Benjamin Millepied is just as testy and surly with journalists as his baby-mama Natalie Portman. I will always say that if a celebrity wants their privacy, there are ways to go about it. If a celebrity wants to not answer a certain line of questioning, there are ways to avoid those questions, or simply not answer them in a polite, professional way. Journalists have a job too – they get paid to ask questions. Most journalists understand “Oh, please, I don’t really want to discuss that. Next question, please.” That’s polite and professional. What’s not polite and professional is throwing a hissy fit when a journalist deigns to ask you about the whole reason why you’re famous: say, impregnating Natalie Portman. Such is the case with Benjamin.

Millepied was receiving some award a few days ago, and a reporter from the New York Times asked him a polite question about his baby-mama (“How‘s Natalie doing?” was the exact question). Instead of simply answering politely and vaguely, or even walking away, or just muttering something in French, Benjamin got butt-hurt and tried to have the NYT reporter bounced from the event. Ridiculous. The NYT piece is here, and here’s the behind-the-scenes story:

Benjamin Millepied hasn’t helped dispel the stereotype that the French are rude. The future Mr. Natalie Portman had some in the media yearning nostalgically for “freedom fries” on Thursday night when he demanded that a correspondent for The New York Times’ Nocturnalist column be kicked out of a New York University fete after she innocently inquired about the state of his pregnant fiancée.

Although The Times noted the international incident briefly in Saturday’s paper, a source familiar with what happened tells us the New York City Ballet dancer’s behavior was even more boorish than the newspaper reported.

The 33-year-old Millepied — whose status in the city has risen appreciably since he paired off with Portman — was at New York University’s Kimmel Center where he received a “Medal of Honor” from NYU’s La Maison Francaise.

There, a source says Millepied “grew increasingly testy” with a petite reporter from The Times as she asked him a handful of softball questions related to the evening, his background and career.

Our insider says the reporter, who was not Nocturnalist columnist Sarah Maslin Nir, playfuly asked Millepied if he had done anything “armylike” to receive his award. She was riffing on the fact that in the U.S., the Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration bestowed by the government to brave American soldiers, not French ballet dancers.

But Millepied either did not get this or chose not to be amused.

“You’re being funny?” we’re told the Francophile “snarled” at the reporter, in a performance worthy of a Darren Aronofsky film.

The worst was yet to come. As Nir wrote in The Times, shortly after her reporter politely asked, “How’s Natalie doing?” “Mr. Millepied stormed off, oozing exquisite hauteur. The kind, we suspect, that can emanate only from a ballet divo engaged to a megastar.”

Although our source says reporters had not been warned in advance to refrain from asking about Portman, Nir wrote that shortly after Millepied stalked away, “we were told by the organizers that our inquiring after Ms. Portman’s health was ‘inappropriate’ and that Mr. Millepied wanted us out.”

“Later still, we were told we could stay if we didn’t report,” Nir continues. “We left.” Bravo.

Perhaps Millepied’s tights were in a twist because he remembered a February Times article in which Dance magazine Editor Wendy Perron noted that the Millepied’s work as a choreographer “has been very spotty” and that he was “the next tier” from the top in terms of his work.

Neither Nir, nor a rep for Millepied could be reached for comment by deadline.

[From The New York Daily News]

Oh, for goodness sake. It kills me when celebrities act this way, and it’s especially stupid when it’s someone like Benjamin – you know, someone who is slightly famous in one particular area, to one specific group of people (the ballet world), who suddenly becomes a much bigger celebrity simply because of WHO HE IMPREGNATED. With that new-found fame, Benjamin got TONS of additional offers and work (including that twirling gig for YSL), so he just needs to suck it up and learn some professionalism instead of wandering around throwing fits like a butt-hurt baby. I should note something else too – this is not Benjamin’s first tangle with the paper of record. The NYT tried to profile him several months ago, and he was a total dick to them then too.

