Casting the next stone: Clooney as O’Reilly?

George Clooney may get his ultimate revenge against Bill O’Reilly if he is willing to be cast way against type. The author of “The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O’Reilly,” out today from St. Martin’s Press, wants the activist actor to play the conservative Fox TV host, who’s jousted with Clooney more than once, in a movie version.

TV critic Marvin Kitman spent five years researching the book, interviewing O’Reilly 29 times. He says Clooney, who directed “Good Night, and Good Luck,” about the great journalist Edward R. Murrow, could do it. “That’s why they call it acting,” Kitman said.

This, despite Clooney telling us in the past that O’Reilly “mistakenly sees himself as Murrow.”

He also compared O’Reilly to redbaiting Sen. Joe McCarthy - unfavorably.

“Unlike McCarthy, O’Reilly was never elected to public office. What’s more, Joe McCarthy was never accused of telling one of his female staff members she should use a vibrator” - one of the sex-harassment claims of a former Fox News staffer.

For his part, O’Reilly has said, “Many of the ideologues on the left - George Clooney, these people - all are underestimating the danger we are in. … They don’t believe we’re in the middle of World War III, they don’t understand Islamic fascism and jihad.” He also has said, “I don’t recommend Clooney as a human being.”

Not surprisingly, O’Reilly yesterday refused to comment on the possibility of Clooney playing him. A spokeswoman said: “O’Reilly told us through executive producer David Tabacoff that he will have no comment on Marvin Kitman’s book.” Kitman said, “[O'Reilly] is a self-made man who loves his creator. He’s an egomaniac. He’s a funny guy, but not about himself.”

Clooney’s spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said: “I haven’t been able to reach George. I just don’t know if he’d want to do it. He has three movies coming up: ‘Leatherheads,’ which he’s directing, ‘White Jazz’ and the Coen brothers movie.”

Must be tempting, though.