George Clooney calls for unity among actors
June 28, 2008
From Yahoo:
George Clooney just wants actors to get along instead of choosing between sparring unions.
In a two-page letter released Thursday, Clooney adopted a neutral stance in the dispute between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild.
“What we can’t do is pit artist against artist,” he wrote.
AFTRA has already reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood studios. SAG wants AFTRA members to vote against the deal, saying its approval will handcuff SAG at the bargaining table.
Both unions’ current contracts are set to expire Monday, leaving Hollywood on edge about a possible replay of the 100-day writers strike that ended in February.
Results of the AFTRA vote are expected July 8.
Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin and others have joined hundreds of actors in signing an online petition urging actors to ratify the AFTRA pact.
Meanwhile, Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen and Holly Hunter have endorsed a SAG ad calling for AFTRA to return to the negotiating table to get a better deal.
Clooney called the fight counterproductive.
George Clooney To Team With Showtime For Suicide Sitcom
June 24, 2008
George Clooney’s Smoke House shingle has set up half-hour comedy script “The Fall of Bob” at Showtime.
Project, penned by Danny Zuker (”Stacked”), is a dark single-camera laffer that revolves around a man whose life flashes before his eyes as he jumps off a building.
Show will follow the lead character, Bob, as he narrates his life through flashbacks.
Showtime’s been aggressively pursuing top-name talent of late, recently greenlighting the Steven Spielberg-produced, Diablo Cody-penned “United States of Tara.”
The channel also just piloted the darkly comedic “The End of Steve,” from Matthew Perry and Peter Tolan.
- from Variety
Wahlberg disses Clooney’s ‘Ocean’s’ films
June 18, 2008
Long before Matt Damon took on the role of second-generation grifter Linus Caldwell in “Ocean’s Eleven,” Mark Wahlberg had a shot at the part and turned it down. Looking back at it, Mark doesn’t regret his decision to skip what turned out to be a blockbuster franchise. In fact, he told Zoo magazine, he’s better off not having to pretend he enjoyed working on the films.
When Zoo asked the actor if he really refused to work in the “Ocean’s” films, he said, “Yeah — and it was well worth it,” adding, “the second one sucked!”
Apparently Mark’s no fan of the Hollywood backslapping that goes on when the material doesn’t merit it. “People tell George Clooney it’s great, but we all know it sucked,” the “Boogie Nights” star said. “I made two bad movies instead — ‘Planet of the Apes’ and ‘The Truth About Charlie’ — but doing that was better than sitting with Brad (Pitt) and George, telling the press how great everybody is! ‘We were in Europe, George was funny, then we had some wine …’ — that’s not for me.”
- from MSNBC
George Clooney is just a Tourist
June 12, 2008
Warner Bros. has set Anthony Peckham to adapt “The Tourist,” an Olen Steinhauer novel being developed as a potential star vehicle for George Clooney.
Smokehouse’s Grant Heslov, Nina Wolarsky and Clooney will produce.
Acquired by WB in the fall, “The Tourist” is a contemporary international thriller about a spy who risks everything to reveal a conspiracy after he’s accused of a murder he didn’t commit.
- from Variety
Sarah Larson’s Post-Clooney Life. Return to bar tending?
June 12, 2008
Sarah Larson isn’t going into hiding.
George Clooney’s ex-girlfriend was back at work today, meeting and having lunch with her agent from Nous Model Management in Los Angeles.
Larson, 29, is up for a big-time lingerie campaign, plus she’s interested in doing more AIDS charity work. Larson lost her father to the disease a few years ago.
“She knows she can’t go back to a so-called normal life right now,” a source says. “So she wants to take this situation and turn it into something meaningful and helpful.”
As for reports that Larson recently got a boob job and she may be posing for Playboy, the source insists both are “not true.”
- from E!
George Clooney: Ho Waitress had a big mouth. And he wasn’t talking about her cocksucking abilities..
June 4, 2008
A source close to Clooney tells E! News the actor broke things off with model-waitress Sarah Larson last month because he worried she was exploiting her arm candy status to advance her career.
“George is very protective of his private life,” says the source. “He started feeling like she had spoken too much about the relationship. She wanted the fame.”
