George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney, both have demanding jobs, but their number one priority is their eight-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella. George recently revealed that he and his human rights lawyer wife have worked out a system to make sure at least one of them is always home with their kids. “You try to pace it so that I’m doing it and then she’s home and then she goes and I’m home,” he told E! News at the Los Angeles premiere of his movie Jay Kelly on Tuesday. “We try to mix it up a little bit.”
However, despite wanting to put their family first while juggling their busy careers, George admitted that they don’t always strike the perfect balance. “You’re never gonna get it all right – no one does,” he continued, “but you gotta go to work too, so you do the best you can.” George and Amal have made several changes to their lifestyles after they welcomed their twins, a little under three years after tying the knot in 2014, and now raise them away from the spotlight on a farm in France.
The couple were active when it came to philanthropy and humanitarian work during the early days of their relationship, and they continue to do so over a decade into their marriage, although a key part of it had to change once they became parents.
“You can’t just go swinging as you used to,” George, 64, told People at the premiere of Jay Kelly at AFI Fest last month. “Amal and I both had to change our goals on where we would go. I used to enjoy going to places that were dangerous. I liked going into the Nuba Mountains and Darfur and Abyei, and there [were] war zones.”
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George admitted he and Amal will never ‘get it all right’ as parents
He continued: “And I found it exhilarating. And Amal was in a bunker in Beirut for two years doing the court cases. And we had to make decisions not to do that once we had kids. You had to change sort of what the rules were.” The Oscar-winning actor did get the opportunity to gush over why he still feels so “lucky” at this stage of his life.
George and Amal will try and make sure one of them is always home with their kids
“I’m 64, so you look back at everything, because the looking forward is harder,” the Syriana star shared. “But I’m in a pretty comfortable place in life. I like what I do for a living, I have great friends, I spend time with people that I love, and I’ve been able and lucky enough late in life to be able to spend time with my family.”
George and Amal, 47, have balanced their time with their kids in Italy and New York City as well, but primarily live off the grid on a farm in France, not only to give them a better chance at having a life less tainted by the big city stresses, but also due to paparazzi and child image rights laws in France, with rules against taking pictures of children being much stricter.
George and Amal have never publicly shared photos of their twins
“We do the best we can to minimize any impact on our children,” Amal told Glamour magazine in July. “We don’t put our children out there, we’ve never put their photo out there or anything like that.”
And maybe this time, the actor will wait for his signal.
When Sandler won the group’s best actor prize in 2020 for“Uncut Gems,” he rushed to the stage too fast — before host Conan O’Brien had time to sing his praises. O’Brien made comic hay of the moment, sending the sheepish actor back to his seat with instructions to await “a signal.”
From his “Saturday Night Live” roots to beloved comedies like “Billy Madison” (1995) and the cult classic “Happy Gilmore” (1996) to dramas like “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) and his high-energy turn in “Uncut Gems” (2019), Sandler, 59, has displayed an ever-growing range.
Winner of the 2023 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Sandler “is one of Hollywood’s most enduring and ever-evolving stars, whose talents resonate across generations,” AARP said in a statement on Tuesday.
Myechia Minter-Jordan, the group’s CEO, called the actor “a Hollywood legend whose remarkable career has set a new standard for comedic storytelling, captivating audiences across generations.
“Adam’s enduring success, his ability to reinvent himself, inspire laughter, and move us through dramatic performances is a testament to the power of creativity at every age,” Minter-Jordan said.
AARP launched the Movies for Grownups initiative in 2002 to advocate for audiences over 50, fight ageism in Hollywood and promote movies “for grownups, by grownups.”
Actor Alan Cumming will host the ceremony in Beverly Hills on Jan. 10, to be broadcast by “Great Performances” on PBS in February.
Adam Sandler will be the next recipient of AARP’s Movies for Grownups career achievement award, the group said Tuesday.And maybe this time, the actor will wait for his signal.When Sandler won the group’s best actor prize in 2020 for”Uncut Gems,” he rushed to the stage too fast — before host Conan O’Brien had time to sing his praises. O’Brien made comic hay of the moment, sending the sheepish actor back to his seat with instructions to await “a signal.”From his “Saturday Night Live” roots to beloved comedies like “Billy Madison” (1995) and the cult classic “Happy Gilmore” (1996) to dramas like “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) and his high-energy turn in “Uncut Gems” (2019), Sandler, 59, has displayed an ever-growing range.This summer, he reprised “Happy Gilmore” on Netflix, and in November, he will appear alongside George Clooney in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”Winner of the 2023 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Sandler “is one of Hollywood’s most enduring and ever-evolving stars, whose talents resonate across generations,” the AARP said in a statement on Tuesday.Myechia Minter-Jordan, the group’s CEO, called the actor “a Hollywood legend whose remarkable career has set a new standard for comedic storytelling, captivating audiences across generations.”Adam’s enduring success, his ability to reinvent himself, inspire laughter, and move us through dramatic performances is a testament to the power of creativity at every age,” Minter-Jordan said.AARP launched the Movies for Grownups initiative in 2002 to advocate for audiences over 50, fight ageism in Hollywood and promote movies “for grownups, by grownups.”Actor Alan Cumming will host the ceremony in Beverly Hills on Jan. 10, to be broadcast by “Great Performances” on PBS in February.
Adam Sandler will be the next recipient of AARP’s Movies for Grownups career achievement award, the group said Tuesday.
And maybe this time, the actor will wait for his signal.
When Sandler won the group’s best actor prize in 2020 for”Uncut Gems,” he rushed to the stage too fast — before host Conan O’Brien had time to sing his praises. O’Brien made comic hay of the moment, sending the sheepish actor back to his seat with instructions to await “a signal.”
From his “Saturday Night Live” roots to beloved comedies like “Billy Madison” (1995) and the cult classic “Happy Gilmore” (1996) to dramas like “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) and his high-energy turn in “Uncut Gems” (2019), Sandler, 59, has displayed an ever-growing range.
This summer, he reprised “Happy Gilmore” on Netflix, and in November, he will appear alongside George Clooney in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”
Winner of the 2023 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Sandler “is one of Hollywood’s most enduring and ever-evolving stars, whose talents resonate across generations,” the AARP said in a statement on Tuesday.
Myechia Minter-Jordan, the group’s CEO, called the actor “a Hollywood legend whose remarkable career has set a new standard for comedic storytelling, captivating audiences across generations.
“Adam’s enduring success, his ability to reinvent himself, inspire laughter, and move us through dramatic performances is a testament to the power of creativity at every age,” Minter-Jordan said.
AARP launched the Movies for Grownups initiative in 2002 to advocate for audiences over 50, fight ageism in Hollywood and promote movies “for grownups, by grownups.”
