George Clooney Intolerable Cruelty in Venice 2003

Clooney 'gets married' in Venice

George Clooney has finally tied the knot, after accepting a joke marriage proposal at the Venice Film Festival.

The actor was answering questions about his new film with Catherine Zeta Jones, Intolerable Cruelty, when an Italian TV journalist sporting a white veil asked him to marry her.

When Clooney replied: "All right, come here," the woman approached him with a cameraman doubling as a priest - who then produced two rings.

"Finally, finally married!" Clooney said, although he added: "My fear is that he really is a priest." Clooney kissed the journalist, laughed and had a sip of celebratory wine before carrying on with the press conference. Intolerable Cruelty, the Coen brothers' latest film, stars Clooney as a divorce lawyer and Zeta Jones a serial divorcee. It is not in competition at the Venice festival.

	Mirth, monotony and Gorgeous George at Venice film festival 9/3/03 VENICE, Italy (AFP) - Two films at polar opposites of the cinema spectrum, the hilarious "Intolerable Cruelty" with George Clooney, and the glum and violent "Twentynine Palms", have set the critics talking at the Venice film festival. French director Bruno Dumont's road, sex and sulk movie, "Twentynine Palms", features strong performances from David Wissak and Katia Golubeva and even stronger sex and violence which noisily punctuate long periods of emotional aridity Shot in the California desert, Dumont's film was roundly booed at a preview screening, from which many critics had already walked out. It premieres in the competition for the Golden Lion on Wednesday. In stark contrast, the Coen brothers' "Intolerable Cruelty" is a comedy tour de force starring Clooney as a wisecracking divorce lawyer and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a woman intent on marrying, and divorcing, her way to riches. The couple have proved the hit of Venice festival, and were applauded when they walked into a packed news conference Wednesday, though the vast majority of the questions were for the actor nicknamed "Gorgeous George" which appeared to amuse and exasperate the Welsh actress. "Like doctors, I think they're very important but I'd rather not have to see them," Clooney said of lawyers, after the film pokes fun at the profession's seedier side. Zeta-Jones, married to actor Michael Douglas, said a humorous look at divorce was a welcome change from the norm. "In Hollywood, everything is so documented. If you're seeing somebody or go for a drink with somebody it's all so documented and passed so quickly throughout the world," said the Welsh-born actress.



















"I think it's sad that divorce is talked about a lot, it's so much more fun to see it spun into such dark humour than it is talking about real people's divorces." In "Intolerable Cruelty", Clooney reprises his first successful comedy appearance in the Coen's "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" and further embellishes his reputation as Hollywood's leading man, in the process inviting comparision with Cary Grant.
Asked if he had stolen mannerisms from Grant, Clooney said: "Sure I have. I steal from everyone. I like to steal from Spencer Tracy" -- his personal favourite. Clooney lavished praise on Joel and Ethan Coen, whose film is the popular hit of the festival, even though it is being shown out of competition. "There aren't all that many good scripts out there so any time you find a script you think is funny you want to work on it, and any chance you can to work with Joel and Ethan. I've had a great fun time with them," said the actor. "There are few directors who you'll do anything you can for. Very few," said Clooney, who admitted his recent more serious films had "bombed" at the box office. "You just keep plugging away and hope one of them will make it," said the actor, who is currently preparing for an 11-weeks of shooting in Rome on the sequel to "Oceans' Eleven". "I'm in this for the long run, so let's see how it all shakes out in 20 years."
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