George Clooney has been making the festival rounds for his latest film for what feels like the longest two months of promotion that even wife Amal’s showgirl couture can’t save. The movie is Jay Kelly, helmed by Noah Baumbach from a script he cowrote with Emily Mortimer. I like Emily Mortimer a lot, but the film is giving budget It’s A Wonderful Life, and has been getting mid-to-scatching reviews. This was the part of the IMDb logline that had me rolling my eyes: “Poignant and humor-filled, pitched at the intersection of regrets and glories.” Us writers can be really obnoxious with our writerly flourishes, so on behalf of the community I apologize for “pitched at the intersection of regrets and glories.”
Thankfully the end is in sight, with the theatrical release date less than a month away on November 14. But before George can pack up and return to the farm in France where he and Amal are raising their twins — that’s where George does the school run! — he attended the LA premiere last week, where multiple outlets asked him to weigh in on the recent Louvre heist. You know, because George played a thief in Ocean’s Eleven. George’s take was as glib as we’ve come to expect from him:
The Louvre heist has prompted reactions of awe, disbelief, and outrage — but George Clooney is one of the few onlookers who feel both pride and a tinge of jealousy.
The actor, who portrayed dapper casino thief Danny Ocean in Ocean’s Eleven and its sequels, reflected on the audacious burglary in which a group of thieves stole more than $100 million worth of historic jewels from Paris’ foremost museum on Sunday.
“It was cool,” Clooney said of the Louvre theft during an interview with Variety on the Jay Kelly red carpet. “I mean, it’s terrible. But if you’re a professional thief like I am, I was very proud of those guys.”
The Michael Clayton star added that he’s unsure if the culprits will evade authorities. “I wonder if they’re going to catch these guys,” he said. “They seem to have done a pretty good job at getting away with it.”
Clooney’s comments came as part of a broader conversation about another Ocean’s installment, which the actor has sporadically teased over the past few weeks. “I think we should rob the Louvre,” he suggested for the long-awaited sequel’s plot. “But somebody’s already done it, man, I dunno.”
It seems that Clooney would settle for just being retroactively inserted into existing footage of the thieves descending from the museum on an electric ladder. “I think you gotta put me in, CGI me into that basket coming out of the Louvre,” Clooney told the Associated Press at the same event. “I think you should do that.”
The Fantastic Mr. Fox star also expressed his admiration for the thieves’ audacity during an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the same event. “I was amazed that it was in the middle of broad daylight. Insane,” he said. “But every place gets robbed, I guess.”
I’m sure the French will be ever so thrilled to welcome George home on the heels of him making light of the theft of their $100 million crown jewels. The solidarité is moving. Look, I know more than a few of us have been swept up in the excitement of it all, given how brazen and swift the heist was. But there’s a noted difference between being captivated by a stunning event, versus downright rooting for the robbers. Plus, we’ve also been in equal measure, if not a touch more concerned about the fate of the jewels; lamenting the prospects of the pieces being broken down (i.e., destroyed) into unrecognizable parts, or being kept in pristine condition… but in a private oligarch’s collection never to be seen by the public again. I’m not getting a whiff of any of that kind of concern from George’s comments here. Rather, he’s centering himself based on a flimsy connection (that he once played a heister) and riffing on how the situation relates to him, without delving into any of the consequences. Hmm, why does this feel familiar?
Oh, and George need wonder no more about the thieves being caught: news broke on Sunday, one week after the crime was committed, that two suspects had been arrested. Though there’s been no word yet on if any of the jewels were recovered. Maybe they’ll turn up on a farm somewhere.
photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon, Julie Edwards/Avalon, Cover Images