George Clooney supposed has an interview in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine in which he says semi-rude but true things about Paris Hilton. His rep says that’s not really what he said, and that he was making a joke and it was taken out of context. It’s hard to decipher exactly what Rolling Stone claims he said, but it sounds like he’s saying that Paris Hilton thinks she’s successful just because she’s making money and that’s not the case:

The Michael Clayton star was said to have slammed the hotel heiress during an interview with America’s Rolling Stone magazine, allegedly calling Hilton a “wannabe” and ridiculing her acting talents.

The star was quoted as saying, “There is a funny thing that happens when you are a young actor. You equate financial success and getting jobs with whether or not you are good at it.
“And it still happens. That’s why there is Paris Hilton. Now I’m in trouble with Paris Hilton.”
But the Hollywood hunk’s representative states the comments were taken out of context, insisting the quips used in the article were not connected.

Clooney’s spokesman Stan Rosenfield says, “He made a long joke in between those two quotes. Making fun of himself. Two different statements are being used that were barely connected.”
Rosenfield adds, “And (they were) certainly not the spirit of the interview.”

[From Contact Music]

The thing is, Clooney said almost the same thing about Paris Hilton being a talentless wannabe last year. He said “You can only get so far without discernible talent - then you either work, or use cheap publicity tricks to keep the public’s attention. Paris has no reason to complain if she is on the end of bad publicity.”

He’s basically saying that you can make money and be all over the place but that doesn’t mean you have talent, and it sounds like he’s been trying to make this point for a while. He’s right, and he should just admit to ripping on Paris. Maybe he didn’t say it exactly like that this time, but he used Paris as an example of that exact same concept last year.

Here’s Paris, Nicky, their mom and the winner of a Mother’s Day contest shopping on Robertson yesterday. She definitely knows a lot of publicity tricks. Clooney is shown on 5/6/08 after his birthday party at Bungalow 8. He turned 47. Thanks to WENN for these photos.

Back in the day, George Clooney worked on Rosanne Barr’s sitcom. He wasn’t quite so hot then – he had sort of a pillowy, Farrah Fawcett -esq hairdo going on – but he was still George Clooney, which means he could still make the ladies want to drop their panties. George has been doing some last-minute promotion for his box office failure Leatherheads, and gave a pretty funny interview to Rolling Stone where he talked about his early acting experiences.

Hand it to George Clooney: He’s sexy, he’s funny, and he’s not afraid to share embarrassing stories about how Roseanne Bar hit on him. The actor, who sat down with Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers Wednesday night at the Picture House Theater in Pelham, N.Y., following a screening of his latest movie Leatherheads, revealed secrets about his early days working for Barr on her sitcom Roseanne – as well as his thoughts on Paris Hilton and bombing at the box office (which, he readily acknowledges, Leatherheads did). Choice quotes below:

Travers: “I have this quote (from TIME magazine) to read aloud from your former boss Roseanne Barr. ‘He can drink too much and still while standing in a bar parking lot at 3 a.m. discuss the world with such passion and good sense that you actually stop imagining him nude.’”

Clooney: “Don’t you want Roseanne writing your obit? I worked on her first series, and when I met her she said, ‘You’re really good looking, why don’t you take me out behind the stage and make me stink.’ She was unbelievably kind to me at a time when no one was.”

[From People]

That’s… um… quite the quote. I don’t think there’s anything I could say about it that wouldn’t be wildly, wildly inappropriate. Not that that would generally stop me… but I think it’s raunchy enough that we don’t need to add anything to it. No word on if the Cloons actually took Rosanne out behind the Warner Brothers lot. But I’m guessing that if he’s sharing the story… and he got the job… he must have gone the way of the casting couch.

Here’s George Clooney leaving Dan Tanas restaurant in Los Angeles on April 25th. Images thanks to WENN.

I think we all see those screaming kids in airplanes/supermarkets/movie theatres and think ‘I shouldn’t have kids’. I know I do, except it’s usually my kids doing the screaming. George Clooney, the man with the anti-marriage shrine in his house, says he is put off babies by none other than the Jolie-Pitt clan.