Actor Alan Cumming will host the ceremony in Beverly Hills on Jan. 10, to be broadcast by “Great Performances” on PBS in February.
“This never felt like a story about a movie star to me,” George Clooney says as we sit down at West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower hotel to record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast — on which he last guested in 2019 — ahead of the release of Jay Kelly, the new Noah Baumbach dramedy in which Clooney plays the title character, a movie star experiencing an existential crisis. “This felt like a story about almost every one of us who has had to balance work and life.”
Even so, Jay Kelly — which has been a hit on the fall film fest circuit en route to its theatrical release on Nov. 14 and Netflix debut on Dec. 5, and for which Clooney could earn the fifth acting Oscar nomination of his distinguished career — raises a lot of interesting questions about stardom. And few people alive today are more qualified to discuss the subject than Clooney, who has been an A-lister for more than three decades.
Like Jay Kelly, Clooney was born in Kentucky, came to Hollywood, caught a few breaks and became a critical and commercial darling sometimes described as “the last movie star,” despite a handful of contrarians occasionally accusing him of playing himself. Unlike Kelly, Clooney hasn’t shown a blatant disregard for the people around him — he is widely known in the business to be highly considerate to his “team,” generous to his friends (once gifting 14 of them checks for $1 million), attentive to his parents and, after many years as a bachelor, a loving husband and father.
Baumbach says he wrote the role of Kelly for Clooney and would not have made the film if Clooney had declined it — something that many other movie stars might have done, out of fear that the public might assume that a character that resembled them in so many ways — right down to the film featuring a montage of Kelly’s past work that consists of clips of Clooney’s past work — was actually a reflection of them in all ways.
Clooney said that “wasn’t really a consideration” for him, in part because he is comfortable in his own skin and in part because Baumbach only added some of those details after Clooney signed on. “He added the Kentucky thing and a couple of those things as we were shooting. He kept looking at my life and adding things, and I was like, ‘Take it easy.’” As for the montage featuring clips of his own films? “I was shocked by that,” he admits, but he was not upset. He has learned to take these sorts of things in stride. “When I did Up in the Air, there were all these conversations about how [the character] was very similar to me, and it was — there were things that I had said like, ‘I don’t ever want to get married again’ and all those kind of things.”
How did Clooney avoid becoming like Jay Kelly in his own life? He insists it’s all about when and how they each became famous. Of Kelly, Clooney says, “He was famous too young. He’s been surrounded by a team of people who have said ‘yes’ to him … He’s not an evil guy; he’s just oblivious.” Clooney, however, was already 33 by the time he became famous, old enough to have experienced a normal life first — something that he says had not been the case for his own late aunt, the singer Rosemary Clooney, whose resulting troubles he observed up close.
Also, Marshall McLuhan famously said, “The medium is the message.” Clooney agrees. “I got famous from television, not from movies,” he emphasizes. “You watched me at home, and you could make me talk or not talk with the remote, and you’d watch me in your underwear, and you knew me personally, so I was very much accessible in that way.”
In those days, the worlds of film and TV were much more segregated, and it was virtually unheard of for someone who had first become famous as a TV star to subsequently become a movie star. Clooney was no exception, at first: “I’d done five or six films while I was doing ER, some very good ones, that didn’t succeed — Out of Sight didn’t succeed, Three Kings didn’t succeed — and so the big question was, ‘Am I going to make it in the movies?’ And the answer was no — until I left ER. The next two movies I had were sort of a perfect combination of The Perfect Storm — which was a big hit having nothing to do with me, but listen, I took a lot of shit for Batman & Robin, so I’ll take credit for the big wave — and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which was a critical hit.”
After that, he was off to the races, starring in hits like 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven and its 2004 and 2007 sequels but far more often in art house fare, including 2005’s Syriana, for which he won a best supporting actor Oscar; 2007’s Michael Clayton, 2009’s Up in the Air and 2011’s The Descendants, each of which brought him best actor Oscar nominations. He also began writing, directing and producing quality films, some of which he appeared in, others not — he received best director and best original screenplay Oscar noms for 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck, in which he played a supporting part; a best adapted screenplay Oscar nom for 2011’s The Ides of March, in which he also played a supporting part; and he won a best picture Oscar for producing 2012’s Argo, in which he did not appear at all.
Incidentally, he says that he did want to play the leads in Good Night, and Good Luck and Argo, but came to realize that he should not. “I wrote Good Night, and Good Luck to play Murrow,” he says, referring to TV newsman Edward R. Murrow, “and we did a table reading and I looked at Grant [Heslov, his best friend and co-writer on that project] and said, ‘I don’t have the gravitas to play that character yet.’ I was too young, which was really disappointing because I really wanted to play the part. David Strathairn, of course, knocked it out of the park. But I still had to be in the film to keep the financing.” As for Argo? “I was supposed to play the lead in Argo, but when [Ben Affleck] came on to direct it, he said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to play that part.’ And I was like, ‘Shit.’”
Since Clooney last was on this podcast — back when he was promoting 2019’s Catch-22, a Hulu limited series on which he was an executive producer and director, and in which he also played a supporting role — he has been working nonstop. He directed three films — 2020’s The Midnight Sky, 2021’s The Tender Bar and 2023’s The Boys in the Boat) — the first of which he also starred in. He also starred in a rom-com opposite Julia Roberts (2022’s Ticket to Paradise) and a heist film opposite Brad Pitt (2024’s Wolfs). Thirty nine years after he last acted on stage, he made his Broadway debut playing the aforementioned Murrow in a theatrical adaptation of Good Night, and Good Luck, garnering a best actor in a play Tony nom. And he made Jay Kelly, of which he is obviously immensely proud.
* * *
George Clooney’s thoughts…
On social media
“I talk to kids all the time. I talk to kids at SAG and things, and they’re all on Instagram and everything. And when I was directing and I was casting, and it was between two actors, the casting director and the studio would come to me and go, ‘Well, she’s got 175,000 followers on Instagram, and the other girl’s got 30,000.’ Those were literally the discussions we had. And I said to all these actors, ‘Get the fuck off of it. Get off of all of it. Because if you’re not on it, you have nothing to be compared to.’ And that access, I get it — you can monetize it, you can drink a certain kind of water and they’ll pay you 10 grand, and fair enough, I get it, I understand it. But trying to maintain a career and answer all of the questions that every individual has for you, it’s diminishing your ability to be bigger than life. It’s inevitable, and I’m sort of swimming upstream, and I don’t think that there’s much you can do about it, but I do think it’s better to not be as available.”