Meanwhile, in a recent interview, Natalie Portman compared herself to Audrey Hepburn and suggested that she (Natalie) was thinking about leaving Hollywood: “Audrey made some good choices in life… More and more I realize how unimportant it is to be in the history books or anything like that. Putting time and energy into your children – that’s valuable.” If you want to leave, leave. Don’t compare yourself to Audrey Hepburn as you’re going, though.

Photos courtesy of Fame.

Did you know that James Franco was on Twitter? He is. And he’s so “artsy”. He’s so “deep”. He twit-pics photos of poems. FOR REAL. And he also twit-pics photos of himself, Portraits of The Artist As A Douchebag. Anyway, “The Artist” has yet to rise to his own defense in the wake of his stoned, lazy, pathetic performance as co-host of the Oscars. His rep issued a statement the other day, but Franco hasn’t said anything, or tweeted anything… until a student journalist at Yale wrote a piece mocking Franco’s Twitter (not his Oscar performance). So Franco tweeted this (NSFW language):

So, so clever. Here’s more from PopEater:

James Franco who joined Twitter just two weeks ago to help promote the Oscars, is now using the site to defend himself against haters — namely a fellow student at Yale — who skewered him not for his maligned performance on Sunday, but for his style of tweeting.

“James Franco, your Twitter sort of sucks,” Yale Daily News writer Cokey Cohen posted Saturday. In her article, Cohen argued that the actor should do more than post “random links to pictures and replies to celebrities.” The writer suggested James be more “pithy” like Kanye West.

The critically acclaimed star of ’127 Hours’ has so far been silent on criticism he was sluggish and even stoned during the Oscars on Sunday. He also hasn’t commented on reports that he and co-host Anne Hathaway grew to hate each other. (They looked chummy backstage!) But on Tuesday, James posted an image of himself overlaid with the words “F**K THE YALE DAILY NEWS” in red capital letters.

Cohen told The New Haven Register that her critical blogs of the star’s posts were “tongue-in-cheek” and that were supposed to be all in good fun. She says she’s actually a big fan of the actor.

“It’s funny how James couldn’t really care less about what anyone had to say about his performance, but went crazy after a writer at his campus newspaper criticized his Twitter page,” a friend of the star tells me.

I’m told that James had simply “had enough,” that it’s one thing to be called one of the worst Oscar hosts in history but another to get a lesson from a fellow student on how to conduct himself online. In case you were wondering, James is pursuing a doctorate in English at the Ivy League school.

[From PopEater]

The student journalist gave an interview where she said that her pieces about Franco were “tongue-in-cheek” and that she and Franco were just responding to each other all in good fun. I think for her it might have been fun or funny, but I wonder if that was Franco’s goal. I really, really think that Franco thinks his whole life is Performance Art, and that the people who criticize him just don’t “get” ART and how BRILLIANT he is. Douchebag.

Photos courtesy of Franco’s Twitter.

These are new photos of Halle Berry out in LA yesterday. I hate that I’m in love with that sweater and that purse. God, those are beautiful. Anyway, Halle had lunch with a friend, and she got absolutely swarmed by paparazzi as she was leaving the restaurant. It was just 24 hours ago that her Ebony interview hit the media in a big way – including Halle’s revelation that she believes in the “one drop” theory, which basically means that we’re all black, I think. She was probably also swarmed because although her “team” has been leaking damaging information about Gabriel Aubry, Halle has yet to sit down and issue some kind of direct statement to the media about the custody battle. She just gets her rep to do the dirty work, or does it herself as an unnamed source. Even in that Ebony article, Halle didn’t talk directly about the custody battle, although I think she was alluding to it specifically when she talked about race.

