George Santos raises eyebrows with call for ‘genuine’ Oscar winners

New York lawmaker has been accused of being serial liar and of making up portions of personal history

George Santos, the Republican congressman accused of being a serial liar, has raised eyebrows with a call for “genuine” Oscar winners.

The New York lawmaker has admitted making up significant portions of his personal, educational and professional history and is now the subject of a string of investigations.

Mr Santos opined about the state of Hollywood in a Sunday interview with Pirate Wires, in which he said he only liked “genuine” actors.

“I have my favourite actors,” he told the website. “And then I have the actors I think are charismatic. JLo, The Rock. Melissa McCarthy. They’re genuine.”

Mr Santos, who has claimed he has done nothing illegal and refused to resign the seat he won last November, says he will not be watching the Oscars.

“I think the reason I stopped watching them is that they won’t really put box (office) sellers there,” Mr Santos said.

“They’ll put the circle**** of the who’s who — Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, blah blah blah, all these fancy people, these elitists.”

Mr Santos also told the website that Will Smith’s slap of presenter Chris Rock last year was “f***ing stupid”, adding “Chris Rock is a genius.”

And the Republican was dismissive of Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise, even though he said he had not seen the movie.

“Tom Cruise isn’t somebody that inspires me to go run to the movie theatre. Had Morgan Freeman been in Top Gun: Maverick, I would have watched it,” he said. “Tom Cruise has given me enough evidence of what he thinks of America to make me not like him.”

And he said that he only appreciates actors whose “political beliefs” he claimed to know nothing about, including Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Angela Bassett.

“Because they don’t share them. And you know why that is? Because we look to them for entertainment. I appreciate these people so much because they’re not activists,” he said.