The Curse of George Clooney

A slender, tanned brunette dressed in a short black cocktail dress by designer Karolina Zmarlak smiles coyly as she weaves her way around the VIP tables at Midtown's Lavo, where she will spend the evening uncorking bottle after bottle of Champagne. As she walks by, a few of her patrons show a flicker of recognition. They think they know her, but they can't place her. Was she a college classmate? Maybe a girl from the gym?

It's rare that a stranger correctly identifies her as Sarah Larson, 32, whose face was plastered across countless glossy magazines in 2008 after she locked up George Clooney's heart.

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A one-time Fear Factor contestant, Larson was working as a cocktail waitress at Whiskey at the Green Valley Ranch resort in Las Vegas when she met the Oscar-winning actor. She eventually quit her job and moved to Los Angeles to start a new life with her leading man.

She accompanied Clooney to the Oscars in 2008—the first time he brought a date—and people took notice. Larson was quickly scooped up by Nous Model Management's celebrity roster, which also represents Paris Hilton. That year she walked the L.A. Fashion Week runway in swimsuits for designer Ashley Paige. Harper's Bazaar crowned her the new It Girl, and she landed on People's 100 Most Beautiful list.

But that was two girlfriends ago.

Today Larson lives anonymously in New York City, back on the cocktail beat, working the night shift. Colleagues say she hates being associated with Lavo, wants out of the business altogether and aspires to teach yoga full-time. Her modeling agency has dropped her.

"Her not being in L.A. meant us not being able to do a lot for her," says an agent at Nous. "She put her interests into the yoga. We still consider her a friend and there are no hard feelings."

For Larson, the one-time excitement of being associated with Clooney has hardened into annoyance. "Sometimes people recognize her, and everyone who works there knows who she is, but she hates that," says a Lavo source. Larson declined to be interviewed for this story.

Her tale epitomizes the typical two-year life cycle (give or take) of a Clooney girlfriend: a no-name model-actress-bartender briefly turns celebrity-by-association while dating the Hollywood star, only to fade back into obscurity once he moves on to his next affair.

The hardest thing to deal with was the perception that I was going out with George to further my career," long-time Clooney gal pal Lisa Snowdon, a British model and TV presenter, told the Daily Mail in 2008. "In fact, it did me no favors at all. Work almost totally dried up." Today, Snowdon is a radio host in London.

Hollywood's ultimate bachelor, willfully committed to never committing, has left a long line of unknown women in his celebrated wake. His most recent ex, Italian television personality Elisabetta Canalis, was cast aside in June, two months before Clooney unveiled yet another new model, former WWE wrestler Stacy Keibler.

At first it seemed Canalis had managed to capitalize on her relationship with Clooney. In July Page Six reported that she had made $10 million from sponsorship and TV deals in Italy. She was cast as a contestant on this season's Dancing with the Stars. But it didn't take long for her stock to drop. Canalis' wooden moves and stiff personality left audiences cold, and she was voted off the show after just two weeks. Today she headlines events like the grand opening of a pizza parlor in Miami and has no major prospects in the pipeline.

"Elisabetta had an opportunity on Dancing with the Stars, but she didn't resonate with an American audience," says one powerful Hollywood publicist who works in celebrity branding. "If she had, she might have a career in the States now, but I don't think that happened."

Over the past 30 years Clooney has bagged at least 21 girlfriends, almost all of them unknowns whose sudden notoriety quickly fizzles after the inevitable parting of ways.

For women who hope to gain fame from a high-profile relationship, dating George Clooney is a catch-22. "While you're with George Clooney," celebrity blogger Perez Hilton explains, "your job is to be with George Clooney." But when the relationship is over, the Clooney afterglow is as brief as a Kardashian marriage.

"George Clooney has had so many girlfriends that the connection loses meaning," says a communications strategist who represents several major media figures. "It's hard to keep track of all of the women, and being George Clooney's girlfriend certainly loses significance."

The roll call of Clooney's confirmed exes includes seven obscure or unknown actresses, two current or former bartenders or cocktail waitresses, six reality-television stars, two Pilates and yoga instructors, one hardcore Scientologist and two women who appear in Google searches only in connection to their love affairs with the star.