I was glancing through this week’s tabloid covers, and I was shocked to see that Halle doesn’t take the full cover on any of them! It’s like the Mel Gibson-Oksana drama all over again – when the tabloids have a truly compelling and controversial drama in real time, they don’t know how to handle it. That being said, Halle takes the sidebar on many tabloids. Us Weekly has “Halle’s Twisted Secrets” while In Touch Weekly goes with “Halle’s Dark Secrets” (racist!). Star goes for the more direct “Halle’s SMEAR CAMPAIGN against Gabriel & Kim”. Nobody has released anything yet, but I’m sure there will be lots of drama in the days to come.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Last week, Nightline aired an interview with Michelle Williams in which she shared the very personal information about how she coped when her daughter’s father, Heath Ledger, passed away from a drug interaction in early 2008. She explained that she kept thinking she’d see him again, and that she was sad once reality set in and she realized the finality of his death.

“In a strange way, I miss that year, because all those possibilities that existed then are gone. It didn’t seem unlikely to me that he could walk through a door or could appear behind a bush. It was a year of very magical thinking, and in some ways I’m sad to be moving further and further away from it.”

Only Williams isn’t happy with Nightline for excerpting those comments and using them to promote her interview. In an interview with The Daily Beast she explained that her comments were taken out of context:

Just recently I felt as if I did cross a line about all this. Yet if I’m going to do interviews and be in this world, I don’t want to seem as if I’m just taking a party line. I want to say something that is representative of who I am and what I’m thinking about and what matters to me in the same ways that I want to do that in my work because my work and my life do feed off each other. The two do go together. But when it comes to interviews, it all becomes rather tricky because I don’t want to say something without resonance but then I don’t want to go too far. I just had an experience with Nightline that got edited in such a way that seemed as if I did go too far. It was a three-hour interview that was edited in such a way that was devastating to me. I mean, I am still such the-good-girl. I want everybody to like me. I want everybody to be happy. I want to please people. So that desire in the moment overrode that “me” that is on top of myself, that “me” that is on top of a situation. Then they used those few quotes and the way they edited the piece to sell the interview, and it appeared as if I were breaking some kind of silence and sitting down with the express purpose to discuss something that is very private to me. So then I withdraw and I say, “OK, this subject is off limits if it is going to be convoluted and re-contextualized. I will close myself off as a torn paper might seal up its side or a streak of water stitch itself to silk.*” But then I sit down with you and feel compelled to talk about it. So it is a struggle.

[From The Daily Beast via Huffington Post]

There’s a very predictable formula to reporting celebrity interviews, and it involves taking the most sensational or revealing quotes and making them the center of the story. I’m not saying it’s fair at all, just that I’ve seen and done it for years and it seems like common knowledge to me. People don’t want to read or watch long interviews, they want to get the bullet points and move on.

When Yahoo’s OMG reported this story, they suggested that anyone would go “with the most compelling stuff first,” but their commenters took offense at that. I don’t know how Nightline promoted this interview, like whether they made it seem so sad or ominous, but the fact is that she did say those things. Michelle is a gentle, sensitive soul and she reveals in that Daily Beast interview that she loves to read and has found solace in poetry. If there are parts of her life or her grief that she doesn’t want to be sensationalized, she should try to keep them to herself in interviews. Agree or disagree, this is way the media works and an actress can learn to censor herself, even when she’s talking to someone for a few hours.

*The references Michelle makes to torn paper and streaks of water are from a poem about grief that she read at the beginning of the interview. It was from a book of poems that the journalist gave her called “The Pruned Tree” by Robert Moss.

Photos are from 12/13 and 12/7/10, credit: WENN.com and Fame Pictures

Yesterday, my favorite Daily Mail columnist Katie Nicholl reported a relatively innocuous little gossip item. According to her sources, Lily Allen was planning a wedding to her boyfriend Sam Cooper, following their tragic miscarriage just one month ago. You can read the piece here – there are no nasty quotes, nothing that I would find particularly offensive. If it was true, I would think Lily’s friends are gossips who love her. If it was false, I would think that Nicholl just got a bad tip. What I would not think, however, is that Nicholl was a C-U-Next-Tuesday. But that was Lily Allen’s reaction on Twitter:

[From Lily Allen’s Twitter]

Too harsh? Or should Lily be off-limits for a time because of her personal tragedy? Or should professional gossips just pack it in completely because no one should ever speculate, EVER? Here’s Gossip Cop’s take on the situation:

Lily Allen is blasting a gossip columnist who claims Allen and Sam Cooper are planning to marry in the aftermath of her recent miscarriage.

