George Clooney: Giving up the publicity tours?
September 12, 2009 by Jane Boursaw
I would imagine that all the publicity an actor has to do would get tiring after a while. I mean, making the movie is probably just a small part of the acting business. Once you make the movie, you have to get out there and promote it.
But George Clooney says he’s all done with the publicity – although the story in The Hollywood Reporter’s Showbiz411.com blog doesn’t make it clear whether he’s just giving up Oscar promotion or movie promotion altogether. Is Clooney a big enough star that he doesn’t have to promote his movies? People will just flock to see them? I’d probably be in that category.
At any rate, Clooney WAS promoting two films at the Toronto International Film Festival — “Up in the Air” (Oct. 8, 2009) and “The Men Who Stare at Goats” (Nov. 6, 2009), a dark comedy that stirred a bunch of other actors, including Bill Murray and Woody Harrelson, to go check out.
“Up in the Air” is the one generating Oscar buzz, but Clooney says there will be no Oscar campaign. “Nope, I’m done, I have nothing to say. And I really liked not doing a campaign for ‘Michael Clayton’” (which, by the way, was nominated for seven Oscars and won Tilda Swinton a Best Supporting Actress award).
Clooney also talked about Walter Cronkite, and how his dad gave a nice speech at the newsman’s memorial service last week. Apparently, Clooney’s dad and Cronkite were longtime friends and had their last dinner together at Patsy’s. Cronkite also visited Clooney at his home in Lake Como, Italy.
“The first time he came, he asked if we dressed for dinner,” said Clooney. “He came down in a blue blazer and a white hat, so we played a joke on him and were all in robes! He was so angry, and we went in to change. When he came back, dressed casually, we were all in suits. He loved it. He had a great sense of humor.”
Image: INF