He said: “Even one kid running around my villa makes me nervous, so I’m definitely not a candidate for father of the year!

“If I need to surround myself with children and feel like I have this big extended family, I can always call Brad and Angie and ask them to stay with me, just to remind me why I’m so happy without.”

Clooney, 46, also said he is unlikely to invite the celebrity couple to stay in his villa on Italy’s Lake Como this summer because he doesn’t have the room to accommodate their ever-expanding brood.

He added to Britain’s Heat magazine: “I really don’t have enough space for all their children. Also, Brad and Angelina need a security deal of about 20 guys wearing dark suits and carrying walkie-talkies, and that tends to attract attention.”

Melbourne Herald Sun

While the rest of us say ‘oh, look at those cuties (how much does Shiloh look like the Gerber baby?) he says ‘Please, just don’t touch anything!’

I’m kind of on George’s side here. I think just about anyone is intimidated by the idea of 5-6 kids. Sure, when they’re small you can have nannies to do a lot of the dirty work (even the most devoted parent has no enthusiasm for poopy nappies) but have Brad and Angelina considered what it is going to be like to have six hormonal teenagers hanging about the house? I mean, every teen on earth harbors resentment towards their parents, can you imagine six kids all directing that at you?

Brad and Angelina are expecting another baby, or maybe two.

Sarah Larson - George Clooney’s first girlfriend that could be called “serious” since… well… ever, probably – says that she and George actually met a long time before the often mentioned Oceans Thirteen premiere in Las Vegas last year. According to Larson, she met George at his birthday bash “three or four years ago,” but she was seeing someone at the time. When he found out she was working at another club last summer, he got in touch with her, and a month later asked her to go to Italy with him.

Sarah Larson cleared up a big mystery on Wednesday: how she ended up in the company of actor George Clooney, one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. It was long before the much-reported “Ocean’s Thirteen” premiere during CineVegas last June at the Palms, said Larson, in her first lengthy interview since their relationship got serious.

“It was on his birthday three or four years ago at Whiskey at Green Valley Ranch,” she said. Clooney was with some friends, including Whiskey owner Rande Gerber, “and I was with some friends. We were all dancing, taking pictures, being silly,” she said. Larson, who worked as a cocktail server at Whiskey, was dating someone else at the time.

Last June, when Clooney came to town for the “Ocean’s” premiere, “he heard I was working at Moon,” made contact at the nightclub, and “we hung out,” she said. A month later, he invited her to go to Italy. It’s been a whirlwind romance ever since. She’s attended world premieres with him, attended the Academy Awards on his arm, survived a motorbike crash with him and met his parents.

[From the Las Vegas Review Journal]

Larson is working on a career as a model. At 28, she’s actually a bit old to be starting out as a model, but she’s absolutely stunning. She’s just signed with the Nous Agency in Los Angeles, and made some barely-veiled hints that she and George would be going to Milan when they’re in Italy next month. Not surprisingly, she said Clooney is very supportive of her modeling career, and made some joke that if he wasn’t, she’d walk away. Somehow I don’t believe that.

George Clooney is said to have dumped his girlfriend of a record-breaking ten months, Sarah Larson, after hearing rumors that they were engaged. Clooney, 46, suspected that Larson, 29, had a hand in the engagement gossip in order to pressure him into proposing. He promptly dumped her, but took her back a few days later.

Larson is supposedly jealous of Clooney’s working relationship with Renee Zellweger, and Clooney thought that might have prompted her to start the rumor:

“He suspected Sarah leaked the rumor - hoping to push him into a proposal. So he dumped her…”

But the actor knew Sarah was jealous of former girlfriend Renee Zellweger, and he had been seeing a lot of Renee, working together on his new flick “Leatherheads.”

“George figured Sarah hinted they were engaged to keep everyone away - especially Renee,” said the insider.

“Sarah broke down in tears trying to convince George she didn’t plant the rumor, but he didn’t buy it.”

