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RSS FeedClooney the prankster and Clarkson the flasher
The Directors Guild of America. Seriously stuffy, right? Wrong.
Just because the DGA Awards isn’t televised, everyone assumes the night's Dullsville, USA. But the Saturday evening event began with a prank, thanks to that practical joker George Clooney, who proved that control freak directors really do loosen up and have fun.
Here's how the night works: The five nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film are introduced throughout the two-hour event (also lauding directors of sitcoms, commercials, soaps, documentaries, etc.) by actors from their films. Each nominated director gets onstage and is given a gold nominee platter, a mini-version of what the night’s big winner will lug home at eve’s end.
Clooney, nominated for "Good Night, and Good Luck," came onstage after his stars Patricia Clarkson and David Strathairn gushingly hailed him as Hollywood's "kindest" director.
“Thanks, ... acting people,” said a poker-faced Clooney. “I was in the bathroom but I just want to say that to win this award is great." The audience exploded with laughter as he continued, "Ang, I’m sorry. I know everyone thought you were the guy, but well, f--k you!" he shouted, holding his nominee plate high in the air.
Emcee Carl Reiner wouldn’t let Clooney and Clarkson leave the stage before she showed off the seriously sexy slit in her skirt and before he explained the practical joke he'd wanted to play on Clooney. “My idea was to put another name on the award,” Reiner fessed. “Then we’d play hide the matzo with your award and have you hunt for it all night. ‘You’re getting warmer, warmer.’ But they said it would it would diminish the evening."
When they finally made it backstage, Clooney kept joking and Clarkson kept on flashing.
Photo: George Clooney and David Strathairn admire Patricia Clarkson's Paris Hilton imitation at the Director's Guild of America Awards at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel.
(Steve Granitz / WireImage)
As Strathairn, Clarkson and Clooney posed for photographers in the press room, someone shouted, “Patricia, show us some leg. C’mon, you did it onstage!”
Shyly, she opened her skirt to reveal a slice of thigh-high as the cameras flashed furiously. “Oh, don’t get suckered into that,” Clooney warned. “You’ll end up like Paris Hilton!”
Asked if he thought Lee was offended by the F-word, Clooney replied, "He’s a friend and we get along really well. So I don’t think he was too horrified. I hope. Hey, it’s not a televised event, is it? I think we can get away with it.”
Clooney’s sense of humor may have rubbed off on the "Brokeback Mountain" director. Later in the evening, Heath Ledger introduced Lee, winner of the DGA’s best director award, with a serious, heartfelt compliment: “It took a delicate man to tell this story and that’s you.”
To which Lee responded, “I don’t know about you, but that feels a little gay to me.”
Sexy dresses, flashing legs, F-words, politically incorrect cracks and practical jokes. If folks find out how wild the DGA really is, their awards show could give the Oscars a run for it's money.
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