George Clooney, Arianna Huffington clash over blog posting on Iraq war

George Clooney is demanding a political commentator clarify that he did not write a blog posted on a website and says instead he only gave permission for his comments in published interviews to be compiled there.

Clooney gave political commentator Arianna Huffington permission to use a compilation of his critiques of the Iraq war from interviews with CNN's Larry King and London newspaper The Guardian, but wasn't happy with the result.

"Miss Huffington's blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts," Clooney, 44, said in a statement issued Wednesday. "I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog."

In Monday's profanity-filled posting, Democrats are faulted for muting their views and criticism of the Bush administration in the months before the start of the Iraq war.

Huffington has denied any wrongdoing.

A rebuttal on her website claims she and her staff initially compiled a "sample blog" for Clooney from his interview answers because he wasn't sure how a blog worked.

Huffington said that after she sent Clooney the sample, a film publicist e-mailed her and three days later approved it, without any changes.

"This was an honest misunderstanding," she wrote. "But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing."

Clooney's publicist Stan Rosenfield disagreed.

"It's not a misunderstanding, it's misrepresentation," he said. "She knows what she was doing. She was saying to people that she had George Clooney's blog and was printing it. George Clooney does not make statements. He answers questions."

Rosenfield said Clooney had requested an addendum of clarification to the posting.

Clooney, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for the political thriller Syriana, also garnered attention for 2005's Good Night, and Good Luck, a film about CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow that Clooney directed and appeared in.