The angry actor gave the beauty her walking papers, but within a few days, called…

“George ended up getting back together with her - on one condition. He made it clear - no wedding ever - and she said she understood.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, April 14, 2007]

This is George Clooney we’re talking about, so if he shows up at events with a woman several months in a row of course there are going to be rumors that he’s engaged. I’m just surprised these two lasted this long. If it wasn’t for that motorcycle accident that made Clooney think about his own mortality I doubt they would have made it past the four month mark.

Another story that tends to corroborate this is that Clooney was seen flirting with another woman on March 5 at a bar at a hotel. In Touch reported:

George “was really friendly with everyone, but one brunette was just his type and he focused his attention on her,” says an eyewitness. “The girl was obviously into him, too.” [He] couldn’t keep his eyes off the sexy woman all night, according to the witness.

[From In Touch, print edition, March 31, 2008]

If that story about George flirting is true, it happened five days before the engagement rumors broke, so he didn’t really have an excuse and maybe he was getting tired of Larson. Still, the hot and humorous bachelor just might be ready to settle down - into a long term relationship that doesn’t threaten his finances or lifestyle.

George and Sarah are shown at the “Leatherheads” premiere on 3/31/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

George Clooney’s girlfriend Sarah Larson always looks so well put together and seems rather demur and classy. But it’s been clear from the time she and George began attending events together that she’s definitely a girl with a wild side. Supposedly the pair met when he dined at a Las Vegas restaurant where Sarah was a waitress. But the beautiful brunette has a history that’s much more colorful than all that. According to Star, Sarah worked as a go-go dancer and was often paid to attend parties and look pretty with her sexy girlfriends. Wow, there wasn’t a single part of that sentence that didn’t make me want to throw up.

“Sarah looks like she totally belongs, walking down the red carpet on George’s arm,” a source close to her tells Star. “She’s even been described as having a successful runway and print modeling career. But until recently, her modeling career consisted mostly of being paid by promoters for clubs, magazines and radio stations to attend special events in sexy outfits and party with her wild girlfriends! “Sarah is outgoing and fun and loves to drink. She likes to get wasted when she goes out — but hey, that’s what Vegas is all about!”

In one risqué set of photos taken in July 2007 — one month after she first met George, 46, at the Palms resort — Sarah, 29, is wearing a short dress and has her legs wrapped around a man holding her up against a wall in the middle of a crowded Vegas nightclub. The next day, Sarah — who appears to be drunk — is pictured wearing a bikini at a huge, outdoor pool party at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, kneeling on all fours with her backside in the air as she licks the cover of a magazine lying on the ground. She’s also shown rolling around on the floor as she wrestles a bikini-clad blonde!

[From Star]

Somehow this version of Sarah Larson makes a lot more sense to me, in terms of George Clooney. Sure George seems to place the most emphasis on beauty, but the demure type just doesn’t seem to hold his attention for long. And for ten months is probably some sort of record. Who wouldn’t like a girl who let strangers dry hump them against a wall and faux-wrestles other bikini-clad girls in the sand? I don’t want to know. Enjoy the semi-gratuitous photos. Via IDLYITW.

Asking George Clooney to be the godfather to your kid could either be a very good or a very bad thing – but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing in the middle. It’s either the best idea ever, or the stupidest thing a person could do. George is supposedly pretty fun, would probably buy the kid a lot of great stuffed animals (do kids still like those?) and has a great house on Lake Como. All essential qualities for an awesome godparent. On the other hand, George is a notorious playboy with a penchant for women much younger than him. So if you end up having a daughter, you’d have to keep a close eye on her after her eighteenth birthday. And really, isn’t that the age at which you’d like to start relaxing a little? But Nicole Kidman is either quite sure she’s having a boy, or she really wants access to that Lake Como house, because she’s named George Clooney as her future kid’s godfather.

Nicole Kidman doesn’t know if she is having a baby boy or girl with husband Keith Urban, but she’s already picked out a godfather for the tot - her good pal George Clooney! Now that she’s no longer married to Tom Cruise, Nicole has abandoned the Church of Scientology and has embraced her Catholic roots, so she is planning on having the baby baptized in the Catholic Church, an insider tells Star. “Nicole asked George to be her baby’s godfather, and he agreed.” Nicole has been good friends with George since they starred together in “The Peacemaker” in 1997.

