Sarah Larson - girlfriend 2007 - 2008

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It Girl: Sarah Larson

May 12, 2008

Don't hate her because she's beautiful, fearless (eats scorpions), and dates George Clooney

By Marshall Heyman

Three years before she started dating the two-time Sexiest Man Alive — sometimes known as George Clooney — Sarah Larson, 29, won an episode of the NBC series Fear Factor. The producers of the show recruited her from the Rum Jungle, a club in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay, where Larson go-go danced on a Plexiglas platform 20 feet in the air. For the two months she worked there, she'd fly up to her podium every evening with a rope, she says, "like Superman." Larson, you see, has no fear of heights; she plans to go skydiving for her "dirty 30" — i.e., her 30th birthday — in December. "I like the adrenaline rush," Larson says. "George is like, Have fun!"

During those heady Fear Factor days, she had trouble ingesting a scorpion in a martini glass of goopy liquid. "I spit it into the bucket," Larson says, picking at a far more palatable protein-free salad at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel and sipping a cup of hot tea. She's not embarrassed about her TV stint. "Although if George had been on a reality show, I don't think I'd have talked to him. It would have been like, That's nice," she says, dismissively waving her hand. "I don't know. He still wants to date me, and I ate a scorpion."

A brunette with honey-colored skin, Larson is dressed in tall boots, a babydoll minidress by Taka Wear she bought in Vegas, a STOP GLOBAL WARMING canvas bracelet, and a pair of diamond teardrop earrings that Clooney, 47, gave her last Christmas.

Larson is the first woman in years Clooney has introduced publicly as his girlfriend. He has taken her to Dubai and Venice to promote Michael Clayton and to the Academy Awards, where she graced the red carpet in a pink-and-pale-blue Valentino gown. "It was like a modeling job — smiling and greeting people," she says. She even traveled with Clooney to Rome for the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in December, where she introduced herself to the Dalai Lama, met Lech Walesa, and dined across from Mikhail Gorbachev. Though she's met Brad and Angelina — "Hung out, no" — it's the world leaders who have really impressed her. "I don't get starstruck, but meeting people like that, I get starstruck," she says.

Still, Larson and Clooney share ordinary moments too. Holed up in bed after his motorcycle collided with a car in Weehawken, New Jersey, last September, the couple watched a marathon of Rock of Love with Bret Michaels in their New York hotel room. "We caught ourselves rooting for someone or getting frustrated," Larson recalls. "And we were like, This is sad."

The eldest of three girls, Larson grew up 20 miles south of Seattle in Kent, Washington. Her mother has been a consultant for a health-insurance company; her stepfather is a computer programmer at Boeing. Her father, who died five years ago from a brain tumor, worked for a telephone company and contracted HIV not long after he and her mother divorced. "I was very young," Larson says. "After he and my mother split, he became gay. I just grew up with that being normal."

At 17, she left home to follow the band Phish on the road. "I did weird things like play tambourine while my friend played guitar so we could buy gas to get us to the next place," Larson recalls. "We'd make bracelets and trade them for food or sell grilled-cheese sandwiches." She studied microbiology at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington; worked at the school's lab; and waitressed at the local Outback Steakhouse for extra cash.

In 2002, Larson moved to Las Vegas to be closer to her ailing father, who was in Palm Springs. After toiling at a $10.50-an-hour job at a homeopathic medical company, she discovered that she could make a lot more money working at the Playboy Club and Moon at the Palms. "It's funny, you go into cocktailing and you're making a thousand dollars a night.

I thought, 'I'm going to make great money right now and have a good time. I'm young.' I wanted to buy a house; I bought a house. I don't regret any of it." Larson has held on to the Vegas home, which she shares with a roommate and two cats, Animal Cracker and Lippy Doodles.

Larson and Clooney first met about four years ago, while she was working at the Whiskey at Green Valley Ranch, a Vegas resort. The actor was celebrating his birthday. Larson says, "We were hanging out and dancing and being goofballs. Nothing crazy. We talked, that's it." She had a boyfriend then, but she didn't when she ran into Clooney again in June 2007 at the Vegas premiere of Ocean's Thirteen.

"I got texts, and we just started talking. George is funny and sweet, and he's good to be around," she goes on. "I see him as a normal person, like anyone else. He just happens to have a well-known face." But she admits, "You do have to be cautious of who you let in your life. You realize who is good for you and who's not pretty quickly."

One thing that attracted her to Clooney was his work in Darfur: "It's incredible what he's doing over there, his passion to try to use his status to make a difference." And though he has a hybrid, Clooney still flies private, which Larson considers "a walking contradiction." But she says, "People get comfortable. [It's] baby steps."

Larson likes shopping for him and recently bought him some jeans. "No fancy pouffy stuff on the pockets. I think getting him a pair of True Religion jeans would be a good joke: 'I really want you to wear this, and please put your hair in a fauxhawk.'"

Though leaving behind a steady income as a cocktail waitress has been "kind of scary," Larson is focusing on modeling. "I have no desire to act," she says. "I go to these commercial castings, and they're like, Say this line. And I'm like, I suck at that!"

Lately, Larson has been reading The Secret to unlock what she wants out of life. It's a book she doesn't imagine her boyfriend will soon be borrowing. "I don't think he'd be into it," Larson says before heading to the valet to drive back to Clooney's in a black Porsche. "He'd probably be like, Eh, hocus-pocus. I don't think he has trouble getting anything he wants."