Sarah appeared in People magazine and Vanity Fair.
The source adds, “If he wanted to date an actress, he would. But he doesn’t.”
- From E!!!
Ho Waitress ‘Devastated’ After Getting Dumped by George Clooney
June 3, 2008
eorge Clooney didn’t just break off his fairytale romance with Sarah Larson — he did it abruptly, leaving the former cocktail waitress shocked and heartbroken and moving back to Las Vegas, friends of the former couple tell FOXNews.com.
“She thought they were getting married. Instead, she got dumped,” a friend said. “She’s really upset. Devastated.”
Larson found herself teary-eyed, packing her bags and walking out the door of the home the couple had shared in Los Angeles.
Friends said the 29-year-old fled to Las Vegas, where she was working at a nightclub in the Palms Casino Hotel before Clooney swept her off her feet one year ago.
- From Foxnews
Burn After Reading Red Band Trailer
May 30, 2008
George Clooney breaks up with his waitress ho girlfriend. Good move, George, get classy.
May 28, 2008
George Clooney has broken up with Sarah Larson after nearly a year of dating. According to a friend of Sarah’s, the Leatherheads star recently moved out of his LA home while the 29-year-old former Las Vegas cocktail waitress removed her belongings. “George is relieved to be single again,” says an insider. “He thinks Sarah is sweet and that is why it was so hard to break up with her.” As In Touch previously reported, George, 47, and Sarah struggled to make their relationship work because of their different backgrounds. “The truth is that they had little in common and he just doesn’t want to be tied down,” explains the insider. George’s rep told In Touch: “I can only confirm that we have never commented on George’s personal life.”
- from Intouch
George Clooney Pays Tribute to Pal Sydney Pollack
May 27, 2008
George Clooney is speaking out on the death of film legend Sydney Pollack, who succumbed to cancer Monday at age 73.
“Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better,” the actor – who worked with Pollack in 2007’s Michael Clayton – said in a statement.
Pollack, most famous for directing Out of Africa, Tootsie and They Way We Were, co-produced and starred in Clayton. (He also served as executive producer for Clooney’s Leatherheads.)
“A tip of the hat to a class act,” Clooney’s tribute continued. “He’ll be missed terribly.”
- From People
George Clooney to Stare at Goats
May 16, 2008
George Clooney is set to star in Stare at Goats, an adaptation of British writer Jon Ronson’s book The Men Who Stare at Goats, the true story of a U.S. Army battalion charged with using paranormal powers, starting in 1979. The title comes from the notion that you can kill a goat simply by staring at it. Clooney’s producing partner Grant Heslov (Good Night, and Good Luck) will direct the project, which has floated around for some time, but only came together as the marketplace at the Cannes film festival heated up on Thursday
From EW
Brad Pitt looks dorky in latest from Coen Brothers
May 4, 2008
Brad Pitt and George Clooney join recent Oscar champ Tilda Swinton (best supporting actress, “Michael Clayton”) in the next flick from those Oscar-nabbers Joel and Ethan Coen (best picture, director, screenplay, “No Country for Old Men”). New teaser photos are out of “Burn After Reading,” in which Pitt portrays a gym trainer on the run after swiping a computer disk containing the hush-hush tattle of a CIA snoop. This time, instead of portraying Clooney’s foe, Swinton is his lover. Read more
Coens’ ‘Burn’ Venice
April 28, 2008
Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Burn After Reading,” the duo’s next movie after the Oscar-winning “No Country for Old Men,” will open the summer’s Venice Film Festival.
The dark spy comedy stars John Malkovich as an ousted CIA operative whose memoirs fall into the hands of two gym workers who set out to exploit their find. The film also stars Venice regulars including George Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt.
The movie’s world premiere will immediately follow the opening ceremony for the 65th edition of the Venice event, on Aug. 27. The festival runs through Sept. 6.
“Burn After Reading” is a Working Title production, produced, written, and directed by the Coen brothers. Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Robert Graf are the film’s executive producers.
Via THR
Does Oprah and Clooney’s opinions matter?