[Star Magazine, print edition, March 24, 2008]

All kidding aside, George strikes me as the kind of guy who’d make a perfect godfather. In fact he kind of makes more sense in that role – or as a cool uncle - than he does as an actual father. Again, probably due to the excessive womanizing and general playboy/bachelor lifestyle. Right after Nicole announced her pregnancy, George told People magazine that she’ll make a perfect mother. The phrasing seemed to ignore the fact that Nicole already is a mother to her two adopted children with ex-husband Tom Cruise, but point taken. Having George as a godfather seems like the perfect counterweight to having Nicole as a mother. One will be a little strict, the other will probably give you a few spoonfuls of champagne at your fifth birthday party. Either way, you’re a pretty lucky kid.

Update: George Clooney’s rep has said that this rumor is not true and that he will not be the godfather for Nicole’s upcoming baby. [In US Weekly, print edition, April 7, 2008]

Esquire has a new interview with George Clooney and it’s so fun to read that I would recommend you buy the magazine. The interview involves the journalist showing Clooney some of the many web sites and comments about him online, and his responses are priceless. He comes across as unbothered and rather amused by the criticism and wild stories on the Internet.

At one point author A.J. Jacobs shows Clooney a Facebook group called “George Clooney is NOT the sexiest man alive”

“Ninety-four members,” says Clooney as he looks at the photo of himself with a red X through it. “What the fuck?”

He reads the site’s manifesto aloud:
Ok so i for one am sick and tired of George Clooney thinking hes the sexiest man alive, like jesus hes so old!Its just not right. That man is so full of himself it isnt funny. Anyways join this group if you totally agree with me =)

“Should I defend myself in this one?”

Clooney dictates and I type:

That’s bullshit. He looks great for a 70-year-old.

[From Esquire, print edition, April, 2008]

I checked and that comment by Jacobs is actually on that Facebook group.

The George Clooney plastic surgery story prompts Clooney to explain that when he made the joke to Julia Roberts on Oprah that “I got my eyes done, what do you think?” it got widely disseminated and printed as truth. He said that “They used to say you can’t make a joke in print, but you can get away with it on film. But now you can’t get away with it there.”

As for what he will admit to, he jokes “I did get my balls done, though. I got them unwrinkled. It’s the new thing in Hollywood - ball ironing.”

Clooney says he doesn’t have hair plugs as is rumored and that his hair is growing too fast in the front, which is why people might get that impression. He insisted that Jacobs feel the stubble growing at the front of his hairline, which he has to shave regularly.

Jacobs shows Clooney fan fiction featuring his character from ER, Doug Ross, getting it on with Juliana Margulies’ character in a hot tub and he quips “I think this was actually taken out of Bill O’Reilly’s novel.” (O’Reilly wrote a 2004 thriller called Those Who Trespess which had similar soft core passages.)

Clooney addresses those pesky rumors that he’s gay with his typical tongue-in-check response. The journalist shows him the a bulletin board, (which is now unavailable) called “George Clooney is GAY GAY GAY” and Clooney says “No. I’m gay, gay. The third gay - that was pushing it.”

The best moment comes at the end of the interview when Jacobs asks him if he’s seen that “2 Girls 1 Cup” video, but then quickly realizes he’s made a grave error in even mentioning it. (I have made a conscious decision to never watch this video. Here is the Wikipedia description - warning on even the description. My husband made me stop talking when I tried to explain it to him.)

Clooney of course says he’s up to seeing the worst video in the history of the Internet, and there’s no going back from there. Jacobs should have known better, because when he asked Clooney if he went online he said he did and found that video of the monkey passing out from smelling his butt so funny:

Clooney’s been pretty comfortable with all this so far. He’s not easily thrown by his own fame or by the brutal assessments of the fame obsessed. But what about the larger dangers of the Web? I realize that I’ve spent a couple of hours showing Clooney sites about the Clooney, but I haven’t asked him, Does he ever go on the Internet?

“I go on YouTube when somebody says to look something up,” he answers. “There was one a few years ago that killed me. Look up ‘monkey smells butt.’”