On AI
“It’s very disturbing, some of the stuff you’re seeing. … I’ve seen stuff with me in it that’s pretty disturbing, stuff that I ‘said’ that I never said, telling, you know, great stories about Hitler and stuff like that, where you just go, ‘Jesus Christ.’ But I will say that AI is gonna have the same problem that Hollywood has always had, which is it’s still hard to find a movie star.”
On younger stars who impress him
“I think Zendaya … can do television, she can do commercials, she can do movies, she seems to have that ability to rise above it. I think Glen Powell is doing interesting stuff as a young actor; he’s kind of hitting around the time I hit, and he seems to want to direct and produce and write and do all of those things with a little bit of humor about himself, which I think is an element that’s important if you look back. I’m not ready to call it all dead yet.”
On failure versus regret
“You can live with failure. What you cannot live with is regret. You can’t live with that road that you didn’t try when you think ‘that could have been something special,’ because you can’t go back, and that is toxic. And that, to me, is something that I happily don’t have in my life. If I get hit by a bus when I walk outside after this interview, there’s not one person who knows me or who’s been around me that wouldn’t think, ‘Well, he pretty much got everything you could get out of it.’ I’m the most successful version of where I started, cutting tobacco for $3 an hour, that I ever thought I’d be, and not just in work as an actor, but also in life. I have a beautiful wife and wonderful children and great friends and a great family. And I’ve worked at those things. But I also had made sure that wherever there was a fork in the road, I took the one that I thought was the riskiest and not the safest. And it worked out. It could have not. I could live with that. What I couldn’t live with is having not taken that road.”
Hosted by Jane Pauley. Featured: Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution”; George Clooney on “Jay Kelly”; author Salman Rushie on “The Eleventh Hour”; the high cost of childcare; the Trump administration’s pressures on universities; pianist Adam Tendler; and watch auctioneer Aurel Bacs.
Venice can feel like a movie set, particularly when riding on a boat down the Grand Canal with George Clooney.
Waving to fans, he’s asked if that ever gets normal. “No,” he replied.
George Clooney, with correspondent Seth Doane, in Venice.
CBS News
Clooney has practice navigating this kind of attention. He’s made about 50 films, picking up a couple of Academy Awards along the way (as an actor for “Syriana,” and as a producer for “Argo”). And for his latest, “Jay Kelly,” he plays one of the world’s biggest movie stars – a familiar role.
He says it’s true that he said yes to the film within 24 hours. “Well, I read it, and I was like, Well, if I take time to think of it, they might go get Brad. And I can’t have that. I can’t have that, man! When you read something, you know.”
Co-starring Adam Sandler and Laura Dern, the Netflix film – part comedy, part drama – critiques the cult of celebrity, as Clooney’s character embarks on a journey to reconcile his professional success and personal failings.
I asked, “There’s this kind of mind-bending experience where you’re watching the film and you’re wondering how much is the character and how much is George Clooney. Did you feel that making it?”
“I really didn’t,” Clooney said. “You know, what I know in life is you can live with failure. I tried this, it didn’t work out. What you can’t live with is regret. Jay Kelly is filled with regret. I mean, if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I have no regrets. I’ve certainly made mistakes. I’ve certainly done some dumb things. But I took a big bite at the apple, and I really took big swings.”
George Clooney as a movie star receiving a career tribute in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly.”
Peter Mountain/Netflix
“Were there things that felt autobiographical?”
“I mean, there’s things that we would laugh about, you know, playing a guy who no one says ‘no’ to.”
“And that’s the case for you?”
“Well, I designed it so that that’s not the case.”
How? “I pay people!” he laughed. “No, I designed it by surrounding myself with the same friends that I met when I was 20 years old … I talk to them every day.”
“Do you go out of your way to understand that there is this perceived gap between you and others?”
“Yes,” Clooney said. “I didn’t grow up around fame. I mean, my father was a newscaster in Cincinnati, Ohio. My aunt [Rosemary Clooney] was a famous singer, but I’d met her three times. So, when I met someone famous, I was always like, Oh my God! And so, I always try to remind people that, honest to God, this is the job that I do and that, you know, we’re all fairly normal.”
“Why is that so important to you?” I asked.
“I think because I was raised not only that you treat everyone equally, but that everyone treats you equally as well.”
Clooney is pretty disarming, as we saw while setting up the interview. Asked if he wanted to check how he looked in the camera, he smiled: “No, I don’t care. I’m too old to give a s*** anymore.”
“You are, for many, kind of the poster man of aging gracefully.”
“That’s why I’m wearing these glasses,” Clooney said, “because for the record, I have a horrible sinus infection. If I take these off …” He demonstrated for us. “You see the problem?”
George Clooney, with glasses … and without.
CBS News
“How much does aging factor in … Do you see parts changing?”
“I see parts on my body changing,” he replied. “I’m like, that fell off? How’d that fall off?”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“Oh sure, parts have changed significantly.”
He’s 64 now, married to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin. The two juggle Hollywood glamour with social justice work through their foundation. They have eight-year-old twins, and the actor (once famously single) says family life suits him – another thing that sets him apart from this character. “Fame, [Jay] actually does really well. And I’m kind of the opposite of that in a way.”
What do you mean? “I feel I’m a better parent, I hope, certainly husband. And fame, if there was one of the two, that would be the one I’m least comfortable with.”
“Wow, you seem to be quite comfortable with fame and celebrity,” I said.
“Well, you know, you got to put on your famous outfit when you come here to do a film premiere.”
“But you know everywhere you go, people watch you. Is it performative?”
“Sometimes it’s performative,” Clooney replied. “I mean, listen, you don’t get caught picking your nose, you know? You have to be more aware than other people would be.”
I asked, “You seem to have this desire to keep some things for yourself, but then you can also be very political and really stick yourself out there.”
“Sometimes, yeah,” Clooney said. “I try to do it when I think I have a responsibility to it. My father always told me to challenge people with more power than you, and protect people with less power. One of the things you understand is, you can’t take on every fight. You have to pick things. I worked on trying to help solve some of the problems in Darfur in the early 2000s. Failed. You fail more often than you succeed. But it doesn’t mean you don’t keep trying. We still work there, we’re still involved.”
He also does not regret writing that opinion piece in The New York Times, urging President Biden to drop out. “To not do it would be to say I’m not going to tell the truth,” he said.
While Clooney does not shy from public activism, he gets some help guarding his private life at the family’s place in Italy: “Italian towns adopt you, Like, people come up and say, ‘Which house is George Clooney’s?’ They go, ‘Hey, he doesn’t live here, he doesn’t.’ They protect you.”
George Clooney.
