Not obsessed at all....

... George Clooney is such a great source of, er, inspiration to us all that it's never a hardship to be rung by your editor and asked: Can you give me 1,800 words on Clooney and eligble bachelors? Can I ever.

From The Irish Independent, October 17

TO ALL THE GIRLS HE’S LOVED BEFORE… Could George Clooney really have fallen off the shelf?
By SUSAN DALY

IN a great piece of ironic timing, George Clooney is promoting a film that casts him as a rootless wanderer who finally meets a woman he wants to be with. And while he has been trying not to let journalists read too much into his love ’em and leave ’em role in Up In The Air, the internet is abuzz with suggestions that George has finally hitched his wagon to a woman in real life.

Italian TV presenter and sometime actress Elisabetta Canalis launched a thousand gossip blogs when she began sporting a Cartier diamond ring this past week.

Elisabetta – or ‘La Canalis’ as she is known to her Italian fans – has been dating Clooney since July. They met through a mutual friend in Rome, were seen dining out in Milan at the end of July, snapped larking about on a boat in August, and posed together at the Venice Film Festival in September.

La Canalis is now reported to have moved into Castello Clooney on Lake Como. He is staying in Italy to start filming The American, directed by former U2 photographer Anton Corbijn. Cindy Crawford and her husband and Matt Damon and his wife have holidayed with the couple. Damon says his pal’s new squeeze is a “really, really wonderful woman”. So far, so swimmingly.

However, a “friend” insists that smitten George has been showering his new Italian girlfriend with presents and the Cartier ring is just one of them. “It is a sign they are getting serious”, but it’s not an engagement ring, the “friend” told In Touch magazine.

A celebrity’s love life is always a magnet for tittle-tattle, but when there is a hint that The World’s Most Eligible Bachelor might be about to abandon ship, it’s front page news. To this point, George Clooney’s longest-lasting relationship has been with a pot-bellied pig called Max. His 18-year devotion to the animal certainly outlived his 18-month relationship to Kelly Preston who left him Max when she and Clooney split in 1988.

He had the obligatory starter marriage to Mad Men actress Talia Balsam the following year but they divorced in 1993. “I was 28, and in Kentucky when you get to be that age, you're supposed to get married,” he explained several years later. Clooney has vowed he will never marry again which of course has the paradoxical effect of making every woman fantasise about being the one to ‘turn him’.

Kimberly Russell, an ex of Eddie Murphy, was quite open about the reason she and Clooney split around 1996. “We’d been together for over three years and I wanted a family,” she said. Clooney didn’t – at least not then.

There is, of course, something sexist in the implication that every woman who Clooney has dated wanted nothing more to be married to him. Who is to say some of the ladies weren’t the ones dragging their heels at the sight of the aisle? The idea of being married to a talented, handsome, witty, intelligent, wealthy, politically-aware man may not appeal to everyone, you know.

Looked at closely, Clooney’s romantic track record is indicative more of a serial monogamist than of a serial womaniser. He’s not afraid to make room for an extra toothbrush: it just never seems to get as far as adding ‘Mrs Clooney’ to the mailbox.

His next relationship was another three-year stint, with French law student Celine Balitran moving to the States to live with him until 1999. They met when Clooney was 35 and shooting The Peacemaker in Paris with Nicole Kidman.

(Incidentally, Kidman had a $10,000 bet with Michelle Pfeiffer that her co-star would be married by the age of 40. We hope Pfeiffer spent her winnings wisely.)

There was a moment when it almost seemed possible that Clooney might renege on his non-wedding vow. His reasonably long on-off relationship with British model Lisa Snowdon ended in the early Noughties with not a bad word ever uttered between them since. This is fairly typical of Clooney’s endings, whether happy or not – it is hard to find an ex who will gripe about him. He had a little fling with Renee Zellwegger around this time, but she evidently had no problem acting opposite him in
Leatherheads last year.

The Snowdon affair may well have been the relationship that cemented Clooney’s eligible bachelor status. Snowdon was beautiful, but not overpoweringly so. She was a bit girl-next-door. Good Lord, we could be in with a chance after all! Not only was he eligible, but we might be too.

After that, Clooney’s tastes appeared to veer a little onto the wild side. His next affair was with Krista Allen, star of the soft-core Emmanuelle series. He grew close to Allen and her young son Jacob, but again, she disappeared as a ring failed to materialise.

Vegas cocktail waitress Sarah Larson was next in line and he brought her to the Oscars when he was nominated for Michael Clayton in 2007 – a red-carpet moment heralded by the phantom ringing of wedding bells that, again, never tolled for she.