I type it in. Up pops a video of a chimp sticking his finger up his butt, smelling it, then promptly passing out.

Clooney roars with laughter. “He just smells it and goes wooo-ah and flops off to the side. That always kills me.”

At this point, I make a segue that seemed relevant at the time, but in retrospect was probably a very bad idea. “You know,” I tell him, “I asked the guy who does the Esquire Web site what I should show George Clooney, and he said ‘Show him 2 Girls 1 Cup.’”

“What’s thats?”

“It’s the most disturbing video in the history of videos.”

“Show it to me.”

“Really? I don’t know.”

“I can take it,” Clooney says. “I’m a grown-up. We’re all grown-ups.”

“It’s scarring. It’ll scar you forever.”

“Is it long?” he asks.

“No,” I tell him, “but it’s so disturbing. I saw it once and can never get it out of my mind. I can’t watch it again.”

“I want to see it.”

Well, he asked. After a bit of searching, I find the link. I click it.

After several seconds: “It’s not so bad,” he says.

Three seconds later: “Oh.”

Another two seconds: “Oh, my GOD! Oh, my God!! Oh, my God!”

Clooney puts his hand over his mouth like he’s going to throw up. He bolts from his chair and walks out of the room.

[From Esquire, print edition, April, 2008]

Clooney’s PR rep is in the room and then he insists on seeing the video too, saying he can watch it longer than Clooney did. He only lasted three seconds though, and Clooney laughs his ass off:

Clooney’s longtime PR guy, Stan Rosenfeld, wants to know what the fuss is about. Clooney tells him he just watched the most repulsive video he’s ever seen. Rosenfeld wants to see it.

“I want to go at least one second more than George.”

“I’ve got to watch Stan watch it,” Clooney says, recomposing himself. “It’s like the rodeo - see how long you can last.”

Rosenfeld lasts three full seconds before walking out.

Clooney, having regarded himself all morning, now just watches, doubled over with laughter.

[From Esquire, print edition, April, 2008]

If only these moments were captured on tape like all the other “2 Girls 1 Cup” reactions now available on YouTube. Clooney’s reaction was pretty typical, but that doesn’t make it any less hysterical. Monkeys smelling their butts pale in comparison to the pure humor of people gagging and covering their faces in horror.

Many thanks to Stacie for these scans.

All of Hollywood is abuzz! The gossip blogs are literally on fire as I type. Jennifer Aniston did not, I repeat NOT – want to hang out with her ex-husband-who-left-her-for-some-hotter-chick’s best friend. Can you believe it? In the snub of all Hollywood snubs, Jennifer apparently doesn’t want anything to do with George Clooney’s attempts to be friendly. George and Brad Pitt are BFF you know. According to OK! (and just about every other magazine in existence) George and Jennifer both attended the Night Before gala, an annual party held the (you guessed it) night before the Oscars. When George went up to Jen to say hello and have a little conversation, things got tense.

Oscar winner George Clooney certainly has his fair share of female fans, but OK! has learned you probably shouldn’t count Jennifer Aniston among them! The handsome Michael Clayton star — who just happens to be best buds with Jen’s ex Brad Pitt — sauntered up to the actress at last Saturday’s Night Before gala in Beverly Hills, where she was busy chatting with Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Orlando Bloom, Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan, outside of Bar Nineteen12.

“George attempted to be friendly, but Jen wasn’t having it,” one eyewitness tells OK!. “After enduring a few minutes of the actor’s presence, Jen turned on her heels and made a beeline for the Sunset Ballroom, where most of the guests were mingling.”

Courteney, naturally, joined Jen, leaving her affable husband, David, to make awkward small talk with George!

[From OK!]

Ooooohhhh, awkward. Does everyone in the world have to love George Clooney? I mean let’s say, just for argument’s sake, that Jennifer never liked George. Why the hell should she bother pretending otherwise for more than a few minutes if she doesn’t have to? And I’m not sure “making a beeline” for the ballroom is the greatest of snubs. She’s an actress. She’s classically trained in the art of throwing a glass of champagne in a man’s face, but she didn’t do it. If she really can’t stand George, I think she showed some restraint. Though I’m not sure Courteney Cox running after Jen to make sure their umbilical cord was still attached was the most mature move.

