by emad » Sun Jan 22, 2006 1:28 pm
George, you don't know Jack, says Abramoff's father<br>By Nicholas Wapshott in New York<br>(Filed: 22/01/2006)<br><br>The actor George Clooney has come under attack from the father of Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist facing jail over influence-peddling charges, after making an "obscene" joke about his son's name.<br><br>In a crack delivered while accepting the best actor prize at the Golden Globes film awards in Beverly Hills last week, Clooney, an outspoken Democrat, made fun of Abramoff's father and mother for picking the name Jack.<br><br> <br>George Clooney: 'No wonder that guy is screwed up' <br>"Who would name their kid Jack with the last word '-off ' at the end of your last name?" he asked. "No wonder that guy is screwed up."<br><br>The remarks, made in front of an audience at the Beverly Hilton and broadcast to 19 million television viewers worldwide, infuriated Abramoff's father Frank, 78, who was watching the show with his family at his home in Palm Springs, California.<br><br>In an open letter to his local newspaper, he launched a strong attack on both Clooney and the wider Hollywood establishment - generally seen by America's Right as a bastion of naive, Left-wing liberalism.<br><br>"Oh, how far Hollywood has fallen," said his letter to the Desert Sun. "Your glib and ridiculous attack on my son, Jack, coupled with your obscene query as to the choice his mother and I made in naming him brought shame and dishonour on you and your profession."<br><br>Mr Abramoff added that on hearing Clooney's remarks, his 12-year-old granddaughter - one of his son's five children - burst into tears. "Are you proud of that?" he asked. "One wonders how your father would respond, were the roles reversed."<br><br>He went on to explain that Jack was his own father's name, telling Mr Clooney: "You decided to take a gratuitous slap at my son, my family and even my dear departed father. Is this the tradition of Gable, Bogart, Pacino and Burton? Are you the heir to the dignity and greatness of Hollywood's past, or more likely a portent to a depressing and horrific future?"<br><br>Clooney, 44, has already come under attack from Republicans after using his recent films to broadcast an increasingly overt message about America's political climate.<br><br>He won his best actor Golden Globe for playing a CIA operative in the political thriller Syriana, which has attracted criticism from Republicans for showing America's enemies in a sympathetic light.<br><br>His previous film, Good Night and Good Luck, a biography of the broadcaster Ed Murrow, also had a political theme, reviving memories of McCarthy's witch-hunt against "Communists" in Hollywood in the 1950.<br><br>His attack on Abramoff could not have come at a more sensitive time in Republican circles. The lobbyist, who counted several senior party figures among his associates, pleaded guilty on January 3 to fraud, tax evasion and illegally influencing lawmakers by showering them with gifts, money and free holidays. In return for a reduced sentence he has agreed to co-operate with a federal inquiry that could focus on as many as 20 members of Congress and become the worst ethics scandal on Capital Hill in years.<br><br>Clooney has so far ignored Frank Abramoff's protest, but his own father, the former television news journalist Nick Clooney, has weighed in robustly on his behalf. "I understand what it is like to have one's son criticised in a very public way," Mr Clooney Snr, who lives in Kentucky, told a Desert Sun reporter.<br><br>"It's very painful and it's very difficult. The difference here, and it must be said, is Mr Abramoff's son, instead of pursing some positive efforts to do what he hoped would change the climate of American politics, has confessed and has been convicted by that confession of subverting the political process."<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/22/wcloon22.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/22/ixworld.html">www.telegraph.co.uk/news/...world.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
