Clint Eastwood has finally spoken out about the bizarre and controversial speech he gave at the Republic National Convention last week.

(I loved the speech. Just about everyone else I know hated it.)

Anyway, Eastwood has given an extensive interview about the speech to the newspaper of the tiny California town he used to be the mayor of, Carmel.

Among other things, Eastwood told the Carmel Pine Cone:

"President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

Them's fighting words.

(Not to be annoying, but if you're going to say something like that, it seems as though you ought to back it up a bit. Eastwood didn't, at least not in the Carmel Pine Cone).

Some other nuggets:

Eastwood didn't tell anyone in the Romney campaign what he planned to say before the speech, because he didn't know

Eastwood got to the convention center about 15-20 minutes before he went on

Eastwood didn't think of the "empty chair" routine until a few minutes before show time

Eastwood said he had three points he wanted to make:

That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left,

that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and

that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job.

Read more at the Carmel Pine Cone >