While it took the Kentucky-born, Ohio-raised Clooney nearly a decade as a struggling actor to land the role that would make him world famous—the part of Dr. Doug Ross on the hospital TV drama ER—he hit the ground running with the ladies. Judie Aronson, a busty brunette who met Clooney in an acting class early in his career, was one of his first girlfriends in L.A. Today Aronson, 47, runs two Pilates studios and still considers Clooney a close friend.

Although Clooney never dated Michelle Pfeiffer, his costar from the romantic comedy One Fine Day, he did woo her little sister, DeDee, followed by Kelly Preston, who he shacked up with in 1988. (Preston is currently married to John Travolta and is still more famous for her spouse than for her work.)

A few months after he split with Preston, the bachelor met the one and only woman who has called herself his wife: actress Talia Balsam. The pair married in a quickie Vegas ceremony in 1989 and lasted until 1992, but the failed relationship left Clooney with no taste for tying the knot again, he has said.

"I wasn't someone who should have been married at that point," Clooney has said of the relationship. (Balsam is now married to her Mad Men costar John Slattery; the couple of 13 years have one child.)

In the '90s, as his career was hitting its stride, Clooney dated actress Denise Crosby, best known for her work as Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He followed her up with actress Kimberly Russell, who he dated for 10 months before jumping into the open arms of former MTV veejay Karen Duffy in 1995. Russell has gone on to do voiceovers for the animated series Spongebob Squarepants, while Duffy landed on People magazine's Worst Dressed list in 2002.

While filming The Peacemaker in Paris in 1996, Clooney fell for Celine Balitran, a blonde French waitress who quit her job and moved to L.A. with the movie star just two weeks after they met.

"I know this must seem a bit innocent for today, but George represented for me everything a woman could desire," Balitran told the French magazine Paris Match in 1999. "Charming, funny, intelligent, extremely handsome…Two and a half weeks [after meeting him] I left for Los Angeles."

They made it until 1999, when, Clooney told Esquire magazine, "She lasted as long as I think she was going to last." After dating Clooney, Balitran appeared on the French reality television show La Ferme Celebrité. Today, she is divorced from director David Rosenthal and has fallen off the map.

Clooney rebounded with Melrose Place actress Brooke Langton, who had a bit part on Friday Night Lights, and then briefly dated Traylor Howard, who most recently appeared on the TV show Monk.

By 2000 Clooney's playboy lifestyle was becoming a running joke. Actress pals Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer famously bet the actor $10,000 each that he would be a father by the time he was 40. When Kidman sent him a check on his birthday in 2001, he reportedly returned it and told her it was double or nothing by the time he turned 50. Today Clooney is 50 and without an heir. In interviews, he often talks about how he loves being an uncle and that's good enough for him.

"The argument for marriage is that everyone gets lonely and everyone wants companionship," says Kimberly Potts, author of George Clooney: The Last Great Movie Star. "He doesn't have to get married to have that. He has a close group of friends that he can fly wherever and he can afford for the girlfriend to travel with him. I think he's happy with the way his life rolls along."

Clooney's type is "successful women he can control," Perez Hilton says. "None of these women succeed in changing him, nor do I think they try…They're all just happy to be George Clooney's girlfriend, and they know that has an expiration date."

In 2002 Clooney had a fling with Canadian bartender and aspiring actress Maria Bertrand, who he honored with a small role in his thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He then courted actress Jennifer Siebel before she went on to marry former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

But they were just blips on the romantic radar compared with his two major on-off relationships of the early Aughts: busty British TV personality Lisa Snowdon, who he dated from 2000 until 2005, and Baywatch babe Krista Allen, another actress he cast in Confessions, who spanned the years 2002 to 2008.

Why would Clooney choose a Krista Allen over a Scarlett Johansson? "So many of the A-level female stars are so wrapped up, and he doesn't need the competition," the publicist explains. "These women he dates are entering his life—he's not entering theirs."

"He likes to be the A-list person in the relationship," Potts adds. "In terms of dating, it's about what's convenient for him. He's very committed to his career. He has romantic relationships on his terms exactly."

