Fox News' Eric Bolling Jokes About George Clooney Being Gay, Must Start Digging Himself Out of Dumb-Joke Hole

"I have to do this again, I have to clarify the clarification," he ended the segment on The Five after apparently being instructed to reiterate that he was kidding

By Natalie Finn Apr 29, 2014 12:43 AMTags
Eric Bolling, George ClooneyGetty Images

This pretty much proves it: No one, anywhere, wants to tick off George Clooney.

Fox News' Eric Bolling made a crack while discussing the Oscar winner's engagement during The Five today, and then insisted a couple times over by the end of the segment that he did not mean it.

So, what did he say?

"Find someone who makes you laugh and you'll have a great life...It's clear, though. George Clooney's gay," Bollins said, pretty randomly, while on the topic of what goes into making a happy marriage. Even his four cohosts seemed startled and there was an audible gasp from one of them.

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"Now, he watches the show," Bolling continued, holding out a wait-a-sec hand as if he was sharing some sort of inside joke between himself and Clooney.

"Let me explain. For all the ladies out there who think he's amazing, just admit it. He's either gay or he's married, just get over it. Move on, there's got to be somebody else."

So Bolling was trying to make a joke about how Clooney can't be perfect in every way as so many of his fans would happily argue, so being either gay or taken by another woman would be the fly in the ointment for all the ladies who love him.

But the resounding thud you hear is the result of his ill-advised attempt at wink-wink celebrity-crush humor.

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The conversation carried on for another 40 seconds or so before Bolling broke in to add, "Wait, wait: They want me to make sure I point out that I was kidding about Clooney—get it? He's either gay or married, so he's off the market, so stop dreaming about George Clooney? That was the point."

"They" presumably being those who don't want Fox News getting sued.

And again, at the end of the segment, after they had moved on to another topic, Bolling reiterated: "I have to do this again, I have to clarify the clarification. I was kidding about the George Clooney thing. He's married—he's off the market," he quickly corrected himself as a nod to the fact that Clooney isn't married, either.

"That's all, that's all I've got to say," he laughed, holding up his hands in mock-surrender. (Thanks to Mediaite for clipping the whole thing.)

But Clooney has never been one to get up in arms over idle commentary. In fact, he handles rumors with the same humor and class he handles pretty much everything else.

He told Esquire U.K. just last year, when asked about rumors of him being gay, "[A headline read] 'George Clooney's Gay-Gay-Gay.' And I said, 'I'm gay-gay. The third one's pushing it.'"

And to The Advocate in 2012, he said about the persistent chatter, "I think it's funny, but the last thing you'll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, 'These are lies!' That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community.

"I'm not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I'm very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I'm gay? I'll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don't give a s--t."