The Daily Mail’s Katie Nicholl quotes a so-called “friend” of the couple as saying, “They realised through their grief that they absolutely adore one another and cannot live without each other.” Nicholl goes on to speculate about the location of the ceremony and reception.

Allen, who’s also recovering from blood poisoning, took to Twitter to say exactly what she thought of Nicholl.

Allen writes, “Katie Nicholl I THINK you’re a c**t, leave me out of your sh**ty column, you know nothing about the intimate details of my life.”

“Theres (sic) a time and a place for your musings where i’m concerned, and it’s not now,” adds the singer.

Gossip Cop has busted Nicholl’s “musings” before, including her wrong assertions about Sienna Miller and Charlize Theron following Kabbalah, as well as her baseless claim that Uma Thurman planned to marry at Kensington Palace.

As of now, the Allen article is still posted to the Daily Mail’s website, and Nicholl has not responded.

[From Gossip Cop]

Well, Lily seems to be claiming that Nicholl did get in touch with her, so I wouldn’t say there has been NO response. Quite honestly, I have mixed feelings about this. I think it’s in poor taste to report random marriage gossip about someone who has just gone through an unspeakable tragedy. On the other hand, despite Lily’s personal grief, I think she’s overreacting and still quite hungry for the limelight – this report would have been completely ignored if Lily hadn’t made such a big deal about it. She’s been in the fame business long enough to know that – so I have no idea what she’s trying to achieve.

Photos courtesy of WENN.

Description below is explicit and not for under-18
One week ago exactly, Gawker printed a particularly salacious and NSFW interview with Robert Randolph, author of You’ll Never Spa in This Town Again, all about the Hollywood subculture of closeted gay power players and their gay spa adventures. One of Randolph’s prime targets was/is John Travolta. Randolph claimed that he had witnessed Travolta doing all kinds of things on various dudes, from oral sex to mutual masturbation to penetration (Travolta is allegedly a bottom). Anyway, long story short, Gossip Cop is reporting that Travolta’s legal/PR team has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Gawker, demanding that Gawker pull their story (they still haven’t, as of yet). Also, Travolta’s team has issued a statement “refuting” many of the Randolph’s claims:

Hours before his wife Kelly Preston gave birth to their son Benjamin, John Travolta’s team shot off a five-page legal letter to Gawker, demanding it remove a post purporting to reveal the actor’s so-called “secret sex life” with other men in Los Angeles spas.

In the blistering missive, obtained by Gossip Cop, Travolta’s attorney, Marty Singer, calls out the site posting “false and outrageous” claims made by Robert Randolph, whose salacious stories Gawker ran in a post called “The Secret Sex Life of John Travolta.”

In a self-published book, Randolph alleges to have seen Travolta on multiple occasions in steam rooms engaging in sexual acts with men.

Singer refers to Randolph’s stories as “blatant defamatory lies” from a “patently unreliable source,” and points out that the “author” acknowledged on his own website that he suffered “permanent brain damage” in 2003.

Also hurting Randolph’s credibility, notes Singer, is that his stories “go back fifteen years, yet inexplicably, he has waited until now to peddle these phony tall tales.”

Furthermore, Travolta’s camp points to what they say is the absurd notion that a world-famous movie star would repeatedly commit adultery in public – casually, and in front of strangers – and that Randolph would bear witness each time.

The idea that Travolta “engaged in multiple adulterous sexual encounters in different public locations in Los Angeles (where he does not live), and that each time, the (nonexistent) events were coincidentally witnessed by [Randolph], is absolutely ridiculous,” asserts Singer.

