George Clooney Premiere Politics Leave Easterners United in Despair

Hollywood narrowly averted A-list disgrace recently when it was revealed that George Clooney’s aw-shucks humanitarian cred didn’t quite extend to the extras from his new film, Leatherheads. In lieu of Universal’s official launch March 31 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the extras will stage their own red-carpet premiere in Greenville, S.C.. Reaction today is fierce along the Eastern seaboard, starting in Greenville itself, where one event organiser kept it real while Clooney’s panicked flack urged calm:

“Decade after decade, for well over a century now, the lowly movie extras have been ignored,” Robert McClure, a paramedic who expects to appear on screen both as a coach and a man who marks downs on the sidelines in Leatherheads, explained via e-mail. …

Stan Rosenfield, Mr. Clooney’s publicist, said he did not believe his client would attend the Greenville premiere. But he said Mr. Clooney planned to return to the Carolina upcountry next week as part of a whistle-stop tour — perhaps partly by railroad — planned to promote Leatherheads.

Frustration persisted in New York, however, where outrage at also being passed over (or at least distaste over the film’s ad saturation) resulted in the violent defacing of Clooney’s Leatherheads mug throughout the city’s subway system.

[Photo Credit: Greenville Online]

• A Premiere Far From Hollywood [NY Times]