GEORGE CLOONEY - CLOONEY PREFERS SUBTLE POLITICS

Staunch Democrat GEORGE CLOONEY refuses to shout about his political beliefs like film-maker MICHAEL MOORE, preferring to use a subtle approach to make people think.

The Oscar-nominated actor/director is against US President GEORGE W BUSH and the war in Iraq, and is horrified when far-right Republicans accuse him of being anti-American just because he doesn't support their conservative views.

Clooney says, "They (Republicans) organised a picket for the movie I was in. SEAN PENN and TIM ROBBINS were on the list, the usual guys, and WOODY HARRELSON, who calls me up and goes, 'What do we do?' And Michael Moore is going, 'What you have to do is...' and I said, 'Let me handle this one.' Because some of them tend to be heavy-handed. And I find that humour is a much better way to do it.

"I don't Michael Moore this s**t. I don't come out and go, 'Look, what these f**kers do.'

"The truth is, it is not merely your right, but your duty to question your government. You can't demand freedom of speech and then say, but don't say bad things about me.

"In 2003, I was saying, where are the ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda? Where are these ties to 9/11? I knew it, where the f**k were these Democrats who said, 'We were misled.' F**k you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."