In repeating the sex claims that the site admits other outlets were “skittish about printing,” Gawker is “significantly compounding the damages” incurred by Travolta, according to his lawyer.

Travolta’s side is demanding the immediate and permanent removal of the Randolph post and “publication of an unequivocal and prominent retraction of the false and defamatory statements.”

[From GossipCop]

Did Randolph go overboard with his claims? Sure. Do I believe that Randolph personally witnessed all of this stuff? Nope. Do I still think that there’s something there? Yep. In my mind, the words “John Travolta” and “international spa dongfests” are connected. I also think that if Travolta’s team really wanted to nip this thing, they would be suing the National Enquirer, Star and Gawker right now, you know? If you care enough to send out “blistering missives” and attempting to refute Randolph’s claims (but only partially), then it seems like Travolta would care enough to actually SUE. It seems like Team Travolta’s argument is: “If Randolph didn’t see Travolta getting boned by every dark, swarthy beefcake, how can he be telling the truth?”

Matt LeBlanc is sad. No one pays attention to him anymore. No one really wants to talk to him, and on the rare occasion that someone does want to talk to him, they call him “Joey.” Repeatedly. I was fully prepared to call Matt a douche, a drunk and a has-been for this incident, but I kind of see where Matt was coming from. The guy talking to him was a major tool, and he was definitely trying to provoke Matt. Of course, Matt could have handled it better. The basic incident: Matt was hammered and trying his hand at deejaying at a London club. When he stumbled into this Daily Mirror reporter’s table, the reporter started heckling him and calling him “Joey.” Matt got pissed off, and started bitching.

As one of the stars of sitcom Friends, you’d think Matt LeBlanc was an affable sort of fella who was able to take a joke. Not so…When we bumped into the actor – famous as Joey in the long-running US series – and called him by his character’s name, he wasn’t laughing at all.

Saturdays star Mollie King was one of the celebs enjoying Hed Kandi’s London Fashion Week party at Maddox on Tuesday. She watched in horror as Matt, 43, kicked off at us.
Earlier he clumsily knocked into our table, sending glasses flying.

So, of course, we asked: “You all right, Joey? How YOU do-in?” But Matt raged back: “I’m not Joey. Don’t you dare call me Joey. The papers say I’m finished, so don’t call me f***ing Joey. I want to leave that all behind. I’m moving on.”

Mulling this over we replied: “OK, Joey, if that’s how you feel. But what are you doing? Let’s be honest, Joey, that’s who everyone knows you as.”

But Matt, who also tried his hand at DJing on the night to mark Hed Kandi’s new World Series album and fashion launch, wasn’t amused.

He yelled: “I’m not Joey. For the last time. I’m not f***ing Joey. It’s Matt. Matt LeBlanc. Joey’s in the past. I’m trying to do something new.”

Us: “Like what, Joey?” Joey: “I’m gonna do comedy. Working with the Friends producers to do comedy in England. And it’s got nothing to do with Joey before you ask.”

He then took a swig from his glass, on a table loaded with vodka, mixers and champagne. He didn’t offer us any, but hey, Joey doesn’t share food.. or drinks. At this point his aide dragged him away.

It’s not the first time Joey has got trashed in a London club. He was the talk of Mahiki last June. Our spy said: “Matt told everyone he was going to have a relatively quiet night. But when the first drink went down.. he changed his tune.”

Don’t worry, Joey. If you ever need Friends to party with, you know where we are…

[From The Daily Mirror UK]

It’s just kind of sad for everyone involved. The reporter is a douche, but so is Matt. And after the scandal that went down when he left his wife for his costar, he should be thankful that people only seem to remember him for playing a lovable dope on two f-cking television shows. It could be worse. They could remember him for smoking weed in a car in full view of photographers. Or for being hammered and bitching out a douche reporter. So… what the hell is going on with him? Downward spiral?

LeBlanc in London on Sept. 13, 2010. Credit: WENN.

