Actor George Clooney has singled out a fundamental hypocrisy of Donald Trump's administration: they're part of the "Hollywood elite" that their supporters supposedly reject.
The label, a sure-bet on conservative blogs and alt-right Twitter, has become a regular throwaway among Trump's supporters, so often levelled at outspoken celebrities as a way of deriding their largely liberal views.
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Appearing on the French TV program Recontres de Cinema, Clooney – who publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton at the 2016 US election – flipped the accusation while defending Meryl Streep's anti-Trump acceptance speech at last month's Golden Globes.
"This is the part that makes me a little crazy. When Meryl spoke, everyone on that one side was like, 'Well, Hollywood elitist, Hollywood speaking'," he said.
![George Clooney and wife, barrister Amal Clooney.](/web/20170223143134im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/9/q/6/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gujcad.png/1487810548418.jpg)
"Donald Trump has 22 acting credits," Clooney said, referencing the president's cameos on everything from Home Alone 2 to The Nanny and Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
"He collects $US120,000 ($156,000) a year from a Screen Actor's Guild pension fund. He is a Hollywood elitist."
"Steve Bannon is a failed film writer and director. That's the truth, that's what he's done," he added, turning his attention to Trump's controversial chief strategist.
Bannon's pre-political forays into Hollywood are well documented. Before directing documentaries on conservative heroes like Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin, he was producing festival-bait like Julie Taymor's Titus and The Indian Runner by that other famous liberal "Hollywood elite", Sean Penn.
!["Hollywood elites" Donald Trump and Steve Bannon.](/web/20170223143134im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/2/t/u/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gujcad.png/1487810548418.jpg)
"[Bannon] wrote a Shakespearean rap musical about the LA riots that he couldn't get made, you know, which is a shock," Clooney mocked.
"He made a lot of money off Seinfeld. He's elitist – Hollywood. That's the reality, if you want to look at it that way."
"So I look at when people say Meryl shouldn't speak up – of course she should speak up," he added, defending his Fantastic Mr Fox co-star.
"She has every right to speak up. She's an American citizen, and she was an American citizen long before she was an icon."
It's not the first time that Clooney – who's currently directing the crime thriller Suburbicon, starring Matt Damon – has hit back at Trump and his administration.
"I didn't vote for him, I don't support him, and I don't think he's the right choice," the actor said when asked to comment following Trump's infamous "over-rated" Twitter quip at Streep.