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The Curse of George Clooney

A life with Hollywood's hottest bachelor promises riches, fame and excitement beyond any woman's wildest dreams. Until you're dumped.

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.

Mizerello wrote:One comment caught my attention; George introduced Sarah Larson to the Dalai Lhama? [ . . . ] Wow! Would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

Katiedot wrote:Replying to this comment here:

Mizerello wrote:One comment caught my attention; George introduced Sarah Larson to the Dalai Lhama? [ . . . ] Wow! Would have loved to have been a fly on that wall.

Yep, it was a blast. Sarah earned the undying love and respect of George's fans by declaring the Dalai Lama "cute" [ end of sarcasm]

LornaDoone wrote:Yes, the fan-dum of Clooney groaned, shook their heads and once again thought WTF! was Clooney thinking taking her to meet the Dalai Lama?!

cindigirl wrote:

party animal - not! wrote:Conclusion: Everyone's different. Interesting that Ms Larson didn't last very long........so PDA may not mean a lot. Question: was that relationship all about guilt, post accident?

That's an interesting point. I read he felt really bad about the motorcycle accident - or - maybe because they spent so much alone time while they healed that they got tired of each other. I always felt bad that he made her go to one of his premieres on crutches.

Mizerello wrote: If he were dating these women for PR reasons, he'd choose a different type.

Katiedot wrote:

Mizerello wrote: If he were dating these women for PR reasons, he'd choose a different type.

Not only that, but he'd also actually make the effort to fool people, wouldn't he? I mean, there's no point in not pretending with your pretend girlfriend, that defeats the purpose of it.

Katiedot wrote:But what good is a screen that doesn't screen?

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Whatever Happened To George Clooney’s Ex Sarah Larson?

George Clooney has loved ‘em and left ‘em so many times it’s hard to keep up.

With the recent (predictable) split between Hollywood’s hottest perpetual bachelor and leggy blonde former wrestler Stacy Keibler, it got us thinking…

Whatever happened to the other gorgeous-gammed brunette who was his ever-present red carpet arm candy years ago?

No, not Italian ex-girlfriend-turned-Dancing with the Stars contender Elisabetta Canalis. Go even farther back.

Remember, Sarah Larson?

Celebuzz caught up with the stunning former model, now 34, who after dating GC for over a year (circa 2007-2008), ditched Hollywood for good -- and took up a more anonymous job in an even more anonymous city.

“I’m the director for a medical spa in New York City. We do mostly aesthetics -- hydro facials, oxygen facials, laser treatments.,” Larson told CB!

“And I still teach yoga part time on the side.

“I’ve been here for three years. I’ve always wanted to live here so I did it," she added.

The last time the former Las Vegas cocktail waitress who was swept off her feet by the single superstar gave an interview was back in 2008, shortly after the pretty pair parted ways: “It was quick,” Larson told Access Hollywood of their break-up. “You know, break-ups are difficult, but people, you know, we move on, go onto other things.”

That she did.

And even five years later (and two more girlfriends for Clooney) she still gets the occasional spotting as the girl who used to date Tinseltown’s most famous bachelor.

“It happens. But it’s very rare that I come across it," she said.

Yet it doesn’t bother her at all: “It’s the past, it is what it is.”

And she has no intention of revisiting it.

“I have no plan for acting. I’ve settled in with what I’m doing now," said Larson. "I’m not going to pursue the acting thing.

“The spotlight is not for me. I don’t enjoy it.”

And her lips are still sealed when it comes to her famous flame, as she said once before soon after they split: “I haven’t spoken with him in a very long time,” she told Access. “Not necessarily that there’s hard feelings but we just haven’t, you know, the same thing. When you break-up, it’s difficult but you move on.”

Words to live by, Stacy.

LornaDoone wrote:

Thursday, December 05, 2013
Blind Items Revealed

August 29, 2008

#2 & 3 - Some new information about one of the bigger breakups of the year. It was an A list actor and a wannabe. Apparently the A list actor found out that the wannabe had stopped taking birth control. He found this out when she told him she might be pregnant. Apparently he felt that her purposefully not taking the pill in order to get pregnant violated a rule and showed her the curb.

George Clooney and Sarah Larson

Posted by ent lawyer at 9:20 AM  

Missa wrote:Hmmm, I don't think George leaves birth control up to the lady.  Not with the "ladies" he dates, anyway.

Joanie's Clone wrote:No smart man would. He'd be right there when she is supposed to take them or have her put the auto BC injection in the arm to ensure it isn't forgotten.    

it's me wrote:I bet untrue this too

Joanie's Clone wrote:Yeah. I think its not the reason she left. Think it was just too much for her, all the sudden attention after the accident. Maybe she wasn't prepared for it.

Boshkash wrote:God how silly these writers are, some items make him gay and then the same writer would write another item about George dumping Sarah because she might be pregnant!! Pick a side, will you??

LornaDoone wrote:Sorry have to disagree with all of you on the Sarah Larson preggers blind.

At the time there was a LOT of talk about this. Even to the point that she called his parents and made mention that she might be preggers.  So I'm going with a 'This one is True' vote.

theminis wrote:Yep I agree, there was too smoke around this and you know what they say about that.