George Clooney on Location in St. Louis filming Up in the Air

It is a beautiful sunny 60-degree day in a quaint, picturesque Midwest neighborhood. From the architecture of the small red brick church in front of you, it could be Any Town, USA. You are standing under trees filled with the white blossoms of spring amongst a small group of families, young people and neighbors out walking their dogs. Across the street you see mega movie star, George Clooney. He smiles at the crowd, a genuine, happy smile, and starts toward his fans, casually wading straight into their midst with grace and aplomb. He laughs and urges them to get out of the street and they eagerly comply, chirping and waddling over like so many blissful baby ducks around their mama duck.

Sounds like an idyllic scene from a movie and in a way it was. This was the scene that played out Friday afternoon at a church in Maplewood, Missouri on the film set of Up in the Air.

In all my years of celebrity meet and greets, red carpets, rock star after-parties and VIP dinners with the stars, many of which are friends and college classmates, I can honestly say I have never seen a star of George’s caliber move with such panache and fearlessness through his fans. I guess after walking the dusty streets of Chad - in the midst of machete wielding soldiers - moving amongst the citizens of beautiful St. Louis must feel like walking barefoot through a field of wildflowers.

When I received a press release that George Clooney was going to be shooting a new comedy, Up in the Air, with director/writer Jason Reitman (Juno) and that they were going to utilize over two thousand local extras in Michigan, St. Louis and Omaha; I realized I personally knew very little about this established star and needed to pick up the pace on my research to cover this upbeat local story.

Of course I know of George Clooney from the Ocean’s films and have been following his recent humanitarian efforts in Darfur, but I have never seen an episode of the television series, ER, Clooney’s longtime running hit. My father was a doctor and shared a long-term debilitating illness with my brother Elliot, so the thought of watching a realistic TV drama set in an emergency room was something I could never stomach - even with a doctor in residence as swooney as Clooney.

Most of what I had gathered on TV and in tabloids was about his reputation as a lothario with beautiful girlfriends all over the globe. That, and the fact that he had a pet potbelly pig living in his home for 17 years. I was impressed with his choice of pets and ability to juggle all those beauties but did not get really impressed with his abilities as an actor, writer, producer and director until I started researching his body of work and reviewing the films of his I had not seen.

I was not aware of the fact that George was the first person in Oscar history to be nominated for directing one movie and acting in another in the same year. I was blown away by the intelligence, and humorous complexity of his visually satisfying directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and by the current political relevance of his film

Good Night and Good Luck, a film about 1950s television journalist Murrow’s famous war of words with Senator Joseph McCarthy, which he directed, produced, and starred.

I also watched the film Solaris for the first time. Being a huge Space Odyssey 2001 fan, I was mesmerized by this little known and underappreciated science fiction/metaphysical love story that he worked on with director and Section 8 producing partner, Steven Soderbergh. In this film, which even his uber-fans seem not to have heard of, I saw a remarkable depth of character and compassionate intensity in his acting ability.

The thing that really impressed me though and touched my heart was seeing George reporting from Darfur alongside his father, journalist Nick Clooney. Here was

“The Perfect George” I was looking to write about. Not only was he going into one of the most dangerous places in the world to help stop a genocide that has claimed over 400,000 lives - not to mention the atrocities of rape as torture on the female population - but also here he was performing this selfless mitzvah, or good deed, with his dad’s help. I worked with my father on a documentary about stem cell treatment before his passing in 2005 and they were, and will, remain the most satisfying and soul fulfilling days of my entire career because he was there to share them.

In January 2008, George was named by the United Nations as a Messenger of Peace. Because I am grateful for his diligence in political activism, and longtime support of Barack Obama, I am relieved and happy to have witnessed that his rapport with the public is just as genuine and heartfelt as the rest of his impressive body of work.

Click here to watch our video coverage with George Clooney!

Although there are many privileges associated with my job, one of the downsides is that you can become a little jaded by having too much of a good thing. You go from saving your pennies to see one Broadway show a year - to reviewing a new show every week. On occasion, meeting with a star that you have admired can turn out to be a huge let down, kind of like seeing with your own eyes that the Wizard of Oz is just an alta cocker (that’s Yiddish for old geezer) pulling strings behind a dusty curtain. In this case, the opposite is true, George is more than a charismatic movie star - he’s a charismatic humanitarian. It goes without saying that he has the sex appeal of the greats. Onscreen and off, he has the earthy ruggedness of Clark Gable, the élan of Cary Grant and a quick, good-natured sense of humor.

With the trifecta of talent, wit and compassion circling in on his career with the power of a perfect storm, George has become a force to reckon with – “The Perfect George”, if you will, bringing home a huge lifesaving load of fish to the community - without the shipwreck at the end.

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We have more coverage on www.BuzzNews.TV. Click here to watch our video coverage with George Clooney!