Remember when Michael Moore, winner of the 2003 best documentary Oscar for “Bowling for Columbine," used the podium to make an anti-war, anti-Bush statement, inviting the other doc nominees up onstage with him?

"We like non-fiction because we live in fictitious times," Moore said that night. "We live in a time where fictitious election results give us a fictitious president. We are now fighting a war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fictitious 'Orange Alerts,' we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And, whenever you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you're time is up."

George Clooney remembers. Especially since he knew about it beforehand, the triple Oscar-nominee revealed Friday to Leonard Maltin (and the Arlington Theatre audience) at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Modern Masters Awards ceremony.

Seems the day before the 2003 Oscars, Clooney was invited to meet with Moore, Gore Vidal, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and like-minded others to talk about what Moore would do at the Oscars.

“Moore actually told us all what he was going to do if he won and there was a long discussion with everyone," Clooney recalled. "And I’d never been to the Oscars, so I was like, Well, I don’t know..”

“Then, like six months later I was watching Bill O’Reilly on some TV talk show about whether or not my political views were ruining my Hollywood career, and he started talking about how all these Hollywood liberals are, they all get together beforehand to talk and plan what they’re going to say or do at the Oscars. And someone else said, ‘Now, c’mon, Bill. Think about what you’re saying. Do you actually think all these actors get together in a room and plan out what they’re going to do.  Do you really believe that?”

“And O’Reilly said, 'Well, yeah, I know, I know it sounds a little crazy'…”, said Clooney, imitating the conservative political wonk's gruff voice. "But, in fact, he's right and that’s exactly what happened!”

Photo: What, me liberal? George Clooney has the last laugh, poking fun at conservative pundit Bill O'Reilly during his Q&A with Leonard Maltin at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Modern Master Awards.
(Chris Weeks / WireImage)