In the year since their break-up, Clooney has been linked with as diverse a range of women as waitress Lucy Wolvert and Indian journalist Fatima Bhutto, niece of assassinated Pakistan president Benazir Bhutto.

To wonder if this will be the year that Elisabetta boldly goes where only one woman has gone before is a matter of speculation. George Clooney’s publicist never – repeat, NEVER – comments on his personal life.

His own remarks on his new relationship have been typically oblique. Publicising previews of Up In The Air at a film festival at the start of last month, Clooney was cheeky when asked who was the current o-pilot in his life. “Well, I’ve been flying Alitalia,” he said. “She’s… I have a nice co-pilot.”

The fact that the role as Ryan Bingham, an emotionally-detached man who is addicted to collecting frequent-flyer miles, was written specifically for him by the film-maker Jason Reitman (Juno) may have given Clooney pause for thought.

Who wants to have these words – spoken by Ryan in the film – put in his mouth? “Some animals were made to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime… star-crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We’re sharks.”
Clooney commented: “The minute I read the script, I understood why I was probably the right person for this job. Part of it requires talking about things that are tricky to talk about for almost everybody but sometimes for me, in particular.
“Things that are cute when you’re 26 aren’t always cute when you’re 48. I’m well aware of that.” It would be interesting to see if the date on that Cartier receipt came before or after that press conference.


POST-CLOONEY: WHO IS IN LINE FOR CROWN ON HOLLYWOOD’S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR?
With George Clooney teetering on the edge of the single shelf, Hollywood must be casting desperately around for its next most eligible bachelor. But what makes one? This 1937 article from Movie Mirror celebrity magazine seemed sure of the criteria: “Hollywood bachelors, collectively, don't think in terms of matrimony. Not if they are twenty-three, tall, dark, handsome, with Irish wit, and are building up annuities.”
The article referred to a fledgling star called Tyrone Power who went on to marry three times and, post-death, attracted rumours that he may have been more of a ‘confirmed bachelor’ than an eligible one in his youth.
So don’t blame us if this lot of would-be Clooneys are off the market by next year, ladies. A Hollywood bachelor is a fickle creature…

BENICIO DEL TORO: Film nerds had been in love with Del Toro, 42, for years until his mysterious gangster in The Usual Suspects turned the world onto him. He’s an Oscar winner, a manly dude who doesn’t mind gaining weight (Traffic) or burning himself with cigarettes (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) for a role. He’s got his sensitive side (he’s an artist), the requisite string of gorgeous exes (Chiara Mastrioanni, Claire Forlani and other assorted actresses). He’s good pals with Johnny Depp and his name means ‘Of the Bull’ for goodness sake. George who?

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO: He’s lost some of those boyish good looks of Titanic days but 34-year-old di Caprio always manages to hook the hotties (his last two long-term girlfriends were models Gisele and Bar Rafaeli). Like Mr Clooney, DiCaprio has shown himself a man of substance by consistently campaigning on environmental issues. Now a bona fide star and multi-millionaire and currently single, fans would do well to heed the title of one of his more recent films, Catch Me If You Can.

CHACE CRAWFORD: Yes, yes, he’s only 24, but as our lady from Movie Mirror said in 1937: “Bachelorhood, we know, is a fledgling state in which the male flaunts his brightest feathers”. Mr Crawford has certainly been shaking his plumage of late, breaking out from his TV empire of Gossip Girl (he’s the teen’s Dr Doug Ross) into film and winning People magazine’s Summer’s Hottest Bachelor award. He plays the Kevin Bacon role in the remake of Footloose next year. Scream!!

ROBERT PATTISON: Another young un’ at 23 but one who is shaping up to have a wider appeal than squeaky clean Zac Efron. Pattison’s vampire lead in the Twilight movies
have invested his sex appeal with an edge and his dark brooding looks have attracted comparisons with Marlon Brando. He said this year that he “almost doesn't want to have a girlfriend in this environment”. Nothing makes a bachelor more eligible than his reluctance to settle down.

GERARD BUTLER: The Europeans get a look in with Scotsman Butler, 39, who filled out his armour rather well in the Spartan epic 300 and is soon to be seen opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Bounty. He has the looks, the charm and the increasing star power. We will, however, have to caution against the chauvinist he played in recent movie The Ugly Truth and his woeful Irish accent in PS I Love You. Three strikes and you’re out, Gerry.

RYAN GOSLING: Gosling at 28 is already a more interesting character than many of the prettier boys of Hollywood, with his homemade tattoos and offbeat charm in The Notebook and Lars and The Real Girl. He has dated actress Rachel MacAdams on and off but as of last year, they appear to be just good friends. Good bachelors stay friends with their exes.