In the meantime, Keibler is currently making hay while the spotlight shines. After she became Clooney's paramour, her appearance fees for club openings and magazine parties jumped from $10,000 to $25,000, according to Page Six.

But can she make it last after Clooney moves on?

"I don't think she's going to break the cycle, for the same reason that no one else has," says the communications strategist. "She's not like Harvey Weinstein's wife, Georgina, who actually had legitimate talent to make an independent name for herself. Were we talking about Stacy Keibler before? No. Why would we talk about her after?"

But even if Keibler doesn't manage to spin her own celebrity post-Clooney, she can feel confident the Descendents star will treat her well after the affair. Many of the actor's exes still think the world of him once he's left their lives. When Duffy, who was linked to Clooney in the '90s and later married John Lambros, gave birth to a baby boy in 2003, the A-lister showered her with presents after a visit to his villa at Lake Como. "George gave us tons of beautiful clothes," Duffy told People magazine.

"I adore him and he's a great guy and a good friend," an earlier ex who dated him when they were both starting out in L.A. tells Page Six Magazine. "Even though we don't see each other that much because of his fame, we've been part of each other's lives forever."

So take heart, ladies. Long after the magic wears off, you'll still have the memories.

sadDonkey wrote:

And I'd rather be his pet. He had a wonderful longterm-relationship with Max.
So why not with a Donkey ?!

Were we talking about Stacy Keibler before? No. Why would we talk about her after?

Merlin wrote:A slender, tanned brunette dressed in a short black cocktail dress by designer Karolina Zmarlak smiles coyly as she weaves her way around the VIP tables at Midtown's Lavo, where she will spend the evening uncorking bottle after bottle of Champagne. As she walks by, a few of her patrons show a flicker of recognition. They think they know her, but they can't place her. Was she a college classmate? Maybe a girl from the gym?

It's rare that a stranger correctly identifies her as Sarah Larson, 32, whose face was plastered across countless glossy magazines in 2008 after she locked up George Clooney's heart.

A one-time Fear Factor contestant, Larson was working as a cocktail waitress at Whiskey at the Green Valley Ranch resort in Las Vegas when she met the Oscar-winning actor. She eventually quit her job and moved to Los Angeles to start a new life with her leading man.

She accompanied Clooney to the Oscars in 2008—the first time he brought a date—and people took notice. Larson was quickly scooped up by Nous Model Management's celebrity roster, which also represents Paris Hilton. That year she walked the L.A. Fashion Week runway in swimsuits for designer Ashley Paige. Harper's Bazaar crowned her the new It Girl, and she landed on People's 100 Most Beautiful list.

But that was two girlfriends ago.

Today Larson lives anonymously in New York City, back on the cocktail beat, working the night shift. Colleagues say she hates being associated with Lavo, wants out of the business altogether and aspires to teach yoga full-time. Her modeling agency has dropped her.

"Her not being in L.A. meant us not being able to do a lot for her," says an agent at Nous. "She put her interests into the yoga. We still consider her a friend and there are no hard feelings."

For Larson, the one-time excitement of being associated with Clooney has hardened into annoyance. "Sometimes people recognize her, and everyone who works there knows who she is, but she hates that," says a Lavo source. Larson declined to be interviewed for this story.

Her tale epitomizes the typical two-year life cycle (give or take) of a Clooney girlfriend: a no-name model-actress-bartender briefly turns celebrity-by-association while dating the Hollywood star, only to fade back into obscurity once he moves on to his next affair.

"The hardest thing to deal with was the perception that I was going out with George to further my career," long-time Clooney gal pal Lisa Snowdon, a British model and TV presenter, told the Daily Mail in 2008. "In fact, it did me no favors at all. Work almost totally dried up." Today, Snowdon is a radio host in London.

Hollywood's ultimate bachelor, willfully committed to never committing, has left a long line of unknown women in his celebrated wake. His most recent ex, Italian television personality Elisabetta Canalis, was cast aside in June, two months before Clooney unveiled yet another new model, former WWE wrestler Stacy Keibler.