CBS News
Right now, Clooney considers France home. “We live on a 750-acre farm, and our kids run around. We wanted them to have something of a normal existence.”
“And you find that on a 750-acre ranch?”
“Well, you find it on a farm, and you find on a very small school and very sort of farming community. We found a real peace there.”
He prizes that peace. In the film, Jay Kelly is searching for what George Clooney already has: a sense of self and balance. Clooney really does seem to have it all.
I said, “If people say, What was it like being with George Clooney? One of the things I’m going to say is, well, I was sitting here sweating, and somehow he didn’t seem to sweat.”
“I don’t sweat!” Clooney laughed. “It’s a funny thing. I don’t sweat much when I’m on camera, funnily enough. I don’t know why. I put ice cubes under my arms!”
But like the rest of us, he still has to contend with the passing of time. “I want to work, but I don’t want to fill my life with work,” he said. “When I turned 60, Amal and I talked about it, and I said, ‘Look, I can still play basketball with the boys, I can still hang out. But in 25 years I’ll be 85. And that’s a real number.’
“And things change, and it doesn’t matter how many granola bars you eat; it catches you. So, we have to focus on making sure we work. We also have to have focus on spending time with the people we love. More time, because at the end of your life, you don’t go, I wish I’d worked more.“
To watch a trailer for “Jay Kelly” click on the video player below:
George and Amal Clooney are one of the steadiest marriages in Hollywood. The couple, who have been married for a decade, seemed like an odd pairing at first, but they have proven to be a good match since meeting in 2013, and now have two kids aged eight. But so many years in, is their marriage in good shape?
RadarOnline.com is reporting that the actor’s drinking could cause their relationship to fail. The actor recently discussed with Esquire magazine how, after the Tony Awards in June, he ended the night “like a high school drunk.” The actor mostly abstained during the six-month period when he was rehearsing and later making his Broadway debut as journalist Edward R. Murrow in the play in Good Night, and Good Luck. The play earned him his first Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.
Clooney admitted he partied hard that night and drank a little too much, saying that he “caught up for all his abstinence in one night,” joking that as a result he’d been “sick all day the next day.”
Reportedly, his wife wasn’t that pleased. A source told the outlet, “Amal has drawn a firm line. She’s told George that his drinking isn’t something she’s prepared to overlook. She admired the effort he put into staying sober, but hearing him boast about getting ‘dumb drunk’ really upset her.”
Sources are even saying that Amal Clooney sees moments like that night as a “slippery slope” back into old habits that Clooney had pretty much abandoned.
“George worked hard to give up drinking before, and he often said how much better he felt and how it improved things between them. But Amal’s concerned he’s treating this slip-up like a joke. She’s warned him plainly that if he falls back into those habits, he’s risking everything,” another source said.
This is far from the first time Clooney has brought up his drinking habits in public. He was open about enjoying what he referred to as “pretty toasty” evenings early in his career and admitted he showed up on set still drunk while filming One Fine Day in 1996. His wife, Amal, who is a respected human rights lawyer, was reportedly never on the same wavelength with him on that.
A family friend said, “Amal doesn’t see wild nights out as charming or funny. She’s got a serious career, two young children, and a strong sense of order that George doesn’t always share. The last thing she wants is for careless behavior to disrupt their family life.”
Reports also indicate that despite Clooney’s jokes about it, the actor isn’t planning to make a habit of nights like that one. “George has a great sense of humor, but he sometimes uses it to gloss over things he shouldn’t. He insists this was a one-time mistake, but Amal isn’t convinced. She’s made it clear she won’t ignore it if he starts falling back into old patterns,” another source revealed.
A real problem or one night of overindulgence that didn’t actually cause any major problems? We will have to wait and see.
In this web exclusive, George Clooney talks with Seth Doane about his character in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” playing a movie star dealing with the drawbacks of fame and living with regrets. He also discusses aging; the fun of not being typecast; his wife Amal and children; the 2024 presidential race; and why failure is an important tool.
In his latest film, “Jay Kelly,” George Clooney plays a familiar role – one of the world’s biggest movie stars – who nonetheless tries to reconcile professional success and his personal shortcomings. Clooney talks with Seth Doane about how he is different from the character of Jay Kelly, and what he doesn’t regret about living the life of an A-List celebrity. He also talks about how he works hard to create a “normal existence” for his children.
Lee Weaver, the familiar character actor known for his work on The Bill Cosby Show, the Loni Anderson-starring Easy Street and the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?, has died. He was 95.
Weaver died Sept. 22 at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced. He “wove joy, depth and representation into every role he played and everything he did,” they said.
Weaver played Brian Kincaid, the brother of Bill Cosby’s gym teacher, Chet Kincaid, on 1969-71’s The Bill Cosby Show, and he stole scenes as the exhibitionist Buck Naked on the Steven Bochco series Hill Street Blues in 1982-84 and NYPD Blue in 1994.
On the 1986-87 NBC comedy Easy Street, Weaver and Jack Elam portrayed a couple of down-on-their-luck roommates who move into a mansion recently inherited by a former Las Vegas showgirl (Anderson). That show, created by WKRP in Cincinnati’s Hugh Wilson, was canceled after one season.
In O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Weaver had a memorable scene as the blind man who gives three escaped convicts (George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson) a ride on a railroad handcar and some mysterious advice about their future.
Weaver, in fact, turned up in several other notable movies during his long career, among them Vanishing Point (1971), Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Onion Field (1979), Bulworth (1998), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Donnie Darko (2001) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005).
The son of a chef, Lee Wellington Weaver was born on April 10, 1930, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was raised by his Aunt Mattie and Uncle Lee until he was 14, when he left home to attend high school in Tallahassee and then Florida A&M.
At 22, Weaver enlisted in the U.S. Army and served for four years, then headed to New York, where he worked as a linotype engineer for The New York Times and moonlighted as a promoter at the legendary Birdland jazz club. There, he booked such acts as Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane, Herb Ellis, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard and the Heath Brothers.
(Cannonball Adderley, a childhood pal and the best man at his wedding, recorded a Yusef Lateef-written song called “The Weaver” in honor of him that was featured on the saxophonist’s 1964 album, Nippon Soul.)
In one of his first acting gigs, Weaver played assorted natives on the 1955-56 syndicated series Sheena: Queen of the Jungle and a reporter in Al Capone (1959).
In 1967 and ’68, he appeared on episodes of the Cosby-starring NBC series I Spy. And when Cosby was a guest host on The Tonight Show back then, Weaver, in a recurring bit, would be announced as a guest but fail to make it on the show because Cosby would run out of time. Weaver was then seen getting angry in his dressing room.
Years later, Weaver would show up on The Cosby Show and on the Cosby-created A Different World.
