As hosts of “The View” criticized actor Billy Bob Thornton for criticizing politically outspoken celebrities, co-host Alyssa Milano reminded them of the time they told actor George Clooney to keep his mouth shut.
During an appearance on the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, the “Landman” actor, 70, explained why he’s never been one to use his Hollywood platform to force political or personal beliefs on others, paraphrasing a famous Ricky Gervais quote warning against political speeches during an award show, “Get your little award and f— off.”
“I don’t know anything about politics,” Thornton said. “I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don’t want to force it down somebody else’s throat because I’m not an expert on that.”
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While co-host Whoopi Goldberg did not seem offended by the statement, co-host Joy Behar responded with contempt, saying, “Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying, “We are at a crisis point in this country. I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform, that means I have an outsized voice and when you have a platform, I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what’s going on in this country and my view silence is complicity. We need every single ally to speak out.”
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin responded by noting, “A, Billy Bob Thornton is one of my favorite actors. I’m never going to say a bad word about him, starting with that. But B, a lot of this table criticized George Clooney when he wrote his Biden op-ed.”
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“That is a celebrity using his voice, saying what he believes, it can’t just be when they agree with your position,” Griffin added.
“He can say it and I can criticize it, that’s called free speech,” Behar retorted.
Griffin went on to criticize what she called “slacktivism,” where celebrities feel righteous for sending out political statements without getting meaningfully involved in the actual work of politics themselves.
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“I don’t think we should bully people,” she added, “saying, ‘You have to speak out.’”
Co-host Sara Haines agreed, arguing that celebrities making bombastic political statements are just preaching to the choir of people who already agree with them and are enraging those who disagree with them.
