Alyssa Milano Reminds The View Hosts of Clooney Criticism After Thornton Slam

Hosts on The View took aim at actor Billy Bob Thornton for his reluctance to push political views, but co-host Alyssa Milano pointed out their earlier demand that George Clooney stay quiet.

Thornton, 70, star of Landman, shared his stance during an appearance on the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast. He paraphrased a Ricky Gervais line about award shows: "Get your little award and f--- off."

"I don't know anything about politics," Thornton said. "I have no idea. And the stuff that I do believe, I don't want to force it down somebody else's throat because I'm not an expert on that."

Whoopi Goldberg showed no offense at the comment. Joy Behar, however, dismissed it: "Imagine bragging about how uninformed you are."

Sunny Hostin piled on. "We are at a crisis point in this country," she said. "I think democracy is participatory. I think when you have a platform, that means I have an outsized voice and when you have a platform, I think that you have a responsibility to speak up about what's going on in this country and my view silence is complicity. We need every single ally to speak out."

Alyssa Farah Griffin pushed back. "A, Billy Bob Thornton is one of my favorite actors. I'm never going to say a bad word about him, starting with that," she said. "But B, a lot of this table criticized George Clooney when he wrote his Biden op-ed."

"That is a celebrity using his voice, saying what he believes, it can't just be when they agree with your position," Griffin added.

Behar shot back: "He can say it and I can criticize it, that's called free speech."

Griffin then targeted celebrity slacktivism, where stars issue political statements without deeper involvement. "I don't think we should bully people," she said, "saying, 'You have to speak out.'"