Weaver kept busy in the 1970s with work on such TV series as Adam-12, Kojak, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Soap and Starsky & Hutch and films including Cleopatra Jones (1973) and House Calls (1978).
He provided the voice of Alpine on the 1985-86 animated series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and in a pair of movies.
His résumé also included the features The Lost Man (1969), Kiss Me Goodbye (1982), The Buddy System (1984), Wildcats (1986), The Two Jakes (1990), The Scout (1994), The Thirteenth Floor (1999) and Max Rose (2013) and guest stints on 227, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Most recently, he played Mel Cordray on two episodes of Grace and Frankie.
With his wife, actress Ta-Tanisha (Room 222), he had a daughter, Leis La-Te.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The stakes. The famous faces. The posh private rooms. The clever cheating schemes.
The federal indictment of a big-money poker ring involving NBA figures on Thursday, in which unsuspecting rich players were allegedly enticed to join then cheated of their money, echoed decades of movies and television, and not just because of the alleged Mafia involvement.
Fictional and actual poker have long been in sort of a pop-cultural feedback loop. When authorities described the supposed circumstances of the games, they might’ve evoked a run of screen moments from recent decades.
Poker in ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ ‘Molly’s Game’ and ‘The Sopranos’
A 2004 episode of “ The Sopranos ” showed a very similar mix of celebrities and mobsters in a New York game whose players included Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and football Hall-of-Famer Lawrence Taylor, both playing themselves.
In 2001’s “Ocean’s Eleven,” George Clooney finds his old heist buddy Brad Pitt running a poker game for “Teen Beat” cover boys including Topher Grace and Joshua Jackson, also playing themselves. Clooney spontaneously teams with Pitt to con them. And the plot of the 2007 sequel “Ocean’s Thirteen” centers on the high-tech rigging of casino games.
Asked about the relevance of the films to the NBA scandal, which came soon after a story out of Paris that could’ve come straight out of “Ocean’s Twelve,” Clooney told The Associated Press with a laugh that “we get blamed for everything now.”
“‘Cause we also got compared to the Louvre heist. Which, I think, you gotta CGI me into that basket coming out of the Louvre,” Clooney said Thursday night at the Los Angeles premiere of his new film, “Jay Kelly.” He was referring to thieves using a basket lift to steal priceless Napoleonic jewels from the museum.
2017’s “Molly’s Game,” and the real-life memoir from Molly Bloom that it was based on, could almost serve as manuals for how to build a poker game’s allure for desirable “fish” in the same ways and with the same terminology that the organizers indicted Thursday allegedly used.
The draw of Bloom’s games at hip Los Angeles club The Viper Room were not NBA players, but Hollywood players like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and “The Hangover” director Todd Phillips. (None of them were accused of any wrongdoing.)
In the movie written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, Bloom, played by Jessica Chastain, describes the way a famous actor acts as an attractor for other players, the same way officials said Thursday that NBA “face cards” did for the newly indicted organizers.
The unnamed actor, played by Michael Cera, was at least partly based on the “Spider-Man” star Maguire.
“People wanted to say they played with him,” Chastain says. “The same way they wanted to say they rode on Air Force One. My job security was gonna depend on bringing him his fish.”
In her book, Bloom described the allure for the players she drew.
“The formula of keeping pros out, inviting in celebrities and other interesting and important people, and even the mystique of playing in the private room of the Viper Room added up to one of the most coveted invitations in town,” she writes, later adding that “I just needed to continue feeding it new, rich blood; and to be strategic about how to fill those ten precious seats.”
Bloom would get caught up in a broad 2013 nationwide crackdown on high-stakes private poker games, probably the highest profile poker bust in years before this week. She got a year’s probation, a $1,000 fine, and community service.
There were no accusations of rigging at her game, but that didn’t make it legal.
The legality of private-space poker games has been disputed for decades and widely varies among U.S. states. But in general, they tend to bring attention and prosecution when the host is profiting the way that a casino would.
A brief history of movies making poker cool
Poker — and cheating at it — has run through movies, especially Westerns, from their silent beginnings.
Prominent poker scenes feature in 1944’s “Tall in the Saddle” with John Wayne and 1950’s “The Gunfighter” with Gregory Peck.
“The Cincinnati Kid” in 1965 was dedicated entirely to poker — with Steve McQueen bringing his unmatched cool to the title character.
A pair of movies co-starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman really raised the game’s profile, though.
In the opening scene of 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ a hyper-cool Redford is playing poker and refuses to leave until another player takes back a cheating accusation.
In 1973’s Best Picture Oscar winner “The Sting,” 1930s con-men Newman and Redford seek revenge against a big fish and run a series of increasingly bold gambling scams that could’ve come from Thursday’s indictments. Newman out-cheats the man at poker to set him up for the big con, a phony radio horse race.
The 1980s saw a dip in screen poker, with the subject largely relegated to the TV “Gambler” movies, starring Kenny Rogers, based on his hit song.
But the end of the decade brought a poker boomlet from the increased legalization of commercial games.
Then, at possibly the perfect moment, came “Rounders.” The 1998 Matt Damon film did for Texas Hold ’em what “Sideways” did for pinot noir and “Pitch Perfect” did for a cappella: it took an old and popular phenomenon and made them widespread crazes.
Soon after came explosive growth in online poker, whose players often sought out big face-to-face games. And the development of cameras that showed players’ cards — very similar to the tech allegedly used to cheat players, according to the new indictments — made poker a TV spectator sport.
The “Ocean’s” films and the general mystique they brought piled on too.
Clooney, talking about the broader set of busts Thursday that included alleged gambling on basketball itself, pointed out that his Cincinnati Reds were the beneficiaries of sport’s most infamous gambling scandal, the 1919 “Black Sox” and the fixing of the World Series, “so I have great guilt for that.”
“But you know there — we’ve never had a moment in our history that we didn’t have some dumb scandal or something crazy,” he said. “I feel very bad for the gambling scandal ’cause this was on the night that, you know, we had some amazing basketball happen.”
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Associated Press writer Leslie Ambriz contributed to this report.
For their new movie, Jay Kelly, George Clooney had a special rule on set: he didn’t want the cast referring to Adam Sandler by his nickname “Sandman,” in an effort to take the comedian more seriously as an actor.
At the film’s AFI Fest premiere on Thursday, Clooney explained that reasoning to The Hollywood Reporter, saying, “You get treated the way you treat yourself. This was a different kind of role for Adam, and I wanted to make sure that he wasn’t making fun of his incredible talent. He likes to just deflect and I was like, ‘You know what, dude, you’re really good in this film and you’re a really good actor and let’s not just make jokes.’”
