George Clooney

The movie business is predicated on predictability. Studios churn out sequels and remakes, directors rarely stray from their preferred genres and actors gravitate to the same sorts of roles. It's a pattern most everyone in Hollywood understands and accepts -- but apparently not George Clooney, who's wrapping up a career year. And precisely when he couldn't be more admired as an actor, Clooney says he is pulling back from the very job that brought him renown. At a point in his life when it would be easy to play safe -- he's 51, has a supporting actor Oscar for "Syriana" and can pay the bills with his international TV commercials -- Clooney instead placed two speculative and not insubstantial bets on himself this year.

Re "Obama event raises nearly $15 million," May 11 Why doesn't George Clooney throw a party to raise money to help save California instead of raising millions of dollars for President Obama, who doesn't even need the extra money? Oh, I forgot: We can raise that money by laying off teachers. That should work. Boots Mertens Thousand Oaks ALSO: Letters: Wayward Sheriff Joe Letters: Enrollment at UC and CSU Letters: One man's Holocaust story

George Clooney apparently had a good reason for skipping out on the Academy Awards on Sunday night: He had a meeting with President Obama. The Oscar-winning actor appeared Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live" and spoke of his visit that morning with Obama to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. -- Associated Press

As political fundraisers go, it's set to be an "Avengers"-sized blockbuster: One hundred and fifty wealthy Democrats will dine with President Obama at George Clooney's Studio City home Thursday night, at a party that organizers expect to gross $15 million for the president's re-election campaign - the highest amount ever raised at such an event. High-profile guests including Robert Downey Jr., Tobey Maguire, Barbra Streisand, director-producer J.J. Abrams, producer Nina Jacobson, Creative Artists Agency partner Bryan Lourd and ICM President Chris Silbermann are attending the dinner, which was organized by DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and his political advisor, Andy Spahn.

George Clooney will receive the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award during the Primetime Emmy Awards on Aug. 29. The presentation will mark the first time in six years that the award has been handed out. Clooney is being honored for his work in several areas, including his advocacy to stop genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and his involvement in quickly mobilizing the entertainment industry for the "America: A Tribute to Heroes" event in the wake...

What were your first conversations about how to play Bingham? Jason Reitman: Our first conversation wasn't about what the script meant -- there was an understanding of what we were making the movie about. Our first conversation was really, "When do you want to start? When do you want to stop? How many takes do you like doing?" It was just kind of a quick understanding of how do you actually like to make movies -- the process. Not about the film's tone? George Clooney: When you start out as an actor, you read a script thinking of it at its best.

When IT comes to human rights, George Clooney is one of Hollywood's most active major stars. But what can any celebrity activist be without a consigliere? The man Clooney relies on for advice on the issues he cares most about is David Pressman, an accomplished New York civil rights attorney and former staff member in President Clinton's State Department. Some might argue that Pressman has one of Hollywood's most desirable jobs, a trusted member of an A-lister's inner circle. But what Clooney values most about the understated, unassuming Pressman, though, is that he doesn't have a trace of Hollywood about him -- other than he's Central Casting's idea of a human rights activist.

The first thing Vera Farmiga wants to do is to get out of those unrealistic heels. Relaxing on a couch in front of a lukewarm coffee in a suite at the Luxe Hotel, the actress known for unflinching portrayals of complex women appears before us now on behalf of "Up in the Air," a buzz-generating comedic drama directed by Jason Reitman ("Juno") and starring George Clooney. Clooney's Ryan is a smooth corporate mercenary flying from town to town to fire people; the happy traveler meets his match in Farmiga's Alex, a similarly rootless-seeming professional . . . and the banter begins.

George Clooney may be the only actor who has starred in two TV series with the same name. Nine years ago, Clooney got his big break on the short-lived CBS comedy series "E/R," which was set in a Chicago hospital's emergency room. Clooney played a wiseacre medical intern named Ace. "That was a fun series," recalls Clooney, who is the son of "American Movie Classics" host Nick Clooney, nephew of singer Rosemary Clooney and cousin of actor Miguel Ferrer.

George CLOONEY had been working since 5 a.m. and was due back on the set of Joel and Ethan Coen's "Burn After Reading" at 8 the next morning. It was approaching midnight and the Upper East Side restaurant was all but empty, as was the fantastic bottle of Italian Barolo he'd shared over dinner. But Clooney wasn't done yet. He was eager to talk about Sen. Barack Obama, whose presidential campaign he supports and with whom he talks regularly.

