By SEAN DALY Special to the Daily Press
LOS ANGELES — George Clooney seems perfectly content to be Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor. He is, after all, the guy who told Barbara Walters in 1991 that he would never marry again. Since that interview, which the actor now says he regrets, Clooney has wined and dined a string of sexy girl-friends — Rene Zellweger, DeDee Pfeiffer, Kelly Preston (the current Mrs. John Travolta) — but so far, his longest lasting relationship has been with a pet potbellied pig named Max.
“He is my earthquake survival kit,” Clooney laughs, relaxing in dark denim jeans and a navy blue sweater in a 29th floor suite at the St. Regis Hotel. “When the big one hits, I’ll be saying, ‘Max, get over here and put that apple in your mouth!’”
He’s kidding. (We hope). The truth is, Clooney, who also shares his eight bedroom mock Tudor-style Hollywood Hills estate with two slightly overweight bulldogs, has loved and cared for the 150 pound porker for more than 16 years.
During that time he was briefly married (from 1987–1989) to an actress named Talia Balsom. The marriage didn’t work out, he has said, because “I treated the relationship too cavalierly. I blew it.” Now 41, does the ER’s biggest heartthrob see himself making another trip down the aisle?
“I rule out nothing any more as I get older,” he teases, noting that sometimes it actually pays to be single. “Nicole Kidman sent me a check for $10,000 because she bet me that I would be married by the time I was 40. I sent it back and told her ‘double or nothing.’ for 50.”
KEEPING BUSY These days, there isn’t much time for socializing. Clooney recently directed his first movie, “Confessions of A Dangerous Mind,” a fictionalized account of the life of TV game show host Chuck Barris, due in December. This weekend he also stars in “Solaris,” a movie director Steven Soderberg calls “a combination of ‘2001’ and ‘Last Tango In Paris.’” The romantic drama follows an American psychologist (Clooney) on his trip to a space station orbiting a strange energy-covered world called Solaris. There, he encounters a few surprises, including a visit from his deceased wife (Natasha McElhone).
In the U.S., the movie was originally slapped with an R rating — since changed to PG-13 — because of three controversial and widely publicized glimpses of Clooney’s bare bottom.
“When you are 41, you have a PG-13 butt,” he laughed on Entertainment Tonight. “After 45, you get an R-Rating. And no one should have to see that.”
The controversy, he figures, was likely “orchestrated” for marketing purposes. “This is not an easy film to sell,” he admits. “I think it was one of those things where the studio was going ‘How do we sell this? Maybe we can sell it through sex.’ At least it is closer to that than the original film which is sci-fi. If young men show up thinking it is going to be a sci-fi film they are gonna be really pissed!”
ROAD TO THE RED CARPET A varsity basketball player at Augusta High School in rural Kentucky, Clooney made his acting debut as a guest star in a 1984 episode of “Riptide.” He saved up money to finance his move to Los Angeles by working in tobacco fields near his childhood home.
His mother, Nina, was a runner up in the Miss Kentucky pageant. Father, Nick, was a popular TV anchorman and talk show host in Cincinnati.
Clooney briefly considered a career in broadcasting, but quickly discovered “I was not bright enough.” Instead, after attending Northern Kentucky University, he tried out to play baseball for the Cincinnati Reds. When he eventually arrived in Hollywood in his rusty 1976 Monte Carlo with little more than $300 in his pocket, he was welcomed into the home of his aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney. She immediately put the aspiring actor to work as her personal driver.
LIVING BY EXAMPLE Over the years, Clooney looked to his aunt an example of how to navigate the highs and lows of show business.
“Rosemary didn’t handle it very well when she became less famous after being on the cover of Life and Time and every magazine in the world,” he explained in a 1999 interview. “I’ve been able to look at her and go, ‘Well, from 1950–1957 she didn’t become less of a singer, but she became less of a star.’ You learn it has very little to do with you. The truth is, I’ll probably end up on ‘The Hollywood Squares’ no matter what I do.”
Family and friends are a top priority for Clooney, who frequently hosts Sunday afternoon barbecues at his LA home for pals like Noah Wyle, Steven Soderberg, Richard Kind and Matt Adler. Next spring he hopes to move the parties overseas.
“I bought a villa in Italy, in Lake Como, that I am going to try to spend a little time at,” he says. “I have only had a chance to spend three or four days there. But a couple of months would be nice. It’s right there at the foothills of the Alps, where I can take my motorcycle up, which is really fun. I just love Italy. I think it is the best food, the best wine…”
Max and the dogs will have to stay in California.
“They have bad gas,” he laughs. “So they are hard to travel with.” (Sean Daly is president of Showtime Entertainment.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 23, 2002. Read the original PDF.