London Mayor Compares George Clooney to Hitler

Clooney has Boris Johnson in a huff over Elgin Marbles
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 14, 2014 10:47 AM CST
London Mayor Compares George Clooney to Hitler
George Clooney arrives for the French Premiere of "The Monuments Men" at the UGC Normandie in Paris on Feb. 12.   (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

Let's just say George Clooney is on London Mayor Boris Johnson's bad side. Clooney's latest film, Monuments Men, deals with artwork that was looted by the Nazis and later returned to the rightful owners—and while promoting the movie, Clooney was asked about the Elgin Marbles, friezes, and sculptures that were removed from the Parthenon by the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the 1800s and sold to the British government. Clooney said the idea of Britain returning them to Greece was "probably the right thing to do," the Telegraph reports. Enter Boris Johnson.

"Someone urgently needs to restore George Clooney’s marbles," Johnson said. "Here he is plugging a film about looted Nazi art without realizing that Goring himself had plans to plunder the British Museum," where the 2,500-year-old sculptures are currently held. "And where were the Nazis going to send the Elgin Marbles? To Athens! This Clooney is advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London’s cultural treasures. He should stuff the Hollywood script and stick to history." Clooney's co-stars Matt Damon and Bill Murray appeared to agree with Clooney; according to the Independent, Murray said that perhaps Greece would "loan [the sculptures] back every once in a while." (More George Clooney stories.)

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