Star Magazine must be making deals with a lot of celebrity publicists because they’ve sure been scoring the A-list interviews lately. A few weeks ago they seemed to have one of the first interviews with Jennifer Aniston in years. Their most recent issue features an original interview with George Clooney. Interviews with Clooney are a dime a dozen but still remain fun as anything to read. The 47 year-old star is promoting his new Coen brothers film, Burn After Reading, which also stars Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, and Tilda Swinton.It’s out in the US on September 12.

Clooney told Star pretty much what he always says to the same old questions people have been asking him for years about his personal life and lack of desire to have a family. He also made some funny quips about his co-star Brad Pitt and the fact that his Lake Como villa has become a tourist attraction. As for getting older, Clooney said he loves his wrinkles and gray hair because it gives him character and that he’s not about to get Botox. He doesn’t struggle with his fame, but admitted it kind of bothers him that people have preconceived notions about him:

Clooney with an unidentified reporter

You reteamed with your friend Brad Pitt after your three Ocean’s films together. How was that?
Brad is a great comic actor. You have to have a sense of humor when you’re the father of 15 kids – have you heard how many he and Angie have now? – and your pockets are filled with rattles and Legos. I’m glad Brad had a chance to do this film. I start to worry when I hear him humming bedtime lullabies to himself.

You’ve admitted to being driven by your work. Do you ever feel that you’re sacrificing your personal life for your career?
Everybody wonders about that but me! [Laughs] I feel I’m doing exactly what I want to. I have a lot of great friends, and I enjoy the kind of freedome I have to live pretty much exactly the way I want do. I couldn’t do what Brad and Angie are doing. I wouldn’t have the patience or the dedicatino that you need to take care of a family. I admire those qualities in other people, but it’s not for me. It’s just the way I am.

You spend much of your free time at your villa on Italy’s Lake Como. That must be relaxing.
Sometimes. My villa is now a national tourist site – I’m probably going to open my own amusement park and sell Clooney dolls and memorabilia to take away some strain from the area. But I just appreciate the way Italians enjoy life. We should all learn the beauty of the four-hour meal.

Other than having your vacation home mobbed, how does your fame affect you?
I’m a pretty open guy, and I like meeting people. But it disturbs me a bit that there’s this whole image that people have of me in their heads that it takes a while to break down. And you usually don’t get that time unless you’re working with them.

You’re 47 now. Does getting older bother you.
I don’t mind it a bit. I love my gray hair; I love the fact that my face has more of an edge and more character than it did when I was in my 20s and 30s. No Botox for me!

[From Star Magazine, print edition, September 9, 2008]

I get the impression that with Clooney what you see is what you get. With every interview I read, he gives consistent and low-key responses. He’s suave, funny, and in command, but he’s not misrepresenting himself or putting on airs. He knows his worth, yet he’s still willing to work for his hard-earned success. This is the guy who did over two hours worth of interviews on the red carpet at the Oscars this year. I saw him talking to a German interviewer who was asking very in-depth questions and he was both patient and thoughtful in his responses. He’s a bit of a cad, but he’s a loveable one and he’ll have fans for years to come.

Here’s Clooney at the Venice Film Festival’s premiere of Burn After Reading on 8/27/08. Credit: Solarpix / PR Photos