Bill Murray Has Been Staying at George Clooney's House (and Getting Pranked by Him, Too)

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Bill Murray Has Been Staying at George Clooney's House (and Getting Pranked by Him, Too)

There was a lot to talk to George Clooney about at Friday's press day for his new film, "The Monuments Men": His reaction to that cold diss from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes; that on-set prank he pulled on Matt Damon where Clooney had wardrobe continually and very narrowly tighten Damon's waistline; and of course the film itself, a highly anticipated adventure about the hunt for art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

During Yahoo Movies' chat with Clooney, though, in addition to discussing possible comeuppance by Damon, he inadvertently let one little fun factoid slip: That Bill Murray crashes at Clooney's house when in Los Angeles.

(As Murray once told Howard Stern, he's only ever lived in L.A. for nine months, an incredible feat for an actor so regularly employed by the Hollywood system.)

For one, this helped explain why Bill Murray, one of the internet's — and humankind's — greatest treasures, was present at the junket in the first place: Murray is famously unpredictable, and is typically listed as "unconfirmed" on press invites, as he was for "Monuments Men," because clearly studios never know if he's going to show up their junket until he actually/literally shows up at that junket. Clooney clearly saw to it he was there.

This new intel stokes so many bromantic fantasies among fans of these two greats. How do they spend Saturday nights? Are they making each other omelettes? What are their conversations like? "You're awesome"… "No, man, YOU'RE awesome!"?

The revelation also nicely prefaced something Murray would tell us moments later: That he, too, is the subject of The George Clooney Prank Continuum.

Monuments Men
'The Monuments Men' (Photo: Sony Pictures)
After initially telling us that only Damon was the target of a Clooney prank during the actual making of "Monuments Men," Murray, who sat with John Goodman and Bob Balaban for interviews, explained how Clooney gets him when he stays with the actor-director-producer.
"He's gotten me with gravel, when you leave his place," Murray told us. "You're carrying your stuff, you're hefting all these bags, and you get to the gate and they go, 'Open up your bag.' And there's like 11 pounds of gravel in the bottom of your suitcase, and in all your bags."

Murray is not overly enthusiastic about getting drawn into the world of Clooney's tomfoolery. In fact, he sounds exhausted just thinking about it: "It's bad. He does it in such a way that you're forced to compete. You say, 'Oh god, now I gotta do it. And then he's already thought about what he's gonna do after I do what I do."

[Related: D'oh! George Clooney Fools Matt Damon Again]

Damon, meanwhile, also sounds a little resigned. Asked if he was plotting his revenge after the now-infamous pants prank, Damon replied, "I'm way smarter than that. No. Then he'll just come back with something worse."

Like burning his house down, as John Goodman joked Clooney did to his.

Or at least we think he was joking.