Perhaps the producers knew in advance that this flick would be a bomb which is why it is already available on Pay-Per-View. Remember Oliver Stone's "W?" If you have forgotten it even existed, that is because it died a quick death at the box office immediately upon release last October.

Both of these movies suffered exactly the same fate as all the other leftwing movies produced in the past few years by Hollywood. "Redacted?" DEAD!  "Rendition?" DEAD! "Syriana?" DEAD! "Stop Loss?" DEAD!  And on and on and on it goes. So do you think Hollywood has finally learned its lesson? According to Variety, the answer is no:

As the city of Denver prepares for this week's Democratic convention, numerous Hollywood celebs are planning to attend in support of Barack Obama and to advocate for pet issues. Gushes Variety,

When Barack Obama accepts the nomination before some 75,000 people at a Denver stadium on Thursday, he'll be surrounded by a contingent of average Americans from all walks of life --- just not Hollywood performers, musicians and other famous figures who have so publicly championed his candidacy.

So what, exactly, will be the role of celebrity during the week of the Democratic National Convention?

Democrats love their celebrities, and academia, well, they'll settle for celebrities' fathers. Cinncinatti.com's John Kiesewetter reports that Nick Clooney, George's dad, will be the "distinguished journalist in residence" at the American University in Washington D.C.

If George Clooney's dad, Nick Clooney, can be a professor of journalism, maybe I gave George's foreign policy chops short shrift. 

MRC President and NewsBusters Publisher Brent Bozell appeared around 10:15 a.m. EDT on Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom" to discuss actor George Clooney's role in advising presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

Imagine, Megyn, what would happen if it transpired that in 2000 George Bush's foreign policy advisor was Billy Ray Cyrus, or if this year, McCain was being advised on foreign policy by Ted Nugent. The media would have a field day with something like that.

Audio available here.

With all the topics out there to make a movie about, would you ever want to spend money on and appear in a film focusing on Osama bin Laden's personal driver and bodyguard?

If you're one of the most liberal actor/director/producers in Hollywood, and your name is George Clooney, the answer is apparently "Yes."

As reported by the British Guardian Sunday (emphasis added, h/t Ace, photo courtesy Daily Mail):

Time magazine’s cover story on George Clooney ("The Last Movie Star") is a flop-sweat valentine from Joel Stein about how excited he was to host the "giant celebrity" Clooney for a bumbling dinner at his house, and how Clooney is an "Olympic-level" guest with his charm and good humor. The Time website even has video from Stein showing how lovable George crawled all over his house looking for the source of a beep. But there is one small break in Clooney’s suavity. He really hates Bill O’Reilly:

On its Tabloid Tidbits blog page, MSNBC is taking potshots at both one time pinup boy Fabio and current left-wing, heartthrob George Clooney in a Hollywood smack 'em up two fer. Now, I'm as unconcerned over the entertainment media beating up the denizens of Hollyweird as anyone else -- especially when one of them is the uncouth, surly, leftist Clooney -- but this one strikes me as interesting for the reason they are attacking Fabio; because of his act of chivalry. I guess entertainment reporters think it is odd, funny or execrable when a man sticks up for the virtue of a woman, now 'a days? Sadly, it appears that acts of chivalry opens one up for ridicule in today's Hollywood. They just can't stand any exhibition of traditional manhood out there on the left coast.

The Tabloid Tidbits section goes for Fabio's throat with its very first line

The 40th anniversary issue of Rolling Stone interviewed several top actors on their political views. Meryl Streep and George Clooney each disparaged conservatives in different ways. Streep compared the Bush administration to the Nazis, and Clooney compared conservatives to the Salem witch burners. In line with Streep's current role in the flop Lions for Lambs, Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers asked about playing the part of "the hated, compromised media," and she replied:

The dilemma of the journalist is everybody’s dilemma. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights protected the Fourth Estate so vehemently because we rely on these voices. And if we don’t have them, then God bless Sean Penn for speaking up. God bless the people who put themselves on the line to be fodder for Fox News and Rush Limbaugh’s next raise. We all have to be citizens first, and then whatever our job is.

The Nazi comparison came when Travers asked: How to do things change for the better?

Sometimes, after you read a story from the MSM, you have to sit back and say to yourself, "just what in the heck that was all about?" Such is the case with the AP's latest titled "Clooney: Obama's like a rock star," a story that seems to present George Clooney's political opinion as if he is somehow a respected policy wonk, political pundit, or a well-known intellectual. There is no pretext for this story presenting Clooney's political meanderings and no sensible reason why the AP is presenting his blather as news. The AP just presents it straight forwardly as if it is somehow news we all just need to know. All in all, it is an amazing report for its senselessness, cluelessness, and pointlessness. On the other hand, it fits to a tee with the APs editorial position on politics and the world and this fact alone surely accounts for its publication.