April 18, 2008
Fifty-one percent of Americans say celebrities make little or no positive difference to the issues they promote while 45 percent say they have a large or some positive influence, according to a new survey.
Oprah Winfrey was seen as the best champion of causes with 49 percent of those surveyed in the Harris Poll saying she was very effective at raising awareness. The others in the top five were Bono (32 percent), Angelina Jolie (31 percent), Brad Pitt (23 percent) and George Clooney (22 percent).
George Clooney Ready To Re-Team With Coens For ‘Suburbicon,’ Talks ‘Farragut North’
April 16, 2008
When news leaked online, on imdb.com and elsewhere, that the Coen Brothers were handing over one of their scripts to George Clooney for the latter to direct, it felt strange. Many rightly wondered why they just wouldn”t direct it themselves.
Apparently, so did the Coens, laughed Clooney.
“No, no, I wanted to do that, [but] I haven”t stolen that one away from them yet, I think they are going to do it,” Clooney said of “Suburbicon.” “I think they are going to direct it, but I love that project. I have a part in it that I would love to play.”
The project is billed as a dark comedy. I say that only because, honestly, there really isn”t much more to add. That”s what”s out there right now.
“There”s nothing to explain what it is except it”s a Coen Brothers film so it”s insane,” Clooney enthused of the mysterious project. “[In the movie] I get clubbed to death with a tire iron. It made me laugh.”
With “Suburbicon” not in the cards, Clooney is shifting his gaze towards “Farragut North,” a drama by Beau Willimon.
“It”s about elections,” Clooney said of the flick, which focuses on an idealistic young staff member on a presidential campaign, ultimately done in by dirty tricks and partisan politics. “We have the rights and it”s really well done. I want to take a crack at that.”
Via MTV
How Sarah Larson Met George Clooney
April 11, 2008
Although it’s been widely reported that the two met at the June 2007 Ocean’s Thirteen premiere at the Palms Casino Resort on Las Vegas, she says they actually met much earlier.
“It was on his birthday three or four years ago at Whiskey at [Vegas's] Green Valley Ranch,” Larson says, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
The actor was with a group of pals, including Whiskey Bar owner Rande Gerber (Cindy Crawford’s husband). “I was with some friends. We were all dancing, taking pictures, being silly.”
At the time, Larson worked as a cocktail server at the venue – but she was dating someone else.
Then, when Clooney arrived in Vegas for the Ocean premiere last summer, “he heard I was working at Moon [nightclub].” The actor tracked her down, she says, and “we hung out.” A month later, he invited her to go to Italy.
Via People
George to Brad: I Have An Oscar … And You Don’t!
April 9, 2008
George Clooney kept his feet on the ground when he was named PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive – twice! But his 2005 Oscar triumph for Syriana went straight to his head. “It makes me much harder to live with,” the Best Supporting Actor winner told Britain’s morning chat-fest, GMTV, on Wednesday. In fact, the 46-year old admits he often lords his big win over Oscar-less pal Brad Pitt. “That’s what I enjoy doing with Brad – is gloating,” Clooney joked. “I keep it back over a fireplace in my house,” he said. “When my friends come over, I make them pick it up and we take photographs of them giving an acceptance speech.”
Via People
Even Nim’s Island sacked Clooney’s Flop Leatherheads
April 7, 2008
Fox fantasy adventure “Nim’s Island” jumped past George Clooney’s “Leatherheads” for the second spot at the weekend box office, reversing Sunday’s order of finish. Final figures released Monday showed “Island” nearly matching its Sunday estimate with $13.2 million while the Universal pic’s number slid 6% to $12.7 million. And U’s estimate for Sunday’s total missed by about 28%.
Via Variety
Clooney’s Police Probe
April 7, 2008
George Clooney tells next week’s New Yorker he had his police-officer driver launch a probe of a mysterious caller who phoned him at home, urging him to dump Larson - a message that didn’t sit well with the former Vegas cocktail waitress.
On the voice mail, which Clooney plays to the mag’s Ian Parker in front of Larson for the first time, a calm, middle-age male voice is heard saying: “Dude, your friends asked me to give you a message: Dump the bitch before you’re sorry!”
