George Clooney on dating
Actor likes chance to start anew, hates paparazzi
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George Clooney will be in "Intolerable Cruelty" later this year.
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LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Actor George Clooney clearly relishes living the life of a rich and famous bachelor, but dating has had its ups and downs.
"Here's the great thing about dating," Clooney says in a Vanity Fair magazine interview that hits newsstands on Wednesday. "You get to start over and go, 'I'm a really nice guy.' And by virtue of saying it, you can be."'
Plus, he rarely, if ever, strikes out with women.
The downside of being one Hollywood's most eligible hunks, even as he wiles away the summer in a picturesque Italian villa, is venturing outdoors with any new real-life love interest and thus becoming "fresh meat" for the paparazzi.
"The minute you start dating, it's pictures and stories and 'Who is she?' And it puts the pressure on immediately," he laments. "So you have to decide, before you go out in public, if you're willing to take those hits. Usually, it's, 'Well, why don't we stay in and have some drinks and get to know each other before we decide if we're willing to face up to this."
The paparazzi aren't the only ones who hound Clooney for his picture. The latest twist in celebrity stalking is the cell phone camera.
"I've literally gone out to dinner and a girl comes over to the table and says, 'Can I have a kiss?' She leans over, gives me a kiss, I go back to the house, and the photograph is on the TV. It's hysterical."
As a result, Clooney says he has spent much of the summer holed up inside the luxurious confines of his 15-bedroom villa overlooking Italy's Lake Como.
But the 42-year-old "ER" heartthrob turned big-screen leading man says he considers himself "lucky" to be living the good life, and he knows better than to complain about the trappings of fame and fortune.
Clooney did, however, take umbrage at Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan for his scathing review of the actor's recent directing debut, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." "An angry ... guy," Clooney said of Turan. "He just destroyed 'Confessions.' It was a real personal attack. It was really brutal."
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