JACK NICHOLSON: Not that we would recommend the 72-year-old as the ideal marriage prospect, but it must be acknowledged that he is as close to a veteran eligible bachelor as Hollywood has these days. He married, once, in the 1960s and has several children but has never settled down. He prefers to say coyly that he has “never minded being a fool for love”, all the while lounging on a speedboat in the south of France amid a bevy of bikinied lovelies.

Bachelor boys

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/i-would-hate-to-be--70-and-have-nobody-give-a-s-about-me-1748825.html

'I would hate to be 70 and have nobody give a s*** about me'

Most men would love the life of a bachelor and all it entails, from fabulous apartments uncluttered by girlfriends' shoes to constant hot dates and parties. Or would they? Susan Daly investigates why 40-plus singletons are now starting to rethink their status

By Susan Daly

Saturday May 23 2009

The lifestyle of the modern bachelor inspires envy. Footloose fun and frolics in a world lined with fast cars, penthouse pads and beautiful, disposable women; they're living the dream, right?

But filter out the roar of private jets and the clinking of Martini glasses, and you may hear murmurs of dissatisfaction from some of the world's most eligible bachelors. Gerard Butler, the 300 actor with the six-pack torso, recently betrayed the brethren by saying: "I find playing the field less and less exciting. I enjoy being single less and less." He turns 40 this year. Fellow actor Orlando Bloom came to his single crisis a little earlier, when he turned 30. "Everything outside my job has begun to pall -- the jet-setting, the nightclubs, the bachelor lifestyle; now I need some permanence and stability," he said mournfully. "I feel it's about time I settled down."

Even Hugh Hefner, who claims to have invented the concept of the babe-magnet bachelor in the 50s, has been playing hard and fast with the playboy principles of love 'em and leave 'em. The 83-year-old, for whom women have been interchangeable props in his Playboy Mansion, went on record last week as saying he wants the "love of his life" Holly Madison back -- eight months after she left him for a TV magician.

What in the name of George Clooney is going on? Michael O'Doherty, publisher of VIP magazine, despairs of the assumption that bachelorhood is a bed of thornless roses. "I would like to get married," he says. "I would hate to be 70 and have nobody give a shit about me."

O'Doherty appears to have all the trappings of gold-plated singledom: the quayside apartment with panoramic views of Dublin city, the orange Lamborghini (which he traded up to from a red Ferrari) and the publishing empire which sees him preside over such glam awards ceremonies as the VIP Style and TV Now awards, top-heavy with beautiful models and socialites. For a working lunch, he suggests we meet in the opulent private members' club, Residence on Stephen's Green. It is one of his regular haunts.

Yet, as he sips his glass of Sancerre and recommends the tarte tatin, he says the presumption is not that a man who is single at 44, as he is, has the life of George Clooney -- it is that he is gay. "At about 36 or 38, the gay rumours start to hit. The minute 40 starts to approach, people start to question why you haven't settled down," he says. "I have seen the term 'confirmed bachelor' written about me. The term 'eligible bachelor' means a great catch, form an orderly queue ladies. 'Confirmed bachelor' means don't bother queueing ladies, because you will be out all night and when you get to the till, all the goods will be gone."

It is not the gay rumours that concern O'Doherty about 40-plus singledom. He was thinking the other day about how old he might be at the 21st birthday party of any hypothetical child of his. "Would I still be attractive; could I still flirt with my son's girlfriends or my daughter's girlfriends?" he muses, with what one suspects is tongue firmly in cheek. "And 66 is the youngest I could be!"

He remembers his own father, who died suddenly last year at the age of 71, schmoozing the room at O'Doherty's own 21st. "He was only about 46 at the time. He could certainly get away with it, and there is a certain roguery element to it. But a 66-year-old flirting with a 20-year-old girl is outrageous! It's utterly wrong."

However, age-appropriateness remains a relatively fluid concept for bachelors. O'Doherty blanches at the thought of going out with a woman who has the syllable 'teen' in her age, but two years ago, when he was 42, he dated a 21-year-old. "The best thing about it was people saying, 'Oh Michael, how could you? She's literally half your age'," he says, leaving room for a deadbeat pause. "She was a mature 21-year-old."

You could be forgiven for thinking that there are any number of Irish bachelors running around living the life of Reilly, whoever he was. Former F1 driver Eddie Irvine, for example, is not just one of Ireland's most notorious playboys -- he's world class. (Although class might not be the correct word for a man who once advised: "You have to speak to a beautiful woman but if she's average, you can nail her without bothering.") Unmarried Irish hotel millionaire John Fitzpatrick has a lifestyle that would turn James Bond green -- the 49-year-old splits his time between his house in the Hamptons and his bachelor pad in Manhattan, rides a Harley, snowboards, kiteboards and flies planes and helicopters.

