Clooney on Barbara Walters tomorrow...

[Blue Belle]

A Preview of Barbara Walters' Special...

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/Oscars2006/story?id=1671247&page=1&entertainment=true

<SNIP> George Clooney has always enjoyed playing the lighthearted ladies man. But at age 44, he is being taken seriously. Clooney is the first person ever to receive an Oscar nomination for directing and writing on one movie —"Good Night and Good Luck" — and for acting in another — "Syriana."

<SNIP> The son of a broadcast journalist himself, Clooney says he has long respected Murrow and believed that the story of Murrow's showdown with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who exploited Americans' Cold War fears by fanning anti-communist hysteria, resonated with our time. "I really liked the words that were being said by Edward R. Murrow in 1953 and 1954. We had just gone through the lead up to the war and I'd been in a couple of interviews and said what I believed. We should have some questions before we send off a 150,000 kids to get shot at. And the administration said you're either with us or with the enemy. Not just with us or against us. But with us or with the enemy, an act of treason," Clooney tells Walters.

The political backlash that followed the film's release and the criticism that he was "unpatriotic" frustrated him, Clooney admits.

"I was very upset. I grew up a patriot, and I am a patriot you know. I grew up a liberal in Kentucky, but to me the idea of questioning your government was not just your right but was in fact your duty," he tells Walters.

"Syriana," a thriller about corruption in the global oil market, is also a politically provocative film — a far cry from the lighthearted fare of "Batman" and "Ocean's Eleven." And Clooney is up for a best supporting actor award for his role in that film.

I may have to tune in tomorrow... Clooney, McDreamy and Matty - Oh My! :loveya: