George Clooney is not going to let his girlfriend’s web-based mini scandal get in the way of a good premiere. He posed jokingly with his relatively long-lasting love, Sarah Larson, 29, on the red carpet at the premiere of his new film, Leatherheads last night. Humor author A.J. Jacobs interviewed Clooney for last month’s issue of Esquire, and their entire session consisted of Jacobs showing Clooney the criticism and sites about him on the Internet. Clooney was really low-key and mildly amused by all the crap about him online, and you can bet he got a kick out of those drunken photos of his girlfriend. Compared to the other photos on the photographer’s site, which include a lot of wasted topless women making out, the photos of Larson on all fours and sort-of bikini wrestling weren’t that bad.

Clooney has been tirelessly promoting Leatherheads, which is out in the US on April 4. He has an interview in this week’s Life & Style that includes a lot of his deadpan witty comments, like saying he likes to wear women’s clothing and shoes. He also told a funny story about how he embarrassed designer Georgio Armani by wearing one of his suits until it started looking beat. Armani sent him a new one and told him to either wear it or not credit him with designing that old thing:

Are you into fashion?
It’s not that important to me. I’ve worn the same tux so long that Georgio Armani actually sent me a new one and said, “Please either wear this or stop saying you’re wearing Armani, because it’s frayed.” I’ve basically worn this sweater for three days. It’s easier for men than for women.

Do you have sympathy for women’s fashion woes?
I do wear a lot of women’s clothes. The thing is the pumps. I have Manolos in size 11 ^1/2. They’re hard on your calves.

[From Life & Style, print edition, April 7, 2008]

As for whether he dated Renee Zellweger, to which he said “a little bit” when asked, Clooney said he was joking and that comment was overblown, but he got in trouble with Zellweger for it. He says “No” when asked if it’s true that they dated a little.

Is it true that you and Renee Zellweger dated a little?
No. Someone went through a list of girls I supposedly dated. I replied. “Yes, no, yes, no, no, never heard of her, a little bit,” as a joke. If you take the list and what I said together, it looks like I said “a little bit” about Renee. She later said to me, “A little bit?” I was like, uh-oh, I’m in trouble.

[From Life & Style, print edition, April 7, 2008]

I still think they had something going on, though.

Leatherheads is a football comedy set in the 1920s and it’s getting mixed reviews. We’ll have to see how it does at the box office.

Zellwegger looks really good at the premiere in LA last night. Her face isn’t all bright red or ghostly looking and that’s a great vintage-cut dress. Also shown are John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer. I love Jenna Fischer, she seems so down to earth. Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

Women of the world can breathe a sigh of relief – the Hottest Bachelor on Earth is not engaged. Despite the rumors circulating, which started with an Italian restaurant owner, he has not asked his girlfriend Sarah Larson to marry him. Well, he might have, but if he did she refused him. Which doesn’t seem likely, does it?

“These reports are not true,” Clooney said through his Los Angeles-based rep, Stan Rosenfield.

Britain’s Marie Claire posted a story on Monday, under the headline, “George Clooney to Marry?” The article quoted a restaurant worker in the Italian town where the Oscar winner, 46, has a villa as saying Clooney and Larson are engaged. The story originated from an Italian newspaper.

People

Even though George may indeed have met the love of his life, and could make some particularly attractive babies with her, he probably won’t get married. Part of his charm is the fact the only long term relationship he has ever had has been with a pig, but he might just fall in love with us.

Perhaps he has found true love, or maybe his extravagant wooing of Ms Larson is just to show us all what kind of a life we would have if we were dating the World’s Hottest Television Doctor. A $40,000 Valentine’s Day adventure, trips to Italy, and Oscar dates. I could learn to live with that.

George was voted the Hottest Bachelor by The Insider, joined in the top ten by Vince Vaughn, Bruce Willis, Jamie Foxx, Orlando Bloom, Owen Wilson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and father-to-be Matthew McConaughey. I just made up the World’s Hottest Television Doctor Title, but I think it’s true.

George Clooney has a new interview with London’s Telegraph in which he indirectly bemoans the lack of high quality films coming out of Hollywood today. He says that in the past there was a strong focus on quality films with compelling plots, and that Hollywood was at its best between 1964 and 1976 when he said there were “ten films a year that were masterpieces.” While he doesn’t directly say it, Clooney clearly implies that they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. The Telegraph calls it a “thinly disguised attack,” so don’t go saying I’m putting words in his mouth:

In a thinly-disguised attack on the modern-day values of Hollywood, the 46-year-old makes clear his belief that computer-generated imagery and visual pyrotechnics are no substitute for a good story.

Clooney places the glory years of cinema firmly between 1964 and 1976 when he says studios produced almost a masterpiece a month and directors like Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Alan J. Pakula and Sidney Lumet pushed new boundaries.

“It’s 12 years and you could find ten films a year that are masterpieces,” the actor told the Radio Times. “They don’t make those films anymore. You couldn’t come near making those films.”

Clooney’s conviction is such that a few years ago he gave each of his friends a gift of 100 DVDs from his favourite 12-year golden period.

They included Cold War classics like Fail-Safe, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Dr Strangelove as well as Bound for Glory, a biographical film about the folk singer Woody Guthrie.

He also loves Network, Lumet’s satire about a television network’s struggle for ratings and Scorsese’s Taxi Driver with its standout performance by Robert De Niro.

[From The Telegraph]

Clooney also lauds the 1960s and 70s as a golden era in which celebrities were “leading the charge in the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement and the Vietnam War movement,” and says that it then “got to this place where it probably wasn’t a good idea.” As for the upcoming election, Clooney says that he supports democratic candidate Barack Obama and would do fundraisers for him, but that it’s up to the candidate how involved Clooney gets in the campaign.

Commentor Walt O’Brien on the Telegraph article notes that great films might have longevity, but they aren’t big money-makers at the box office, and that the studios were nearly broke after they created all those masterpieces:

Erm, people tend to forget that all the major studios, while rendering superb product to an ungrateful public, were going completely broke by the end of the 1970’s. Some already had, starting with MGM in 1969 or so. Paramount uses the “Star Wars” theme as its trademark because that potboiling, low-budget canful of wasted plastic, replete with drug-propelled cast, improbable script, idiotic premises, and impossible events (how can you hear cannon and Death Stars going off and exploding in the complete vacuum which is space, please?) saved the studio from shutting its doors altogether.

People don’t BUY masterpieces, they buy trash. They don’t want insight into their lives or a higher vision of metaphysical wonderfulness, they don’t want to be editifed, they want to laugh until they pee themselves or have a good weep, and above all, look up the female lead’s skirt.

Cinema’s trash. It’s instantaneous media. A script is 100 pages, max 120, and about 2,500 words of dialogue at the most. It’s supposed to be.

[Comment found on Telegraph.co.uk]

Clooney has a valid point that the current films suck compared to what used to come out of Hollywood, but if he’s so concerned about it he should put his money where his mouth is instead of investing in risky casino ventures that never get off the ground. He may be doing just that - he co-produced, helped write and starred in the comedy Leatherheads, which is out on April 4. We’ll see if Clooney surpassed the generally low standards for modern films, and if it makes money at the box office. It’s got to be a challenge to create a decent, smart film that also draws crowds and it looks like Clooney made a comedy for that reason.

While Clooney can be mildly chastised for complaining about an industry that made him rich, at least he’s working to change it. He tried to set up a “Mediation Panel” to help resolve the strike amicably between the writers and studios.

Clooney has been keeping himself busy with more pressing issues, and spent two weeks last month touring war-torn nations in Africa with the UN at his own expense. When he tried to speak in a UN meeting about it, some countries’ representatives objected and he ended up giving a statement to reporters gathered outside. He said that the nation of Chad is worse than when he visited it two years ago, that Sudan is not much better and that “the world is watching, and that at this point we cannot afford to fail.”

So if anyone wants to talk some well-deserved crap about the never-ending sequels that Hollywood churns out, it seems like Clooney is more than credible. We found this story on Fark.com, though, where the title read “Star of ‘Ocean’s 11 through 19′ says modern films are rubbish.”

Image below of Clooney at the UN from News.com.au. Header image is of Clooney at the Critics’ Choice Awards, thanks to PRPhotos.

There’s an a great roundtable interview on Newsweek with some of the expected best actress and actor Oscar nominees this year. It is thought that the Oscars won’t even happen as the writer’s strike doesn’t seem close to a resolution and the Oscars are scheduled for just a month away. I can’t say I’ll miss them apart from the fashion and the gossip from the parties. (Update: The Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow morning.)

George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ellen Page, James McAvoy, and Marion Cotillard were interviewed, with some funny banter between them and a lot of the actors’ insight on the business and their craft.

In one section Clooney talks about the infamous night when helicopters and multiple emergency vehicles were dispatched to Britney’s house right near his place and says he worried that a fugitive was on the loose and grabbed a baseball bat for protection:

I just found out about 10 days ago that I must live 300 or 400 yards from Britney Spears. I found out because I came home at 10 at night and there’s all these helicopters over my house with these spotlights on. I have a guesthouse where my assistant sometimes stays, and I thought someone had broken out of prison. Like something out of “Die Hard.” I get my baseball bat, which is what you always do in every film—I actually think Clive Owen said, “Get a baseball bat”—and I called up my assistant, who I thought was in the guesthouse, and I said, “Are you OK?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, “Look, if there’s someone in the house with you and you can’t talk, say the word ‘Stonehenge’.” And she’s like, “What the f— are you talking about? I’m in my apartment.” I go, “You’re not in the guesthouse?” “No.” So I’m, like, “Well, then, what the f— is going on?” And I go out and I’m running around with a baseball bat in my robe. And it turns out it’s paparazzi over at Britney Spears’s house. So now I have to move

[From Newsweek.com via The Huffington Post]

Clooney, who had success later in life, also talked about a couple of really bad projects he took when he was younger and about the moment when he realized that it was up to him to steer his own career. He’s quite candid and funny about his bad roles and says he’s “really proud of them.”

Were there ever roles that any of you ­regretted taking?
Clooney: People will give you s–t later and say, “Why did you do this movie?” Because I needed a gig. Sometimes you just needed the job…

Can some of you talk about moments where you failed?
Clooney: I did a series called “Baby Talk.” It’s a little baby that has to talk—it was the “Look Who’s Talking” sitcom. I have a whole list of really s–tty shows that I was really s–tty in. I’m really proud of them. I had a mullet in this one. I have a whole career with a mullet, actually. But this was a sitcom with a guy who was a very big, powerful producer. One of the first things he did was he fired the baby, which I thought was a little strange. And then the lead actress was fired. And then he started on me, and it was the worst experience of my life, because I had never been in that position, where you can’t defend yourself. I remember—it was a very specific moment; it changed my career, actually—going home and I called up my agent and I said, “How bad does it get if I just say ‘f— you’ to this guy?” And my agent goes, “It gets bad.” And I said, “OK,” and I walked in and the producer went after me and I said, “F— you.” And I got fired and sued by the network, though they eventually dropped all of that. It was a terrifying time, but it absolutely freed me up to the idea that the worst thing that could happen is-what? You take away my sitcom? It freed me up to decide that I was going to try to do better projects and not worry so much about succeeding. It changed everything for me.

[From Newsweek.com]

A little later in the interview Clooney tells a story about how he was in a “Western sitcom in a whorehouse” in which the producers were talking him up at first telling him how great he was, but then hired an acting coach for him within a week. He said that “TV can be really brutal” and “there are so many subtle ways to fire you if the show gets picked up.” Clooney was eventually replaced on that project and told “it’s not because of you.”

Clooney said that Harvey Weinstein is the one who got him involved in helping mediate the writer’s strike and said that he also talked to Steven Spielberg and is “happy to a part [of the solution].”

As for the actors’ feelings about what will happen if Oscar time comes and the strike is still on, James McAvoy of Atonement says that “The world will end. It’s fact,” while Clooney maintains that “Nobody is going to cross a picket line…. [or] even consider it.” Angelina Jolie says the party will be at George’s house.

For more of the Oscar roundtable, including videos and some excellent discussion between Juno star Ellen Page and reclusive master Daniel Day-Lewis, see Newsweek.com.

Clooney is shown at the People’s Choice Awards on 1/7/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

It’s nice when you get to temper all the “naughty celebrity” news with famous people doing good things. And George Clooney is often on that list. The BBC reports that George has been named one of the United Nation’s “messenger of peace.” He will support the U.N.’s worldwide peacekeeping activities, and bring attention to various needy causes.

The Hollywood star has campaigned to stop the conflict in Darfur, Sudan. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed his “dedication to raising awareness and mobilizing action on Darfur”. Clooney pledged to build support for the UN’s “critically important work in some of the most difficult, dangerous and dire places in the world. I am deeply honored to receive this appointment,” he said.

In 2006, Clooney delivered an impassioned speech to the UN Security Council, telling its members that genocide was taking place “on your watch”. Last April, the Ocean’s 11 and Syriana star set up a charity, Not On Our Watch, with fellow actors Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon to raise funds for Darfur. The charity has so far gathered more than $9.3 million for humanitarian work in the area. Mr. Ban told Clooney, who has been to Darfur: “You have seen first-hand the pain experienced by the victims of war and made it your personal mission to help end violence and human suffering.”

[From the BBC]

I’m guessing this will likely result in a battle of the celebrity do-gooders between George and BFF Brad Pitt. Pitt seems to have a better shot: he’s got longtime UN fangirl Angelina Jolie on his side, who adopts babies from around the world and visits war torn countries. Clooney’s just got girlfriend Sarah Larson, and last time I checked, her biggest accomplishment was, well, dating George Clooney. And winning Fear Factor. Girlfriend jokes aside, George Clooney seems very passionate about Darfur, and definitely has the star power to bring a lot of attention to incredibly needy causes. Only good can come from it.

Picture note by Jaybird: George Clooney and girlfriend Sarah Larson at the 33rd Annual Deauville American Film Festival . Images thanks to PR Photos.

Among the top names trying to help with the ongoing writer’s strike are Drew Carey and George Clooney. Carey has made sure that writers don’t go hungry while they’re picketing. He made an arrangement with Hollywood diners that he would personally cover the checks of anyone who comes in and shows their WGA cards!

Bighearted Drew Carey’s kept it hush-hush, but he’s secretly buying lunch and dinner for all picketing writers in LA and Hollywood for the duration of the… strike. Drew quietly made arrangements with area diners like Norms, Swingers, Mel’s and Denny’s - so all the writers have to do is flash their WGA cards and get fed!

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column, January 21, 2008]

Drew doesn’t even need writers for his game show “The Price is Right,” so that’s incredible of him to do! Carey is known for his generosity and even took all the crew members and their family from his new show on an all-expenses paid weekend trip to Las Vegas when he first started the job.

George Clooney is also trying to help striking writers. He wants to set up an all-star “mediation panel” to help negotiate a deal between the writers and studios. He plans to be on the panel, and is trying to get director Steven Spielberg and fellow actor Tom Hanks involved:

Hollywood’s Triple-A list actors have started becoming integrally involved in trying to solve the Writers Guild strike against the Hollywood CEOs. I’ve just been told that George Clooney today is volunteering to personally set up a so-called “mediation panel” including himself and with plans to ask Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and John Wells (the executive producer of ER and a controversial ex-WGA president) to be part of it, plus 3 or 4 bigwigs who are siding with the producers.

[From The Huffington Post]

Tom Hanks has also spoken out about the writer’s strike and urged the studios to get back to the bargaining table. At the premiere of Charlie Wilson’s War he said that many people have been affected by the strike and that they need to be considered too:

“There are caterers and carpenters … and electricians and gaffers,” the 51-year-old said. “There are a lot of people out there associated with the industry, for whom the sooner this work stoppage is over the better.

“I just hope that the big guys who make big decisions up high in their corporate boardrooms and what not get down to honest bargaining and everyone can get back to work.”

[From Reuters.com]

Now that the Golden Globes have been canceled there’s a huge concern that the Oscars, scheduled for February 24, won’t go on due to the strike. It’s no wonder that the big stars are stepping up and trying to solve the problem. Hopefully the strike will be resolved soon or we’re looking at a lot less original content and films for the future.

Drew Carey is shown on 9/4/07 in NY, thanks to WENN. George Clooney is shown at the People’s Choice Awards on 1/7/08, thanks to PRPhotos. Here are more pictures of Clooney at the People’s Choice Awards looking slightly goofy.

