George Clooney has dismissed comments made about him by Boris Johnson as ‘too much hyperbole washed down with a few whiskies’.
The actor spoke out after the London mayor criticised him for suggesting Britain should return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. The 52-year-old American told a Berlin press conference for his new film, The Monuments Men, earlier this month that the artefacts should be returned. Responding to a question by a Greek journalist, Mr Clooney said: ‘I think you have a very good case to make about your artefacts.
‘Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were returned. I think that is a good idea.
‘I think that would be a very fair and very nice thing. Yeah, I think it is the right thing to do.’
The mayor of London later replied to the comments by claiming the actor was ‘advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London’s cultural treasures’.
But Mr Clooney has now dismissed the retort with one of his own.
‘I’m a great fan of the mayor, and I’m sure my right honourable friend had no real intention of comparing me to Hitler. I’d chalk it up to a little too much hyperbole washed down with a few whiskies. I’ve found myself in the same spot a time or two so I hold no ill will,’ he told the Huffington Post.
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