George Clooney In Depth: Defending His Girlfriend, Advice From Spielberg

The New Yorker has a long profile (10 pages!) of George Clooney in this week's issue, and it's also handily online. Writer Ian Parker hangs out at Clooney's house, talks to friends and family members, discusses the media, follows him on work at the UN, and offers a thorough biography of Clooney the movie star (although a stint on "Facts of Life" is omitted) and even describes his interior design overhaul. Present for much of the interview is Clooney's girlfriend Sarah Larson, made famous by the pair's motorcycle accident last year. She was recently the subject of threatening voicemails left for the actor.

"You haven't heard the message we had?" Clooney asked Sarah Larson, when they were sitting on the sofa in L.A. "It's about you, you know."

She was a little taken aback. "What?" she said. "What?"

"It's right here. Listen to this." He stood up and tried to make the telephone give up its voicemail. "Is this the volume? Where's the volume? I'm losing my mind." (His friends say that he is not good with domestic technology: he later told me that he had no real idea how to use the Internet; and he had a bit of trouble with the espresso maker that he is paid a fortune to advertise in Europe.) Someone had repeatedly called on his private line, and had then left an odd message. "It's not a prank--none of my friends would do that," Clooney said. He found the right switch, and we heard a calm, middle-aged male voice: "Dude, your friends asked me to give you a message: Dump the bitch before you're sorry."

After a moment's pause, Larson said, " 'Before you're sorry'?"

" 'Before you're sorry,' " Clooney said, with a laugh. " 'Dump the bitch before you're sorry.' " The message was perhaps fan mail of a perverse kind, from a Clooney admirer in some way disappointed with Larson--for being young, or for being a non-celebrity and therefore an interloper. (There's been some unpleasant press, and Larson brought it up with me: "They say that I'm a stripper. There's a ton of stuff about that. I've never been a stripper. You know, just because I'm from Las Vegas I must be a stripper. Because I'm a cocktail server that means I'm an escort.") Or it might have been a wrong number. Larson was not aghast, but she did not seem quite comfortable, either. Clooney, though, was punchy, seeming to accept the voicemail as no more than a test of his good humor: a chance to reconfirm his efficient, uncomplaining handling of the complications of a public life.

He said that, with the help of his police-officer driver, the number had been traced to a pre-paid cell phone. Now they were trying to find out if the suspect had paid by credit card. But--Clooney laughed--"there are certain laws that, you know, that are applicable." And then, to Larson: "It's wild, isn't it? Isn't that interesting?"

"Yeah," Larson said.

The hunt hit a dead end, according to the NY Post.

Clooney also talked about advice from Steven Spielberg:

Clooney once spoke with Steven Spielberg on the set of "E.R."; Spielberg watched his performance on a monitor, and, tapping the screen, said, "If you stop moving your head around, you'll be a movie star." Clooney's career has been more than a search for a still head, but his best performances, in these more modest movies, have involved constraint, one way or another.

Read the whole profile here.

Comments

[observing]

Why would he do this in front of her? F@ck the reporter. He is supposed to protect her not cause her worry. Tacky, George.

[NappyRoots100]

I have always had the hots for Clooney and Olbermann. When I found out that both are dating women who are just about half their age I decided to consult some self help books,a therapist, and a book on cats about my hatred of twenty year olds, accepting loneliness, and dealing with spinsterhood.

[Theda]

I also felt bad when learning that Keith Olbermann has a 24-year old girlfriend.
Hey Keith (and George)---some of us ladies are still sexy in our 40's.

[thegaygardener]

Is he "baiting" her? I'm rather shocked too that Clooney would do this in front of a reporter!?
First that he would bring it up at all & then that this would be the first time he mentions the call to Larson.
Then goes to considerable trouble to actually play the message. Clooney is always classy, this does not sound like him. I wonder if this is really the way it happened?

[ang4ever]

He was upset that Leatherhead wasn't #1 this week end. This will pass.

[anghiari]

Anybody see the two pics of Ms. Larson that appeared on Huffpost last week? They were buried in a story that if you clicked on it --it took you to the Daily Mail in the UK...there were two photos, that I would think no girl who was dating one of the most famous men in the world would want seen. It reminds women that your life can come back to bite you in the butt. They are most embarassing. I wonder how she feels when she is in George's company with accomplished female friends like Julia Roberts or Renee Zellweger? Women who used their talent and beauty to become really good actresses. Ms. Larson had you only been a cocktail server (highly honorable job) rather than being caught by a photogher kneeling on a floor in a very suggestive position in a teeny bikini licking a magazine. George has to have a sense of humor if he has seen these photographs. But he's a big boy and he picked her.

[Lane]

I'm always curious about men who date girls that look like little boys................

[longislandlol]

Like I used to tell my 4 sons once in a while, "you could do better".

[Nanea]

Wow, what a true gentleman! So he surprises this woman with a very shady past and lots of very explicit photos on the web with a phonecall that is about her, lets her listen to it for the first time in the presence of a reporter?

How classy! They're just made for each other, the guy who cherishes noting better than to tell frat boy jokes, and the demure cocktail waitress who lets herself be dry-humped against a wall by customers, who posed without panties for photos, who reportedly earned $200.000 a year just by serving drinks?

The guy should get over himself and practice what he preaches, get rid of gas-guzzling bikes, fly commercial, donate his earnings from ads to charities, and go back to keeping his private life private, rather than alerting paparazzi to photo opportunities with his (former?) escort.

I never thought Clooney was funny but I never thought he was a liar either.

[ailbhe]

So he invites the media into his home to promote his private life while he is always the first up complaining about press/pap intrusion.

[rzan]

Clooney knows lots of talented, brilliant and beautiful woman, some of them even his age, and he dates a bimbette. I think less of him.

[ampay]

Apparently, she's quite smart. She was a straight-A student in college in some sort of scientific research capacity.

[ang4ever]

Really ?

I mean really ?

Is that possible ?

Are you sure ?

How sure ?

[jules135]

Oh, "ampay", I know you were being serious, but it's so not true. She is good w/numbers in that according to the NY Post she made over $200,000 a year working 3-days a week as a "cocktail waitress" -- and was able to buy herself a house in Vegas worth about $450,000.

Here's an interesting article that was posted on another site by one of her former employers:

http://www.gambling911.com/George-Clooney-Sarah-Larson-033108.htm

[delia1122]

No, actually, she went to Evergreen State College, or TESC, a liberal arts college in Olympia, WA. Founded in 1967, Evergreen was formed to be an experimental and non-traditional college. Faculty issue narrative evaluations of students' work rather than grades (making it really difficult to ever get in to graduate schools, as you have comments, rather than grades for your work). Not exactly Harvard.

[51tiggy]

I've always admired Clooney, but that was just a tad insensitive