In the Netflix movie, Clooney plays movie star Jay Kelly, who has a sudden wake-up call about his life and goes on a trip through Europe with his devoted manager Ron (Sandler).
Sandler joked in response to Clooney’s rule, “I still call myself the Sandman; he can’t stop me,” but he did appreciate the gesture. “He just is very protective over me. He’s a really nice guy,” he continued of Clooney. “We would do all these scenes together and we’d get deep together and he’d say, ‘I just want people to recognize that’ and I’d say, ‘I’m OK, I like just working hard,’ and he’d say, ‘No.’ He’s very nice, he’s trying to look out for me.”
Noah Baumbach, along with co-writer Emily Mortimer, wrote the role specifically for Sandler, as the actor explained the film as less a Hollywood-set story but for “everybody who works and tries to do the best they can at work and the sacrifice that takes on your family and on yourself; things you miss out on when you jump into something and you’re deep into something and that stuff’s going on over there — you tend to go what’s more important, this or that? And it’s a struggle.”
Greta Gerwig plays Sandler’s wife in the film, and along with “Greta’s son and my daughter, we were one nice family together,” Sandler added of their characters. “Greta was fantastic; Greta was so nice to my daughter Sadie — they did a lot of scenes together and they got very close.”
Baumbach, who is married to Gerwig in real life, said he identified “fairly early” that she would play the role: “I basically said to Greta, ‘Who are you going to play?’” He confirmed that she has early dibs on parts, joking, “I mean, she couldn’t play Jay Kelly or Ron, but she could play pretty much anyone else.”
Jay Kelly hits select theaters on Nov. 14 and starts streaming on Netflix Dec. 5.
In the midst of promoting his new film Jay Kelly, due for release via Netflix on December 5, George Clooney was asked about the headline-making jewel heist at the Louvre museum last Sunday. Investigations continue into the reportedly seven-minute theft of a number of historic jewels snatched from the Apollon gallery at the opening of the institution, sparking a heated debate about the security measures and resources in place to protect these jewels of French history. Among them: a diamond bodice knot belonging to Empress Eugénie, an emerald set given by Napoleon to his second wife Marie-Louise, and a sapphire and diamond diadem worn by Queens Hortense, Marie-Amélie and Isabelle d’Orléans. Estimated loss: 88 million euros (or more than 102 million in U.S. dollars).
This almost implausible crime had all the trappings of a fantastical fictional tale, in the tradition of the great burglary stories that have permeated popular culture for decades. And who better to speak to the fictional parallels than Clooney? In Ocean’s Eleven (2002), he played Danny Ocean, a burglar just out of prison who assembles a crack team to pull off a new heist in a Las Vegas casino. After two sequels, a spin-off (Ocean’s Eight in 2018) and a future prequel starring Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie,Ocean’s Fourteen is still in the works. While walking the red carpet at Jay Kelly’s Los Angeles premiere on October 23, Clooney was asked if the Louvre Museum theft would be included in the script.
“We should rob the Louvre [in the film],” Clooney gamely replied when asked by Variety about incorporating the real-world heist into the next Ocean’s movie. “But somebody’s already done it, man, I don’t know. You know what we’re gonna do? We’re gonna rob Adam Sandler,” Clooney joked, referring to his on-screen partner in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly. Clooney plays an introspective movie star and Sandler, his devoted manager.
Clooney went on to say that the upcoming Ocean’s script is in “great shape” with only scheduling for the production to be determined. “I wonder if they’re gonna catch these guys,” he continued. “They seem to have done a pretty good job of getting away with it. It was cool. It’s terrible,” Clooney hastened to add, “but, if you’re a professional thief like I am, I was very proud of those guys…” he added with a grin. “In the middle of broad daylight, it’s crazy.”
Entertainment Tonight also asked Clooney about the Louvre robbery. “I’m the culprit,” laughed the actor. As for whether or not there could be a direct reference to the museum in the next Ocean’s movie, in which Robbie and Cooper will play Clooney ’s character’s parents, he replied, “They should use CGI [computer-generated imagery] and put us in that basket coming down from the Louvre.”
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ annual gala has become one of the starriest events of the year — and also one of the biggest fundraisers for the now four-year-old museum devoted to the arts, sciences and artists behind moviemaking.
This year’s glitzy event, presented with partner Rolex, raised a record $12+ million in support of the museum’s exhibitions, education efforts and public programming. Jon M. Chu, Common, Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, Jennifer Hudson and Academy Museum Trustee Alejandro Ramírez Magaña served as this year’s co-chairs.
Viola DavisCredit: Photo by Emma McIntyre/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
The evening started with an outdoor cocktail party, where guests enjoyed passed bites like tuna cones and pizza prepared by guest chef Nancy Silverton and Wolfgang Puck Catering. They sipped wine (Clarendelle Bordeaux Blanc and Rose), Lallier R. 021 Champagne, Dassai Blue 23 Junmai Daiginjo sake and cocktails (including the Amity Island drink, made with Tequila Don Julio Blanco, lime, orange juice, hibiscus-cranberry float and lime).
Kim KardashianCredit: Photo by Emma McIntyre/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
The fashion show began as gala-goers arrived. Kim Kardashian made headlines in a face-covering nude masked look by Margiela couture. White Lotus co-stars Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan both impressed in Caroline Herrera numbers.
Leslie Bibb and Michelle MonaghanCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Tessa Thompson also went for texture, in yellow Balenciaga. Monica Barbaro stunned in a white draping Dior number, and Lakeith Stanfield rocked a black and white Dior look. Charli XCX stood out in a black Saint Laurent look. Colman Domingo, who can do no wrong, dazzled in a gold Valentino jacket. Davis was a vision in purple Gucci. And Jeremy Strong went for an arresting red Loro Piana suit (plus matching red shades).
