NYDailyNews

Furious George Clooney Riles O'Reilly

George Clooney is going after talkmeister Bill O'Reilly.

Yesterday, Clooney fired off a letter to the Fox News Channel host who claimed last week that Clooney and other celebrity "phonies" were afraid to come on "The O'Reilly Factor" to discuss where the millions of dollars they raised for Sept. 11 victims are going.

"People are coming up to me and asking if it's true that the telethon was a fraud," Clooney wrote O'Reilly. "Because of your unsubstantiated, untrue statement about the September 11 Fund, you, Mr. O'Reilly, will be taking money away from people who need it."

Insisting that the fund is being handled "responsibly," Clooney compared O'Reilly with witch-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy and accused him of peddling "a lie" to boost his ratings during a "sweeps" month.

Clooney went on to admit he and other stars lied about being too busy to come on his show.

"We weren't too busy," wrote Clooney. "If you were Peter Jennings, or Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw ... or pretty much anybody else, we would have dropped everything and explained what we know. You see, Bill, these are journalists. ... We were just trying to not hurt your feelings."

O'Reilly didn't sound hurt when we called him.

"I'm glad George Clooney is finally getting involved," said the gladiator of gab, who speculated that Clooney's "foolish letter" was probably "written by pinhead publicists." (Clooney's rep says no.)

"There are no sweeps weeks on cable," noted O'Reilly, who also said: "We have been meticulous in our reporting. If he doesn't think I'm a real journalist, fine. He should come on and debate me."

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001