I know a lot of you hate going to TMZ, but you have to. TMZ has photos HERE of Mel Gibson in a “disguise” and it is… unbelievable. Mel is wearing a big, fake, grey mustache, like he’s trying to be Wilford Brimley’s “Diabeetus” Kitty. It’s hilarious. Anyway, Mel didn’t just get himself pap’d in a f-cking “disguise” – no, he also had a one-one run-in with a paparazzo, and Mel was, predictably, a total dick:

Another bizarre Mel Gibson moment. On Monday, he had an odd exchange with paparazzi in Los Angeles, trying to film them in the back of a car on his camera phone, TMZ reports.

Sporting a bushy mustache (a la onetime Quaker Oats spokesman Wilford Brimley) and donning thick black glasses and a ball cap, he first approached the car, asking one of the celeb shutterbugs to roll down his window.

“What’s the matter?” he asked. “Got nothing better to do?”

After rolling down his window, the photographer then hurled a bunch of questions at the 54-year-old actor, who is currently embroiled in an ugly custody battle with ex Oksana Grigorieva, mother of his 9-month-old daughter Lucia.

“I just wondered if you really hit Oksana,” he asked, adding: “Do you think you’ll ever make a movie in Hollywood again?”

He also asked Gibson if he’d ever work with “anybody of any race or any creed or sexual orientation” again, given that Gibson made numerous racial slurs during phone conversations with Grigorieva, 40, that were leaked this summer.

Known for his wild temper, Gibson surprisingly played it cool. “You got a lot of dialogue, don’t you?” he asked.

The photographer replied, “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

“Not to you,” Gibson shot back. “I just wanted to film you. Thanks for following us around.”

Before walking away, he asked, “What’s it like sniffing other people’s laundry?”

[From Us Weekly]

“What’s it like sniffing other people’s laundry?” Oh, Mel. You glum c-nt. Why don’t you shut up and blow me. BEFORE THE JACUZZI. You know what that paparazzo was doing? He was snapping photos that he probably sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, because of the added value of Mel as “Diabeetus Kitty”.

Angelina Jolie is still in Pakistan! Only she finally took off her Grim Reaper hijab and put on her beloved neutrals to meet with Pakistani prime minister. She’s also still doing a massive amount of press while in-country. Most news agencies are claiming that the UNHCR is using Jolie to jumpstart a donation drive, and to bring an international media spotlight on Pakistan. Which… if the UNHCR planned it this way, good for them. After Jolie publicly condemned the burning of the Qu’ran yesterday, she’s pretty much gotten the attention of every media outlet, gossip sites and legit news sources.

Here are some highlights of what she’s spoken about thus far, plus video of her CNN interview yesterday, with CNN’s Sanjay Gupta… it’s a really good piece. Angelina admits that she “doesn’t have a lot of friends” that can talk to about her UNHCR work:

On transparency: UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie said that transparency must for every government while most of the country trust on the government of Pakistan for the assistance of flood victims. She said that while addressing at a press conference here on Wednesday, and adding that “I never seen that type of flood in my life”, its huge disaster.

On the UNHCR’s work: “It is a unique example of generosity.”

On Pakistan’s history with refugees: “Over the last three decades, Pakistan has been very generous in hosting what continues to be the largest refugee population in the world. It is now the Pakistani people themselves who are in need of large-scale assistance.”

On the conditions on the ground in the flood zone: “There was a small stream outside the broken homes. It was full of a mix of feces, flies, old shoes and old clothes that had been recently washed into the water.”

On some of the people she had met: “The woman is so embarrassed with her situation, and the man spoke of the fact that he never felt in his lifetime he is ever going to be able to recuperate what he’s lost — that he would never again have nice things, he would never have a nice bed, a nice house. They lived in this place since 1972 and raised their children and their grandchildren there. And in a moment, a few hours, it was completely gone.” She said the area the couple lived in is now covered in mud and dirt, with feces in the fly-covered river nearby, all because of the floods. “It doesn’t have the dignity that they deserve to live in — anybody deserves to live in,” Jolie said.

