[R-G] Re: George Clooney Exhorts Americans to Speak Out re: Iraq

[DavidMcR at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/23/03 2:31:02 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
geese4peace at yahoo.com writes:

<< http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20030222/ap_en_ce/britai

n_clooney
 
 
 Entertainment - AP Gossip/Celebrity 
  
 Clooney Exhorts Americans to Speak Out 
 Sat Feb 22, 2003  
 
 LONDON (AP) — President Bush and his administration are manipulating
 Americans into supporting war on Iraq, Hollywood heartthrob George
 Clooney says. 
 
 The former "ER" star told a British radio program to be broadcast this
 weekend that the administration "did a very smart thing, first of all
 trying to tie Sept. 11 to (Saddam) Hussein and then to stand up and
 say, 'You're either with the administration or with the enemy,' which
 works directly opposite of the idea of freedom of speech and freedom of
 dissent." 
 
 "It's the founding principle and it's not just your right but your
 patriotic duty to question the actions of your government," Clooney
 said, according to a partial transcript released Saturday by the
 British Broadcasting Corp. 
 
 Clooney, 41, said he attended a half-million-strong anti-war march last
 week when he was in the German capital to attend the Berlin Film
 Festival. 
 
 "It was an amazingly different feeling," said Clooney, who was in
 London this week to launch his directorial debut, "Confessions of a
 Dangerous Mind." 
 
 "There's a difference when the people are marching in praise of their
 government's stance as opposed to trying to fight against it," he
 noted. 
 
 Clooney appeared on "Desert Island Discs," in which guests discuss the
 records they would like to accompany them into exile on a desert
 island. 
 
 Most guests choose favorite pieces of music, but Clooney picked "Star
 Trek" actor William Shatner's monotone version of The Beatles' "Lucy in
 the Sky With Diamonds." 
 
 "You need a reason to get off the island, and if you play William
 Shatner singing 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' then you will hollow
 out your own leg and make a canoe out of it to get off this island,"
 Clooney said. 
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