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Jeremy Strong and Joel EdgertonCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Other guests included: Adam and Jackie Sandler, Addison Rae, Adrien Brody, Alana, Danielle and Este Haim, Alex Israel, Amanda Seyfried, America Ferrera, Anna Kendrick, Annabelle Wallis, Ari Emanuel, Ava DuVernay and Donovan Burns, Ayo Edebiri, Barry Jenkins, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, Benny Safdie, Brian Tyree Henry …
Brian Tyree Henry, Joey King, and Logan LermanCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
…. Bong Joon Ho, Cara Delevigne, Channing Tatum, Charli XCX, Charlie Hunnam, Dakota and Elle Fanning …
Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning, and Orlando BloomCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
… Demi Moore, Diane Lane, Diego Boneta, Dwayne Johnson, Ed Sheeran, Édgar Ramírez, Edward Berger, Elizabeth Debicki, Emily Ratajkowski, Eva Longoria and Pepe Baston, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, Gael García Bernal, George Clooney, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Hailey Bieber, Hilary Duff, Isla Fisher, Jaden Smith, Jared Harris, Jason Clarke, Jason Reitman and Lorraine Nicholson, Jennifer Hudson, Jeremy Allen White, Joel Edgerton, Joey King, Jon Hamm and Anna Osceola, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, Kaia Gerber, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Bigelow, Kendall Jenner, Kerry Condon, Kerry Washington, Kristen Wiig, Laura Harrier, Lee Pace, Logan Lerman, Lucy Liu …
Lucy Liu, Penélope Cruz, Demi Moore, and Adrien BrodyCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
… Lulu Wang, Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song, Marlon Wayans, Martin Scorsese, Maude Apatow, Mikey Madison, Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, Nicole Richie, Odessa Young, Olivia Rodrigo, Olivia Wilde, Orlando Bloom, Park Chan-wook, Quinta Brunson, Rachel Sennott, Regina Hall, Regé-Jean Page, Renate Reinsve, Riley Keough, Rita Wilson, Rose Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Ryan Coogler, Sam Worthington, Sebastian Stan, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, Sydney Sweeney, Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant, Will Arnett and Zoey Deutch.
Susan Downey, Robert Downey Jr. and Jared HarrisCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Once seated inside, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey kicked things off by introducing the Academy Museum’s new director and president, Amy Homma — who in turn, introduced Academy Museum board chair Olivier de Givenchy.
Bowen Yang and Jon M. ChuCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Then came the awards presentations: Wim Wenders presented director Walter Salles with the Luminary Award. Jon M. Chu gave the Vantage Award to actor and comedian Bowen Yang.
Billy Crudup, Naomi Watts, Walter Salles and Penélope CruzCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
After dinner, Davis and Julius Tennon welcomed Zoe Saldaña, who presented the Icon Award to Oscar-winning actress Penélope Cruz. Martin Scorsese presented the evening’s final award, the inaugural Legacy Award, to Oscar-winning singer, songwriter and musician Bruce Springsteen.
Bruce Springsteen and Martin ScorseseCredit: Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Oscars/Getty Images for Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
In a memorable finale, George Clooney came to the stage and introduced a performance by Springsteen, who closed out the event by belting his hits “Streets of Philadelphia,” “Atlantic City” and “Land of Hope and Dreams.”
Amal Clooney looked nothing short of breathtaking on Friday evening as she headed to the premiere of her husband, Hollywood royalty George’s, new film, Jay Kelly. Supporting the actor on the red carpet, the 47-year-old Human Rights lawyer positively dazzled in her sugar pink gown by Tamara Ralph Haute Couture, which featured a cascading plethora of sequins. The skirt looked flapper-esque with fringe detail, and she carried a showgirl’s style shawl, which was bombastic, avant-garde garde and just glorious. We adored how the frock glowed as it caught the light of the flashbulbs, and Amal accessorised with a winning smile and a smattering of diamonds in the form of statement earrings.
The talented professional wore her famous, illustrious mane in a lightly curled style, and flawless makeup gave her a sleek and polished look. Charlotte Tilbury was behind her beauty look, and stylist Dimitris Giannetos preened her tresses. George looked super proud of his wife as he admiringly posed next to her, and can you blame him? The Ocean’s Eleven star looked suave in a pristine navy blue suit with a matching tie and a crisp white shirt. We think they are the epitome of couple goals, dont you?
We last saw Amal less than a week ago, arm-in-arm with George once again at the Clooney Foundation For Justice’s The Albies. Held at The Natural History Museum in London, the pair walked the red carpet that saw the organisation honor Gambian women’s and girls’ rights activist Fatou Baldeh; Guatemalan journalist Jose Rubén Zamora; celebrated American newspaper editor Marty Baron of Spotlight fame; and global women and girls champion Melinda French Gates.
Many celebrities joined the pair at their star-studded event
The event had a show-stopping guest list, which featured the toast of Hollywood. Meryl Streep, Meg Ryan, Felicity Jones, Jemima Khan, Dame Emma Thompson, Jemma Kidd, Graham Norton, Michaela Jay Rodriguez, Charlotte Tilbury, and Hannah Waddingham were in attendance.
Everyone looked glorious, but it was Amal who had everyone talking in her show-stopping, chocolate brown gown that featured ruched detailing and an elegant off-the-shoulder strap.
Amal added gold earrings and sported a glowing beauty look
Amal, who is the mother to the couple’s eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, really worked it in her gown, which featured dramatic draping along the neckline and midsection, which flowed into a floor-sweeping train. She paired the look with gorgeous gold earrings, a small bronze clutch, and sheer PVC pumps by AQUAZZURA in the same hue as the gown.
George Clooney may seem like a cool, calm and collected family man, but even the father of two likes to let loose now and then. The star revealed in an interview with Esquire that after losing the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play at the 2025 Tonys in June, he got incredibly drunk for the first time in years. “I got blasted. Barely-walking drunk, you know? Came home with [my wife] Amal, and I was just laughing,” he recalled.
George had been abstaining from alcohol for six months while starring in the acclaimed play Good Night, and Good Luck on Broadway, aside from a glass of wine on Sunday nights. He portrayed journalist Edward R. Murrow in the show, which is a stage adaptation of the 2005 film of the same name that George also co-wrote and starred in.
He continued to share the details of his drunken night out, after imbibing at the Tony Awards afterparty. “[Amal and I are] lying in bed, and I go, ‘Well, I caught up for all my abstinence in one night.’ I was sick all day the next day; it was hysterical,” he laughed. “I was like high school drunk. Like [expletive] drunk.”
George added that while he liked a drink, there were times when his relationship with alcohol changed. “I’ve had periods where, I wouldn’t say it was a problem – I never woke up and drank or anything. But I’d have runs where I’d get pretty toasty every night,” he said. The Jay Kelly actor also admitted to dabbling in drugs in the past, like cocaine and marijuana.
To learn more about George’s two children, watch below…
Recommended videoYou may also likeWATCH: George Clooney opens up about twins Alexander and Ella
“[In 1982], I tried – I did blow and stuff. I used to make jokes about how I did too many drugs, but the truth is, it was never a big issue for me at all,” he shared. “And look, there was an episode of Taxi where they’re all doing blow. At the time, it was like, ‘No, this is not like heroin. It’s not addictive. But then it was like, ‘Oh, well, it’s actually pretty [expletive] bad.’”
The 64-year-old recalled trying marijuana with a group of his friends “about 15 years ago” while they watched The Wizard of Oz. “We were [expletive]. I think all of us – there was like 20 of us in the screening room, and the movie ended, and we sat there without speaking for, like, hours. Hours!… It’s just not my drug.”
George revealed that he got roaring drunk after the Tony Awards
George is a proud father to eight-year-old twins Alexander and Ella, and an adoring husband to human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, whom he wed in 2014. Yet before he settled down with his family, the A-lister drank more frequently, and recalled turning up drunk on set while filming the 1996 film One Fine Day with Michelle Pfeiffer. “I woke up at five in the morning. I was like, ‘I feel okay.’ Then I looked in the mirror, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m still drunk,’” he reminisced with Michelle in an interview with Variety.
He was nominated for a Tony for Good Night, and Good Luck
“I got to the set, and we walked to the trailer, and I sat down, and you looked at me. You go, ‘What?’ And I was like, ‘I didn’t know we were going to work today.’ And you go, ‘You’re still drunk.’” George added that he got through their scene by spraying Listerine in his mouth, as he smelled “like a brewery.”
When it comes to raising his family with wife, Amal, George Clooney much prefers life away from the glitz and glam of Hollywood.
In a new interview with Esquire, the Academy Award-winning actor and director – who shares 8-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with his wife of 11 years – opened up about his life in France and explained why they chose to uproot their family to the countryside.
“You know, we live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid I hated the whole idea of it. But now, for them, it’s like – they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life.”
George Clooney opened up about raising his family away from the glitz and glam of Hollywood.(Christopher Anderson/Esquire)
“I was worried about raising our kids in L.A., in the culture of Hollywood. I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life,” he continued. “France – they kind of don’t give a s— about fame. I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”
George Clooney and wife, Amal, share 8-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander. (Christopher Anderson/Esquire)
The couple has homes all around the world, including Italy, England and a property near Clooney’s family in Kentucky.
During an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, Clooney got candid about embracing the quieter life outside the city.
“Growing up in Kentucky, all I wanted to do was get away from a farm, get away from that life,” he told the outlet. “Now I find myself back in that life. I drive a tractor and all those things.”
In July, Amal detailed how she protects her family’s privacy while constantly being in the spotlight.
George Clooney said he was “worried” about raising his kids in Los Angeles.(Dave Benett/Getty Images)
“Creating private moments and spaces is becoming increasingly difficult,” Amal told Glamour. “But that’s also why we entertain a lot at home. I now have a phone basket that I use to take everyone’s phones away!”
“It’s important to get that balance where you have time alone with your family and with your friends where people feel like you can have a safe and frank exchange,” she explained.
WATCH: GEORGE CLOONEY TALKS FAMILY LIFE AT KENNEDY CENTER HONORS
While being a mom of twins, Amal admitted that it’s vital to protect her brood.
“I would say becoming a parent means you’re more troubled by some of the intrusions. So, we do the best we can to minimize any impact on our children. We don’t put our children out there; we’ve never put their photo out there or anything like that.”
“At The Albies, the sacrifices and courageous commitments to justice and human rights take centre stage,” George and Amal, who are also co-Founders of the Clooney Foundation for Justice, have said. “This is a celebration of the individuals whose lives and careers have come to embody those values that form the cornerstone of our foundation’s global work.”
Graham Norton hosted the evening’s proceedings, while presenters included Thompson, Streep, Ahern and Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville. There were also performances from both John Legend and Brandi Carlile.
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
Previous awards ceremonies have been held at the New York Public Library, but this year London had the honour, partially because Amal is due to introduce a partnership at Oxford University focusing on using artificial intelligence to enhance access to justice and the advancement of international law.
Jacinda Ardern described the evening as “a moment in time to be able to acknowledge the work that often goes on quietly, but is incredibly important. Some of the people being honoured tonight, they’ve been working for decades.”
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
The Albies cover multiple award categories, including a justice for women award – Iranian journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi were previous recipients.
The Clooney Foundation for Justice provides free legal aid in defence of free speech and women’s rights, so we know that as well as throwing a five-star celebrity soirée, empowering women is at the centre of the Clooney mission.
George Clooney, who is soon set to appear in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, recently opened up about his carpool duties for his twin daughters in an interview. The veteran actor spoke out about his family life and duties while discussing his film. It seems that even the biggest of stars are not far from carpool duties when it comes to their children.
George Clooney accepts he has become a carpool dad for his twin children
George Clooney and his wife, Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer, married in 2014 and had twins, Ella and Alexander. The veteran actor has kept his children away from the spotlight for the most part, but he has often talked about them publicly.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight at the NYFF premiere of Jay Kelly, the actor spoke about his family. During the conversation, he was asked if he’s a carpool dad. Clooney responded positively to the question and said, “I am. I drive a van.” He added, “The other day I had six kids singing all the songs from Hamilton in the back. And by the way it’s a little off putting when you hear them singing some of the lyrics — for eight-year-olds.”
He also commented on how becoming a father changed his approach to work. The O Brother, Where Art Thou star elaborated, “I work less, but that’s okay, you know,…I’m really enjoying my life. I’m enjoying spending time [with my family], I enjoy driving the kids to school and all that stuff, it’s fun.”
This is not the first time Clooney has gushed about his family life and how much he enjoys it. Back in 2024, he spoke to GQ on a similar subject and said, “I’m going to give myself time with my kids. I really enjoy driving them to school, and my wife and I are having a really wonderful time. So I don’t want to lose all of that.” This was during the promotion of his movie, Wolfs, which also starred Brad Pitt.
Jay Kelly will arrive in limited theatres on November 14, 2025. It will get a Netflix release on December 5, 2025.
Netflix released the first full trailer for its awards hopeful on Monday. The official logline for the film, via Netflix: “Jay Kelly follows famous movie actor, Jay Kelly (George Clooney), as he embarks on a journey of self discovery confronting both his past and present, accompanied by his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Poignant and humor filled, epic and intimate, Jay Kelly is pitched at the intersection of life’s regrets and notable glories.”
The trailer starts out with Jay saying: “I don’t want to be here anymore.… I want to leave the party.”
His daughter reveals she’s going to Paris, and Kelly decides to follow her to France, with Ron and his publicist (Laura Dern) in tow.
“Lately I feel like my life doesn’t really feel real,” Jay tells Ron. “Suddenly, I’m remembering things. What is that?”
“Memory?” Ron asks.
“It’s like a movie where I’m playing myself,” Jay muses.
In addition to directing, Baumbach wrote the script with Emily Mortimer and served as producer with David Heyman and Amy Pascal. The cast also includes Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Alba Rohrwacher, Josh Hamilton, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Nicôle Lecky, Thaddea Graham, Isla Fisher, Louis Partridge and Charlie Rowe.
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