On what has been lost for the Pakistanis: “It’s clear this crisis is far from over. People have lost everything, their homes, their belongings, their crops and cattle, and their livelihoods. Long after the cameras have gone, people will be struggling to rebuild their lives.”

On trauma-plagued Pakistan: “We must not forget flooding is not the only trauma plaguing this country. They are still rebuilding infrastructure from the earthquake of 2005. They continue to have large numbers of IDPs as a result of the conflict in the north, and host 1.7 million Afghan refugees who still need care and refuge as conflict continues in their homeland. And now, of course, the recent flooding and its aftermath already affecting millions and the looming threat of disease.”

On focus being pulled from Pakistan: “One problem does not negate the other, one headline should not pull focus from the many complexities of the situation in Pakistan,” said the Goodwill Ambassador, stressing the need for continuing efforts to support those in need.

On people refusing to donate because of corruption fears: “I don’t want some people to use it (corruption) as an excuse not to give assistance,” Jolie told reporters at the UN refugee agency’s Islamabad office. “I have seen what they have done in the field. I’ve physically seen people assisted, so if you are nervous about giving money directly in one way there are other ways to do it.”

In the end, she has hope: “They are people. They are family, and lovely, lovely, hard-working people and beautiful children, and they deserve dignity and assistance, and we have to treat them with respect and try to preserve what we can of their livelihood and their future…I think we have no choice but to be optimistic and to have hope. I think without that, we are just lost, and things deteriorate.”

[From CNN, The Pakistani Daily Mail & The UNHCR Press Release]

This is just heartbreaking… the whole situation, the history Pakistan has with these natural disasters, the current situation and how it is crippling the country. It’s also sad that it takes Angelina to really get the situation the kind of urgent, international media coverage.

The UNHCR Donation page is here – directs funds specifically to the UNHCR mission in Pakistan.

These are some additional photos of George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis last Thursday. This paparazzi-friendly photo op was pretty much the only “promotion” Clooney did as an actor to promote The American, which came out last Wednesday. He didn’t do any big interviews, no magazine profiles, no premieres, no film festivals. It was just some pap photos, an appearance at the Emmys to pick up the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, and lots of commercials for the film. That’s it. And he won the weekend box office! CB and I thought The American was going to tank, and I really though Machete would do much better (it came in second). However, according to Deadline Hollywood, it’s not all good news:

1. The American (Focus Features) NEW [2,823 Theaters] Opened Wed
Friday $3.8M, Saturday $4.9M, 3-Day Weekend $13.3M, Est 4-Day Holiday $16.1M, Est Cume $19.2M

This is the way a Clooney picture should be sold from now on. Even though early exits show that attendance was partly driven by the “George Clooney factor”, he just can’t muster wide domestic appeal even if he is still a big name on the international scene. Focus Features marketed Clooney’s The American to his core +35 adult audience as the more cerebral and sophisticated choice that was a counterprogramming alternative to the summer’s mindless crap. (Focus did the same with 2005′s The Constant Gardener.) Problem is, moviegoers didn’t like what they saw: the CinemaScore was a poor “D-”. Focus execs say Control helmer Anton Corbijn’s performance exceeded internal projections which undoubtedly it did. But a star of Clooney’s status should be able to muster a better 6-day opening than just $16.1M — and didn’t.

[From Deadline Hollywood]

I kind of think that an estimated 6-day opening of $19 million with absolutely no exertion is still kind of awesome – it speaks to Clooney’s die-hard fan base, and also the wisdom of the adult moviegoer. Of course, there are still questions: why did Clooney not do anything for the film? Lainey at LaineyGossip is wondering aloud if there’s some kind of story/gossip to go along with it, but there’s always the possibility that though reviewers didn’t hate the film, Clooney knew he made a dud and he wanted people to forget it.

Clooney & Canalis on September 2, 2010. Credit: Fame & WENN.