At first it seemed Canalis had managed to capitalize on her relationship with Clooney. In July Page Six reported that she had made $10 million from sponsorship and TV deals in Italy. She was cast as a contestant on this season's Dancing with the Stars. But it didn't take long for her stock to drop. Canalis' wooden moves and stiff personality left audiences cold, and she was voted off the show after just two weeks. Today she headlines events like the grand opening of a pizza parlor in Miami and has no major prospects in the pipeline.

"Elisabetta had an opportunity on Dancing with the Stars, but she didn't resonate with an American audience," says one powerful Hollywood publicist who works in celebrity branding. "If she had, she might have a career in the States now, but I don't think that happened."

Over the past 30 years Clooney has bagged at least 21 girlfriends, almost all of them unknowns whose sudden notoriety quickly fizzles after the inevitable parting of ways.

For women who hope to gain fame from a high-profile relationship, dating George Clooney is a catch-22. "While you're with George Clooney," celebrity blogger Perez Hilton explains, "your job is to be with George Clooney." But when the relationship is over, the Clooney afterglow is as brief as a Kardashian marriage.

"George Clooney has had so many girlfriends that the connection loses meaning," says a communications strategist who represents several major media figures. "It's hard to keep track of all of the women, and being George Clooney's girlfriend certainly loses significance."

The roll call of Clooney's confirmed exes includes seven obscure or unknown actresses, two current or former bartenders or cocktail waitresses, six reality-television stars, two Pilates and yoga instructors, one hardcore Scientologist and two women who appear in Google searches only in connection to their love affairs with the star.

While it took the Kentucky-born, Ohio-raised Clooney nearly a decade as a struggling actor to land the role that would make him world famous—the part of Dr. Doug Ross on the hospital TV drama ER—he hit the ground running with the ladies. Judie Aronson, a busty brunette who met Clooney in an acting class early in his career, was one of his first girlfriends in L.A. Today Aronson, 47, runs two Pilates studios and still considers Clooney a close friend.

Although Clooney never dated Michelle Pfeiffer, his costar from the romantic comedy One Fine Day, he did woo her little sister, DeDee, followed by Kelly Preston, who he shacked up with in 1988. (Preston is currently married to John Travolta and is still more famous for her spouse than for her work.)

A few months after he split with Preston, the bachelor met the one and only woman who has called herself his wife: actress Talia Balsam. The pair married in a quickie Vegas ceremony in 1989 and lasted until 1992, but the failed relationship left Clooney with no taste for tying the knot again, he has said.

"I wasn't someone who should have been married at that point," Clooney has said of the relationship. (Balsam is now married to her Mad Men costar John Slattery; the couple of 13 years have one child.)

In the '90s, as his career was hitting its stride, Clooney dated actress Denise Crosby, best known for her work as Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He followed her up with actress Kimberly Russell, who he dated for 10 months before jumping into the open arms of former MTV veejay Karen Duffy in 1995. Russell has gone on to do voiceovers for the animated series Spongebob Squarepants, while Duffy landed on People magazine's Worst Dressed list in 2002.

While filming The Peacemaker in Paris in 1996, Clooney fell for Celine Balitran, a blonde French waitress who quit her job and moved to L.A. with the movie star just two weeks after they met.

"I know this must seem a bit innocent for today, but George represented for me everything a woman could desire," Balitran told the French magazine Paris Match in 1999. "Charming, funny, intelligent, extremely handsome…Two and a half weeks [after meeting him] I left for Los Angeles."

They made it until 1999, when, Clooney told Esquire magazine, "She lasted as long as I think she was going to last." After dating Clooney, Balitran appeared on the French reality television show La Ferme Celebrité. Today, she is divorced from director David Rosenthal and has fallen off the map.

Clooney rebounded with Melrose Place actress Brooke Langton, who had a bit part on Friday Night Lights, and then briefly dated Traylor Howard, who most recently appeared on the TV show Monk.

By 2000 Clooney's playboy lifestyle was becoming a running joke. Actress pals Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer famously bet the actor $10,000 each that he would be a father by the time he was 40. When Kidman sent him a check on his birthday in 2001, he reportedly returned it and told her it was double or nothing by the time he turned 50. Today Clooney is 50 and without an heir. In interviews, he often talks about how he loves being an uncle and that's good enough for him.