Imagine a well-appointed table on a stone balcony overlooking Italy's storied Lake Como. Red wine, white roses, Rande Gerber and Cindy Crawford, perhaps a drop-in from Brad and Angelina — it's a possible scenario for Oscar-winner George Clooney, who will celebrate his 51st birthday Sunday and has a home there. Those Angelenos not invited to Italy can still enjoy a meal themed for the date, however, at Santa Monica's Locanda del Lago, which specializes in Italian cuisine. For the second year in a row (the 50th birthday was a big deal)

Momentous choices accompanied by a ukulele; life-altering decisions made in a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts and a day-old beard. Simple, honest, real life, right now. Our humanity beautifully rendered in a world where nothing is black and white. That is "The Descendants," the latest and best entry in filmmaker Alexander Payne's remarkable oeuvre . It has the edgy insight, tangy humor and compassionate eye that have come to characterize his films, "Sideways," "About Schmidt" and "Election" among them.

The Motion Picture & Television Fund has launched a Hollywood fundraising campaign to generate $350 million in support for the charity and its nursing home that was once slated to close. On Thursday the fund announced that DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg had already helped secure more than $200 million in pledges and donations that include his own contribution and those of Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Steve Bing, Casey Wasserman and George Clooney. Katzenberg and Clooney are spearheading the campaign efforts.

This year's lead actor and actress nominees all turned in stellar performances, but each also had one key moment in which their character crystallized and made Oscar voters sit up and take notice. ACTOR Demian Bichir ("A Better Life") Gardener Carlos Galindo is doing the best he can to make a life for himself and his son, but hardship surrounds him at every turn, from his son's interest in joining a gang to looming immigration officials. Key scene: "I used to joke with Demian, saying, 'We have the Oscar scene coming up on Day 38,'" says director-producer Chris Weitz.

Everybody has them — waiters, bus drivers, lawyers: a bad day. For a filmmaker with a hundred-strong crew in the wings and millions of dollars on the line, the stakes can be considerably higher when things go off the rails. In this edited excerpt from the third annual Envelope Directors' Roundtable, the filmmakers behind some of this season's most talked about movies — Martin Scorsese ("Hugo"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist"), Alexander Payne ("The Descendants"), George Clooney ("The Ides of March")

With 40 foreign-language Oscar contenders, a 15-hour movie about the history of movies, and appearances by Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Michelle Williams, this year's Palm Springs International Film Festival will cater to a wide spectrum of cinema fans. The 23rd annual festival opens Thursday with a screening of "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," a British romantic comedy starring Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor. Other highlights include a showcase of Middle Eastern films, a tribute to Glenn Close and a photography exhibit of Marilyn Monroe portraits.

In the film "Ocean's Eleven," George Clooney robbed a casino. Now he's going to build one. Clooney, nightclub owner Rande Gerber and two Las Vegas real estate companies today will announce plans to construct a casino, boutique hotel and sprawling condominium project on Harmon Avenue, just blocks from the Strip, in an area that has become one of the town's hottest development corners.

Sudan's president has ignored appeals from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Bush and Arab leaders to allow U.N. peacekeepers to protect people in Darfur from attacks by militias and the government. So what difference can actor George Clooney make? Clooney tried to answer that question Thursday as he and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel met with Security Council members to push them to act on Sudan. "Do I think that anything I say is more effective?

Politics may make strange bedfellows, but in these hyper-partisan days, just how many motion picture academy members and other award voters are raring to snuggle up to a politically themed film, particularly one focused almost entirely on Democrats, such as "The Ides of March"? And, really, how truly liberal is Hollywood — and, in turn, the academy — at this point? When it comes to "Ides," these questions may be compounded by the fact that the profitable, well-reviewed film (85% "fresh" on the Rotten Tomatoes meter)

The movie business is predicated on predictability. Studios churn out sequels and remakes, directors rarely stray from their preferred genres and actors gravitate to the same sorts of roles. It's a pattern most everyone in Hollywood understands and accepts -- but apparently not George Clooney, who's wrapping up a career year. And precisely when he couldn't be more admired as an actor, Clooney says he is pulling back from the very job that brought him renown. At a point in his life when it would be easy to play safe -- he's 51, has a supporting actor Oscar for "Syriana" and can pay the bills with his international TV commercials -- Clooney instead placed two speculative and not insubstantial bets on himself this year.