George Clooney Intolerable Cruelty Images Gallery 6

Ducking the question...Devious yet delightful

Calgary Sun

Louis B. Hobson

New York — In the past, George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones were two of the more press-friendly celebrities. When they promoted their films, they met with journalists in small groups and were as candid as they were disarming. It seemed strange that to promote Intolerable Cruelty, their first venture together, Clooney and Zeta-Jones would choose to use a short, joint press conference. In this sly battle-of-the-sexes comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen, Clooney plays a devious divorce lawyer and Zeta-Jones a scheming divorcee.

The film takes its share of swipes at such things as alimony, private investigators and pre-nuptial agreements. It wasn’t long before the stars’ strategy made itself known. A journalist asked what Zeta-Jones thought of pre-nups and especially if she felt entertaining one implied the parties suspected something might go wrong with their marriage. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take that question,” said Clooney, which he did after Zeta-Jones thanked him for deflecting the question. “I think they’re very important. I have a pre-nup and I’m not even married,” said Clooney, getting his intended round of hearty laughter. “With your dog,” was Zeta-Jones’ contribution to the joke. Not to be topped, Clooney added: “I have a pre-nup with anyone I go to dinner with.” The journalist would not be appeased and again asked Zeta-Jones for her opinion, the answer to which was curt. “People will sign whatever they want to sign or do whatever they want to do.”

Clooney was quick to lighten the atmosphere. “Catherine made me sign something before she’d work with me.” Before they began working on Intolerable Cruelty, Clooney and Zeta-Jones had met only briefly. “It was at the screening of the first cut of Traffic, which was about four hours long,” recalled Clooney, who is a producing partner with Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director of Traffic.

Zeta-Jones, who with her husband Michael Douglas, starred in Traffic, says working with Clooney on Intolerable Cruelty was “fun, fun, fun and there was always an easy way of getting things done. There was no real pressure and it was always a blast.” Clooney chimed in that the “worst part of working with Catherine was having to stop. We’ll have to do it all again one day soon.” Zeta-Jones was pregnant with her son Dylan while filming Traffic and gave birth to a daughter Carys barely nine months after finishing work on Intolerable Cruelty.

“I got pregnant near the end of filming Intolerable Cruelty,” says Zeta-Jones. “God, I’m going to be in trouble with Michael for being that specific.” Putting on feigned disappointment Clooney quickly came to her rescue once more: “It fascinates me to learn she was pregnant while I was doing the movie with her. “There definitely was a sparkle in her eye those last few weeks. I feel a little hurt to finally learn why. I thought that sparkle was for me.”

To play the vain lawyer in Intolerable Cruelty, Clooney had to do his share of sparkling. One of the film’s running jokes is that his character is obsessed with his teeth, which he shows off at every possible moment. “When we did O Brother, Where Art Thou? the Coens had me obsessing over my hair. Now it’s my teeth. I’m running out of body parts if we do another film together. Maybe I’ll have to wax my back,” says Clooney, who insists he’s not guilty of such vanity in real life.

“I really am not obsessed with appearance. It really is a low priority for me.” Zeta-Jones, who has been called one of the screen’s current beauties, says she feels most beautiful “when my little boy tells me I have the prettiest eyes that he’s ever seen. “It’s my little three-year-old who makes me feel really special.” She says her beauty secret is “being relaxed within myself and having confidence and being stress-free.” And how does she achieve such nirvana? “Like everyone else, I take drugs,” she jokes, then adds: “You have to be happy in your life and in your career.” Zeta-Jones says that, unlike her character in Intolerable Cruelty who distrusts marriage, she keeps a positive outlook “by taking it one day at a time and being kind.

“Especially in our business as entertainers — we spend so much time being kind to strangers that there is a danger of not having he proper energy to be kind to our spouses. “The only advice I have for marriage is to keep a clear head and be nice to one another.” Ever quick with his punchlines, Clooney adds: “and be married to Michael Douglas. That helps.” Intolerable Cruelty is not kind to marriage.

It suggests that many people have learned how to manipulate the institution for financial gains, especially in Beverly Hills. Zeta-Jones cautions that, “Hollywood is just a fun backdrop for our movie. “These things happen all over the world. I know people who’ve never been to Hollywood who have been divorced a lot and have really nice houses as compensation. “I didn’t model my character on anyone in particular, but if I did, I’d never tell you who it was.” The Coens admit they are not happy with the title of their movie, but say it came with the offer to direct.

They’re not quite certain what it means. For Clooney, it suggests that marriage is the “the equivalent of a bikini wax.”

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