George Clooney recently stuck up for himself against Megyn Kelly, but the former Fox News anchor did not take his criticism lightly.
During Clooney’s appearance alongside Patti LuPone on Variety‘s Broadway Actors on Actors, LuPone noted that Clooney has been labeled “a communist” and “a fascist” for his political activism. This prompted the “Ocean’s Eleven” star to open up about his critics.
“I don’t care much in terms of what they say,” Clooney said. “We don’t tell people what to think when we show that montage at the end, for instance. You see Megyn Kelly, who’s come out and said I’m not a journalist. I didn’t say I was a journalist.”
In the Broadway play “Good Night, and Good Luck,” an adaptation of Clooney’s 2005 movie of the same name, he plays famed journalist Edward R. Murrow. At the end of the play, there’s a montage that features real-life news clips with Kelly, Elon Musk and more.
Clooney continued, “I’ve at least been to Darfur and Sudan and the Congo and been shot at to try to get stories out. I’m not quite sure what she’s done to be a journalist. Having said that, we only show her words in this play. We don’t tell people what to think. It’s not out of context. We don’t manipulate it. We literally just go, ‘These are your words.’”
Kelly was eager to strike back at Clooney on the April 23 episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show,” devoting the opening 11 minutes to make the case that she is a journalist and Clooney is not, despite him thinking so. She also criticized Clooney’s New York Times op-ed last year in which he called for President Biden to step aside for a new nominee.
“He’s starring in a play about Edward R. Murrow because Clooney fancies himself a journalist, you see, and has lots of thoughts on how journalists need to do journalism,” she said. “He does it mainly by stumbling upon the biggest story of the decade, that a sitting president is mentally infirm and ought to be 25th Amendment’ed right out of office, and then burying it, saying absolutely nothing for weeks on end, and then only after that president humiliates himself on the national stage at a Presidential debate, and then refuses to step down as the entire Democrat Party watches its electoral chances up and down the ticket go swirling down the toilet. Finally he decides to write an op-ed in The New York Times saying Joe Biden is not up for the job. That’s not journalism, George — it’s cowardice and naked partisanship. You’re not fooling anyone. So now he’s starring in his Broadway show … by the way, what’s the matter, George? Are the Hollywood roles getting a little hard to come by as you age and get decidedly more smug and self congratulatory? I’m just asking!”
Kelly then went on to outline some of her biggest interviews in her career, from Donald Trump to everyday Americans. She even got some stray shots at LuPone, calling her “Broadway’s biggest and oldest bully.”
