10 Things You Never Knew About George Clooney

BettyConfidential uncovers some little-known facts about Hollywood’s reigning Mr. Cool.

-Louise Barile

1. He wasn’t always good-looking.
In middle school, the other kids called George “Frankenstein” after he contracted Bell’s palsy, a condition that partially paralyses the face. He recovered within a year, but “it was the worst time of my life,” he said back in 2003. “You know how cruel kids can be.”

2. He didn’t want to be in showbiz.
George — whose latest film, The Men Who Stare at Goats, opens on November 6 — never wanted to follow in the footsteps of his dad, Nick, who was a local TV talk show host in Cincinnati, or his aunt Rosemary, who was a movie and singing star in the 1950s. Setting his sights on a career as a pro baseball player, George tried out for Cincinnati in 1977, but was rejected.

3. He respects Roseanne Barr.
Roseanne Barr made him an indecent proposition when he joined the cast of Roseanne in 1988. “When I met her she said, 'You're really good-looking, why don't you take me out behind the stage and make me stink,’” George told Rolling Stone in 2008. The two remained friends and George was her first guest on her 1998 talk show. “She was unbelievably kind to me at a time when no one was,” he said.

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4. He has starred in more than one crappy film.
George appeared in the cult film, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, about a mad scientist attempting to take over the world with an army of genetically mutated produce in 1988. Twenty years later, the producer of a planned Killer Tomato remake said that he hoped George would star in it. So far the actor has not signed on. Don’t hold your breath, guys.

5. He’s gotten to the point in his career where money isn’t everything.
George has skipped his multimillion-dollar salary in order to take on projects he believes in. “To me, the idea is to gamble on yourself. Take no money, have a percentage of the back end — if the movie makes money, you make money,” he told Rolling Stone in 2005. On “Good Night, and Good Luck, literally without exaggeration, the craft-services guy was paid more than I was to write, direct and act.”