George Clooney rips reporter for questioning his refugee work

AAT A Berlin Film Festival press conference for his new movie, "Hail, Caesar," George Clooney lost his cool when a reporter questioned his commitment to the refugee crisis affecting Germany and much of Europe.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that Clooney, one of the most activist of actors, was understandably miffed.

"I spend a lot of time working on these things, and it's an odd thing to have someone stand up and say, 'What do you do?' That's fine, knock yourself out," Clooney said. "I have gone to places that are very dangerous and I work a lot on these things."

Clooney said he is meeting today with German chancellor Angela Merkel and some recently-arrived refugees to highlight the issue. "I'd like to know what you are doing to help the situation?" Clooney at one point asked the journalist.

Hugh Hefner's 24-year-old son, Cooper, talked to Business Insider about how annoyed he was that Playboy magazine, his daddy's baby, has dropped nude photos. He's also peeved the company has put the Playboy Mansion on the market.

Cooper said he has a very different vision for the company from CEO, Scott Flanders and that he wants the company to be around in 15 years.

Cooper, if you can figure that out you're going to be richer than your daddy.

When you divorce songs from albums like iTunes has done so successfully, you minimize the value of albums (whose sales continue to drop).

When you divorce individual stories from newspapers as the Internet has done so successfully, people read only the "news" they want and stop buying the papers.

Politicians used to be judged on their speeches, now they're judged on their sound bites.

Entire basketball games have been reduced to "Sportscenter" dunks.

Even this column can now be read in online blurbs throughout the day.

James Corden is learning the same new media laws apply to late-night TV. His "Carpool Karaoke" segments are insanely popular, but his entire hour-long program hasn't gained anywhere near the same traction. Approximately 2 million more people subscribe to "The Late Late Show" YouTube Channel than actually watch the program the videos come from.

Everything is a bit.

So Tattle the Philosopher wonders, how short can our attention spans get?

* Simon & Schuster announced yesterday that Bruce Springsteen has spent the past several years working on a memoir, which will come out Sept. 27, four days after The Boss turns 67.

The title, of course, is "Born to Run." Financial terms were not disclosed, although guesses say Bruuuuuuce got about $10 million.

"Writing about yourself is a funny business," Springsteen said in a statement that will appear in his book. "But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I've tried to do this."

Springsteen will not be writing tonight because he's performing "The River" at the Wells Fargo Center. See Page 23.

Tattle will wait for the audiobook.

* Thewrap.com reports that Goldie Hawn, who hasn't starred in a movie since early in George W. Bush's first term, is in talks to play Amy Schumer's mother in a vacation comedy to be written by Katie Dippold ("The Heat," "Ghostbusters").

* China's filmgoers ushered in the Year of the Monkey Monday by going bananas.

The country set a new one-day box office record with $100.5 million worth of tickets sold, and that's not chimp change.

Among the top movies were Stephen Chow's "The Mermaid," "The Monkey King 2" and "From Vegas to Macau 3."

Take that, "Kung Fu Panda."

* A New Jersey woman has admitted stealing money from former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Joe Piscopo.

Under terms of a plea agreement, 40-year-old Jennifer LaRocca of Hackettstown pleaded guilty to theft.

LaRocca admitted her husband was hired to pay Piscopo's bills and she unlawfully wrote checks for her own expenses using the funds between 2010 and 2014.

LaRocca has agreed to pay nearly $171,000 in restitution.

Morris County prosecutors will recommend she be sentenced in April to probation on the condition she makes the payments.

* Yesterday, the British Health and Safety Executive said it planned to prosecute Foodles Production, a British subsidiary of Disney, for the broken leg suffered by Harrison Ford when he was hit by a door on the Millennium Falcon.

Foodles is being charged with four violations of workplace health and safety laws.

"By law, employers must take reasonable steps to protect workers. This is as true on a film set as a factory floor," HSE said in a statement.

And yet no charges against

Kylo Ren.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

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