‘”Before you’re sorry’?” a surprised Larson parrots, before launching into a diatribe about how she’s been raked over the coals in endless gossip over her relationship with Clooney. “They say that I’m a stripper. There’s a ton of stuff about that. I’ve never been a stripper. You know, just because I’m from Las Vegas, I must be a stripper. Because I’m a cocktail server, that means I’m an escort.”
Clooney, who discounts the possibility one of his pals played a joke on him - “It’s not a prank - none of my friends would do that” - called in the fuzz. With the help of his rent-a-cop chauffeur, he had the caller’s number traced to a pre-paid cellphone, then tried to find out if the suspect had paid by credit card to pin him down. But the investigation apparently dead-ended.
Larson, who’s young enough to be Clooney’s daughter, has had a colorful past. Aside from working as a scantily clad cocktail waitress at the Palm Hotel’s Moon nightclub in Vegas, she won a “Fear Factor” contest after consuming a scorpion. And as the Daily Mail of London reported last year, the leggy brunette posed provocatively with a sexy female pal during a 2005 trip to Amsterdam in which she worked as a promotional model.
Via NYPost
‘21′ sacks ‘Leatherheads’
April 7, 2008
Universal’s George Clooney-Renee Zellweger period screwball comedy “Leatherheads” was sacked at the weekend box office, losing out to Sony holdover “21” and all but tying with 20th Century Fox’s family adventure-fantasy “Nim’s Island” for the No. 2 spot. Directed by and starring Clooney, “Leatherheads” grossed an estimated $13.5 million from 2,769 theaters, according to Rentrak, while “21” declined only 37% in its second sesh to an estimated $15.1 million from 2,653 locations. “Leatherheads” was widely predicted to win the weekend, with U believing it could overcome the challenges associated with marketing a genre whose heyday has long since passed, aided by Clooney’s star appeal. Poor reviews, however, likely dampened turnout among older moviegoers, the pic’s key demo. “Nim’s Island” gave a needed boost for label Fox-Walden, grossing an estimated $13.3 million from 3,513 theaters. Film came in on the higher end of expectations, giving Fox its second family title in the top five after “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”
Via Variety
George Clooney’s Favorite YouTube video (really)
April 6, 2008
Read the latest issue of Esquire…
As we predicted: Clooney sports comedy fumbles ball at box office
April 5, 2008
George Clooney’s screwball comedy “Leatherheads” failed to open in the top spot at the weekend box office in North America, coming in at No. 2 behind reigning champ “21,” according to preliminary data issued on Saturday.
“Leatherheads” sold $4.54 million worth of tickets during its first day in theaters on Friday, distributor Universal Pictures said. The General Electric Co-owned studio forecast a three-day haul of $13.845 million.
Via Reuters
Nikki: Clooney’s ‘Leatherheads’ Fumbles Friday
April 5, 2008
I’m told early box office numbers show that Leatherheads, the screwball comedy about the early days of football directed by George Clooney who also stars, opened Friday as the No. 2 pic to less than $4.3 million from 2,769 North American theaters. According to sources, the movie “will struggle” to get to $15 million by the end of the weekend. This is a mediocre start for the Universal pic. But worse news for Clooney’s career. Because right now he is a big movie star but not a big box office star, and his superstar payday definitely depends on the latter. Instead, Sony’s 21 casino caper came in #1 Friday with $5.2 million, down only 39% from its opening last weekend.
Via Nikki
George Clooney retiring in 10 years?
April 3, 2008
“Ten years from now, I imagine people will be fairly sick of seeing a lot of us who are on camera now,” Clooney told Reuters. “My hope is I’ll be directing more. That is my goal.” - Via Reuters
Leatherheads to flop bigtime
April 1, 2008
In his third spin behind the camera, George Clooney attempts one of the hardest things there is to do — re-create the fizz of old Hollywood screwball comedies — and creates just a mild buzz. “Leatherheads,” a larky romp about the early days of professional football, aims only to please and proves perfectly amiable, but ultimate effect is one of much energy expended to minimal payoff. Arch and funny in equal measure, this looks like a theatrical non-starter that Clooney fans and football devotees might be tempted to check out down the line on DVD or on the tube.
Via Variety