Here’s Jennifer Aniston at the People’s Choice Awards on January 9th. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Time Magazine has a new interview with George Clooney, in which he appears on the upcoming cover with the title “The Last Movie Star.” The article seems to say very little despite how long it is, and comes off as this fawning fanboy piece about how excited the journalist is to have Clooney come over to his house for dinner. Clooney is a nice guy and an old school movie star of the highest order, claims author Joel Stein, who is embarrassed that he didn’t cook the lamb properly when Clooney was over, helping with dinner and making him feel comfortable in his own home.

Clooney talked about how frustrated and depressed he was after going to Darfur as a UN representative, wondering if he made a difference or if he just made the places and people he visited targets for more violence:

“I’ve been very depressed since I got back. I’m terrified that it isn’t in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility and they’re a target for somebody,” he says. “A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing.”

[From Time.com]

He also says that he is careful about the roles he takes because he doesn’t want to get pigeonholed:

“After Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck I was offered the Richard Clarke book and every issues movie,” Clooney says. “I didn’t want to be the issues guy because if the issues change, you’re done. The Facts of Life is a good example. If you’re a young heartthrob—which I never caught on as—those fans not only abandon you, but they’re embarrassed to have liked you. It’s the same thing with issues movies. I want to just be a director.”

[From Time.com]

Clooney talks a lot about how he hates Bill O’Reilly, the abrasive and often inaccurate Fox News conservative commentator:

One person Clooney will mess with—the thing he keeps coming back to the more we drink—is what a massive loser Bill O’Reilly is. It’s an irrational feud because every time O’Reilly gets to be as important as Clooney, O’Reilly comes out way ahead. But Clooney can’t help himself. He keeps talking about O’Reilly, and the little traps he’s set for him and how thrilled he is when he falls into them. It’s as if Clooney loves O’Reilly because he gives him permission to be an irrational 8-year-old. Maybe that’s why anyone loves O’Reilly. But he is also the anti-Clooney, donning a public persona, one that’s humorless and incapable of self-effacement. It’s as if someone created for Clooney his own Elmer Fudd.

[From Time.com]

As for his night with Clooney, the journalist says they had two bottles of red wine and two bottles of dessert wine over pasta and undercooked lamb, and that at just after midnight they were “both pretty buzzed.” Then he tells this bizarre story about how Clooney climbed into the rafters over his ceiling trying to fix something.

It’s past midnight; we’re both pretty buzzed. He’s telling me how he wakes up every morning at 5:30 to the hoots of a giant owl and how he climbs into his hot tub so he can hoot back, mesmerized by nature, like Tony Soprano and his ducks, when this alarm starts shrieking. Clooney, not a man of inaction, especially in a moment of crisis like this, stands on my dining-room table, unscrews a panel in the ceiling and, finding nothing, makes me go outside and carry a huge ladder with him up two flights to my garage upstairs—where he climbs into an area I’ve never dared go, crawling along the beams with a screwdriver between his teeth. Finding nothing, he climbs down, knocks the dirt off his jeans, blows the dust out of his nose, rinses his hands and returns to the table. The shriek starts again, and Clooney thinks for a few seconds, ducks down and yanks the carbon monoxide detector out of the outlet. “Either it needs a battery,” he says, “or we have six seconds to live.”

[From Time.com]

Then Clooney drove home alone at 1:30 according to this article. If he was doing shit like climbing in the ceiling at midnight would he have been sober enough to drive by then?

He’s not my favorite actor, but he deserves credit for trying to make a difference in the world. He traveled to Africa using his own money. The trip must have been very difficult for him, and he sounds realistic about it. He does seem like a decent, albeit overly-smooth guy despite his womanizing ways. Whether he’s the “Last Movie Star” or not remains to be seen. He certainly knows how to work a journalist into writing a positive piece about him, that’s for sure.

Update: Here’s the video, where Clooney was wandering around with a flashlight looking for the source of mysterious beeping.