For a time during the Celtic Tiger, such decadence was not just for rich, single businessmen. Property developers spent the best part of a decade upping the ante on the traditional bachelor pad -- and they had no shortage of customers.

"People were indulging themselves," says Gary Jacobs, director of Allen and Jacobs estate agents in Dublin. "It evolved from timber decking in a penthouse apartment balcony to lights in the decking to speakers in the decking, to a hot tub on the roof. Jacuzzis with mood lighting moved into bathrooms, plus waterfall showers, wireless stereo systems and smart home technology throughout. It was toys for boys, essentially."

Michael O'Doherty agrees that certain bachelor accessories have a "bang" off them. His Lamborghini -- which he says he doesn't use that much -- certainly has that effect. "It is a two-seater car and it doesn't have any luggage space. It does reek of the single man," he says. He claims that he didn't buy it as a potential babe magnet. "I drive it for the fun and enjoyment. I'm not driving around in a chest wig, with the wind blowing in my hair, a gold medallion and pointy shoes with no socks, thinking, 'Everyone look at me, Billy Big Nuts'," he says indignantly.

Which is just as well -- a girl he went out with last year would refuse to get into the car. "Mostly, it would be married men who like looking at it and saying, 'Jammy bastard, he can get away with that'." However, O'Doherty has a sell-by date in mind for the car. "I wouldn't want to be driving it at 50," he says, "What is sad is some bald, old guy with a woman in her 20s, trying to get his beer gut behind the wheel of a sports car and needing a chairlift to get out of it." Heaven forfend.

This expiry date extends to bachelorhood. O'Doherty was best man four times within two years, but never the groom. He went to a wedding on the May bank holiday weekend on his own, something he found "a bit sad". He wants children, a house, security and comfort. But the dilemma of ageing bachelors everywhere is the pool of marriageable women gets shallower as you get older, mature 21-year-olds notwithstanding. Simultaneously, O'Doherty says he is choosier than ever. "You get higher standards; you can't tolerate the same stuff you could at 25 because you've heard it all before."

Despite the snaps of him posing with models and minor celebs at parties related to his magazines, he claims not to date much at all. "My entire lifestyle is based on work, and my whole attitude to work is informed by the fact that there is nobody else impinging on my time," he says. "Although it is a very flimsy excuse for not having a relationship."

The impetus in older bachelors to get hitched could have some basis in the natural instinct to survive. Dr Noel Richardson, director of the National Centre for Men's Health Research and Training, says a report done on single older men in Kerry showed that they had a higher incidence of depression and mental health issues in general. "And women tend to have a crucial role in supporting men in health roles, encouraging them to go to the doctor," says Dr Richardson. "

Two years ago, American professor Robert Kaplan reported that a study of more than 67,000 people showed that single men had a shorter life expectancy than married men. "Accumulated evidence suggests that social isolation increases the risk of premature death," he added. "Marriage is a rough proxy for social connectedness." It gives a new meaning to the term 'toxic bachelor', originally coined by Sex and the City writer Candace Bushnell. The only person a long-time commitment-phobe is hurting, it seems, is themselves.

It is not all doom and gloom, however, for the rootless bachelor. Last month, the University of Maryland in the US picked up on a new social phenomenon for men to enjoy a 'golden age' of renewed male friendships in their late 40s. Instead of juggling family and work, these men have created an alternative supportive structure of male camaraderie and loyalty.

RTE sportscaster Marty Morrissey, a bachelor of the "45-plus" sector, he jokes, recognises this "inner circle" in his own group of friends. "I am not married, my father was an only child, my mother was an only child, and I was their only child," he explains, "So the things I might tell a sibling or a wife I tell my close friends. It can be tough to be unmarried, especially in rural Ireland, where the marriage culture has traditionally been strong. If your life has run a different course, loyal friends are very, very important."

Dr Mark Rowe, a Waterford-based GP who has just published The Men's Health Book (all proceeds to the Marie Keating Foundation), agrees that loneliness can cause stress and distress in a man who, to the outside world, is footloose and fancy-free. "They need friends; even a pet dog can provide company. And it is important that they make time for what is important -- healthy eating, exercise -- rather than what they think is urgent in work."

So, it appears that the only man living the life of George Clooney is, well, George Clooney. "People say it must be great to be in your 40s and single, like George Clooney," laughs Michael O'Doherty. "Much in the same way as they say, 'Oh, there's nothing wrong with being bald -- look at Sean Connery'. Realistically, Sean Connery is the only good-looking bald man on the planet."