Fabio has volunteered more details of his restaurant encounter with George Clooney that almost escalated into fisticuffs, and since he’s doing the telling Clooney comes off as a royal ass. He says that Clooney was wasted and that he called the woman that he thought was taking pictures of him that night at “fat cow,” which is why Fabio jumped to her defense. Fabio says he was having a charity dinner and that the woman Clooney suspected of taking his picture didn’t even recognize the former ER star. He also doesn’t hasten to add how much bigger he is than Clooney and repeats his publicists’ claim that he could have kicked his ass if he wanted to.

I assumed that management stepped in and separated the two, but Fabio says that George ran out of the restaurant like a scared little girl!

“I was doing a charity for the 11-99 Foundation, which benefits the widows and children of officers killed in the line of duty,” says Fabio of the infamous Nov. 2 dinner at Madeo. “I had dinner with six women and a photographer woman and we were just having fun, having dinner and taking pictures. All of a sudden one of the ladies said to me, ‘There is this gentleman a few tables behind you that keeps insulting me, keeps giving me the finger.’ She’s like, ‘This gentleman behind you called me a fat cow.’”

“So I turn and it was him,” Fabio says of Clooney. “He was drunk and thought people were taking pictures of him. So I went to the table and explained to him that we were having a charity dinner and I said, ‘You’re more than welcome to come to my table and see if there was a picture of you.’ I apologized and he started being rude so I put him in his place. After I put him in his place — you know I’m three times his size — he got a little scared. I went back to my table and as soon as I sit down he paid his bill, got up and he started insulting the girls. He called the women names. At that point I lost my temper. I went after him and he ran out of the restaurant.”

“He has no class,” Fabio tells OK!. “You have to be a low-class, scumbag to start calling a woman a name. If you’re a man, you should never. You should be a gentleman. These women were with me and as a man I defend them. He was lucky he ran out of the restaurant. He’s not even half a man.”

[From OK! Magazine]

You guys were ripping on me when I said that Fabio looks hotter than aging Clooney, but I stand by my somewhat-questionable assessment, especially in light of Fabio’s diss to George in his latest comments. I know he only stands to help his failing career, but that’s cool that he’s being so open and obnoxious about it. Maybe it did go down that way, but I suspect the woman either actually was taking picture of Clooney, or he legitimately suspected her of it, since she was a professional photographer and probably had some high-end equipment.

Still, it’s incredibly mean and not that creative to call someone a “fat cow,” when there are so many other put-downs that would do. I imagine George running out of the restaurant waving his hands and screaming as a stoic Fabio stands there, looking smug, but he probably just paid the check and left, not wanting to deal with the situation. Clooney is likely never to comment on this, but I hope it turns into a back and forth PR war, with Clooney issuing his own snotty statement to counter Fabio’s. Then we’ll have something to whisper about on the rare occasion they show up at the same event, glaring at each other from across the room like Maggie from the Simpsons and that baby with the unibrow.

While I was playing with Barbies as a little girl all the boys were crazy over G.I. Joe. Barbie had the occasional fling with Joe at her Malibu beach house, and the doll she was secretly cheating on anatomically-challenged Ken with could have its own upcoming film. The G.I. Joe movie rumor has been around for awhile, but it looks like it could soon become a reality. The ever-so-suave George Clooney could be set to star as Duke.

“According to Moviehole.net, Clooney has abandoned his role in director Joe Carnahan’s film ‘White Jazz’ in favor of appearing as the action hero. The word in the Hollywood grapevine is Clooney has been offered a role in G.I. Joe and it’s the character of Duke.”

[Fox 23 News]

George has, according the reports, left the cast of “White Jazz” due to conflicts of schedule and the G.I. Joe film now has a rumored role in his change of heart. The rumor continues with the notion that Clooney is looking to star in a blockbuster and has thrown his typical Oscar-worthy plots to the wind for now. Lately his movies contain a message laced with topical views.

“It is the third time in three years Clooney has used his star power to make a political statement. In between starring in wonderfully elegant comic capers like Ocean’s 11 (which, with its two sequels, has generated more than $1 billion), Intolerable Cruelty and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Clooney has driven a series of projects that say something about the excesses and the myopia of the America led and personified by Bush. It is not the America of George Clooney.”

