Good Night And Good Blog

…Or not: George Clooney claims that Arianna Huffington used quotes he provided her to make it appear that he was one of the celebrity posters on the Huff-Blog:

Oscar-winner George Clooney may make politically provocative films like “Syriana.” But he doesn’t write politically provocative blogs.

So imagine his ire when Arianna Huffington used some of his recent answers to political questions in a way that makes it look as if he wrote one for her Huffington Post blog site.

“He doesn’t object to the quotes,” says Stan Rosenfield, Clooney’s rep. “He said those things and those are his views. Arianna asked for permission to use the quotes and he gave it to her. What he didn’t give permission for was the use of his quotes without source attributions to make it appear that he wrote a blog for her site. Which he did not. When he saw the posting Monday, we called and asked her to make the change, to simply attribute the quotes and make it clear that he did not write a blog. But she refused. And it’s now Wednesday.”

Rather than keep waiting, Clooney got pro-active and issued this statement:

“Miss Huffington’s blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog. With my permission Miss Huffington compiled it from interviews with Larry King and The Guardian. What she most certainly did not get my permission to do is to combine only my answers in a blog that misleads the reader into thinking that I wrote this piece. These are not my writings – they are answers to questions and there is a huge difference.”

Maybe Clooney’s still channeling the 1950s of Good Night And Good Luck–I do like the “Miss Huffington”: Since “Ms.” came into fashion in the 1970s, it’s rather charmingly retro. As is the large box Clooney is shown carrying, which contains hundreds of micro-thin slices of cellulose pulp (as opposed to celluloid pulp) that can be decorated and assembled into some sort of pre-Internet era communications device by skilled artisans and tradesmen.

Update: Miss Huffington responds to Mr. Clooney.

Another Update: Max Boot urges Clooney to come out of the closet and reveal once again the secret inner-neocon of his past. And while Syrianna trashes American business, it’s worth noting that Clooney once happily portrayed one of the most powerful–and unilateral–American millionaires of them all…