"The argument for marriage is that everyone gets lonely and everyone wants companionship," says Kimberly Potts, author of George Clooney: The Last Great Movie Star. "He doesn't have to get married to have that. He has a close group of friends that he can fly wherever and he can afford for the girlfriend to travel with him. I think he's happy with the way his life rolls along."

Clooney's type is "successful women he can control," Perez Hilton says. "None of these women succeed in changing him, nor do I think they try…They're all just happy to be George Clooney's girlfriend, and they know that has an expiration date."


In 2002 Clooney had a fling with Canadian bartender and aspiring actress Maria Bertrand, who he honored with a small role in his thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He then courted actress Jennifer Siebel before she went on to marry former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

But they were just blips on the romantic radar compared with his two major on-off relationships of the early Aughts: busty British TV personality Lisa Snowdon, who he dated from 2000 until 2005, and Baywatch babe Krista Allen, another actress he cast in Confessions, who spanned the years 2002 to 2008.

Why would Clooney choose a Krista Allen over a Scarlett Johansson? "So many of the A-level female stars are so wrapped up, and he doesn't need the competition," the publicist explains. "These women he dates are entering his life—he's not entering theirs."

"He likes to be the A-list person in the relationship," Potts adds. "In terms of dating, it's about what's convenient for him. He's very committed to his career. He has romantic relationships on his terms exactly."

In the meantime, Keibler is currently making hay while the spotlight shines. After she became Clooney's paramour, her appearance fees for club openings and magazine parties jumped from $10,000 to $25,000, according to Page Six.

But can she make it last after Clooney moves on?

"I don't think she's going to break the cycle, for the same reason that no one else has," says the communications strategist. "She's not like Harvey Weinstein's wife, Georgina, who actually had legitimate talent to make an independent name for herself. Were we talking about Stacy Keibler before? No. Why would we talk about her after?"

But even if Keibler doesn't manage to spin her own celebrity post-Clooney, she can feel confident the Descendents star will treat her well after the affair. Many of the actor's exes still think the world of him once he's left their lives. When Duffy, who was linked to Clooney in the '90s and later married John Lambros, gave birth to a baby boy in 2003, the A-lister showered her with presents after a visit to his villa at Lake Como. "George gave us tons of beautiful clothes," Duffy told People magazine.

"I adore him and he's a great guy and a good friend," an earlier ex who dated him when they were both starting out in L.A. tells Page Six Magazine. "Even though we don't see each other that much because of his fame, we've been part of each other's lives forever."

So take heart, ladies. Long after the magic wears off, you'll still have the memories.

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sadDonkey wrote:

And I'd rather be his pet. He had a wonderful longterm-relationship with Max.
So why not with a Donkey ?!

sadDonkey wrote:

And I'd rather be his pet. He had a wonderful longterm-relationship with Max.
So why not with a Donkey ?!

Lakin460 wrote:He's had at least 21 different girlfriends in 30 years. That was an eye opener! Let's call it what it is, George is a womanizer]

cindigirl wrote:

Lakin460 wrote:He's had at least 21 different girlfriends in 30 years. That was an eye opener! Let's call it what it is, George is a womanizer]

Holy cow. Let's just say he's got a lot of experience with women. And yet some still say he's gay. Go figure.

MyGirlKylie wrote:

cindigirl wrote:

Lakin460 wrote:He's had at least 21 different girlfriends in 30 years. That was an eye opener! Let's call it what it is, George is a womanizer]

Holy cow. Let's just say he's got a lot of experience with women. And yet some still say he's gay. Go figure.

He's such a S L U T !!!

Lakin460 wrote:Ah, it is what it is, ladies. I still think he's one handsome dog and like Astras, would not spurn his advances. Of course the likelihood of that happening would entail a desert island, me the only female and the propogation of the human race dependent upon me and Goerge procreating!

Lakin460 wrote:He's had at least 21 different girlfriends in 30 years. That was an eye opener! Let's call it what it is, George is a womanizer.