Oooo…I sense a heated political debate ensuing. Clooney is notoriously opinionated and has an political intelligence that is rare. But I say go for it George. Everyone could use a good dose of mindless entertainment amidst the problems of the real world.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Clooney is shown on the set of Burn After Reading on 10/25/07, thanks to SplashNews.

Prankster George Clooney helped design a special egg-throwing machine at his Lake Como estate that will send raw eggs in the direction of intruders that cross an infrared sensor. He asks his staff to tell him if people get egged, and it sounds like he gets a real kick out of it:

[George Clooney] recently installed an egg-throwing machine at his mansion on Italy’s ritzy Lake Como. The machine, which the hunky actor helped design, hurls rag eggs at those who cross an infrared sensor in front of his 15-bedroom Villa Oleandra. “He’s thrilled with it,” says a source, “and has told his Italian staff to give him daily updates on what happens to the worst offenders!”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 5, 2007]

You know that device is for the paparazzi that hang out hoping to get some photos of Clooney cavorting with one of his many lady friends. I wonder if someone will try to sue him when an expensive camera gets ruined.

Meanwhile there’s even more evidence that Clooney hasn’t lost his quirky sense of humor, or that he just gets stupid when he’s drunk. He took a big metal ball off a piece of sculpture art at a Milan hotel during a party thrown by Georgia Armani. George proceeded to act like it was a bowling ball, hurling it down the hall and causing about 20k worth of damage in one shot. Armani quietly picked up the tab for Clooney’s dumb move:

The designer [Georgia Armani] hosted a part at the Hotel Prinipe di Savoia Milano during Fashion Week in Milan in 2006. Since the Michael Clayton star lives in nearby Lake Como, Georgio invited him as a guest. To get the party going, the grinning actor took a heavy metal ball that was balanced as an obelisk on a sculpture and started using it as bowling ball! [He] threw the ball down the marble hallway, yelling “Strike!” Hotel excs estimated that George did $20,000 worth of damage to the hallway. According to an insider at the hotel, an embarassed Giorgio, 73, paid the bill himself, just in time for this year’s Fashion Week.

If this happened like In Touch is reporting, why did it take a year for the news to get out? They’re saying that Armani just paid the bill, so maybe it took that long for the hallway to be repaired or maybe he was waiting to see if Clooney would offer to pay for it. Who does stupid shit like this except drunken college students? You think Clooney would know better, and maybe he does and just assumes that whatever happens he has the cash to deal with it.

Clooney is shown on 10/2/07 on the set of Burn After Reading, thanks to PR Photos.

George Clooney must be one of the nicest guys around. It turns out, parts of his medical records were leaked by as many as 40 hospital personnel after his motorcycle accident last month. More than two dozen employees have been suspended without pay, and at least sixteen more are being investigated in the incident. While most people would be outraged and threatening legal action, Clooney wasn’t thrilled by the incident but said that he hoped it could be settled without suspending medical workers. His “E.R.” loyalty must run deep.

“‘This is the first I’ve heard of it,’ Clooney, 46, said in a statement Tuesday. ‘And while I very much believe in a patient’s right to privacy, I would hope that this could be settled without suspending medical workers.’

“Suspicions were raised shortly after the accident when the press had details about the couple’s medial conditions – Clooney suffered a fractured rib and Larson broke her big toe – WCBS 2 in New Jersey reports. Leaking confidential information is a violation of federal law. According to WCBS, hospital employees who were not treating Clooney themselves accessed his medical records via the hospital computer system, with one security guard going so far as to give out the phone number of one of Clooney’s family members.”

[From People]

That’s pretty big of George Clooney. I’d be spiting mad and wanting names. It seems like he has a good perspective and understands that he’s pretty lucky that he and his girlfriend walked away from their accident with relatively minor injuries. I wish I was as magnanimous as George, but I really think these people should be in a lot of trouble. It shows a lack of good judgment and ethics, and that’s pretty important for healthcare workers.

George also mentioned that he’s not done with his motorcycling ways. He noted: “‘I’ve been riding for 30 years, and I’ve had three accidents, which isn’t bad odds. I’ll keep riding,’ he said last week.” Um, way to go? I don’t know if that’s smart or stupid, but he seems to be holding up pretty well, so maybe it’s good for him.