Exclusive extract from 'My Dolce Vita: A Memoir' (George mention)

Just copied the George mention part.....

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Exclusive extract from 'My Dolce Vita: A Memoir'
Posing as Richard Burton's lover, being fooled by Helmut Newton and other glamorous tales from Italy's star-wrangler extraordinaire.

How Clark Gable, not George Clooney, brought Hollywood glamour to Lake Como

In the early Fifties Clark Gable was in London to collect his customised Jaguar with his companion of the time, Schiaparelli model Suzanne Dadotte. They planned a slow drive to Rome and then on to Naples. By chance, they reached Lake Como at a stopping point, and when they saw Villa d’Este hotel they decided to check in for the night. They ended up spending three weeks in heaven.
If it hadn’t been for Sam Zimbalist, the producer, who reminded Gable that he was under contract and told him to get to Rome subito (quickly) to get on the set of Mocambo (1953), Gable would have stayed on and on. I’ve worked at Villa d’Este since leaving TWA in 1966, and we still have photos of Gable in the clubhouse as a reminder of the “visitor who couldn’t leave”.
Today the new Clark Gable, George Clooney, lives just a few villas away. We get calls asking to book rooms with a view of Clooney’s villa, and sometimes our lake is referred to as Lake Clooney – as if George Clooney had discovered Lake Como.
In fact, many have gone before him. During the Sixties and early Seventies, Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma would spend a fortnight at Villa d’Este every September. It was their annual holiday. They never left the premises, and we had to make sure there were no paparazzi in sight, otherwise the Hitchcocks would pack up and leave.
Hitchcock was quite a gourmet and had a passion for risotto. I would accompany him to the kitchen every day to confer with the chefs so that he could choose his meal. It became a challenge to keep creating new versions.
At the end of one stay, Hitchcock gave us permission to organise a press conference in the kitchen. Italian television shot a film, with Hitchcock as the main actor. He donned the chef’s toque and chased all the kitchen staff around with a big carving knife.
Robert De Niro, who also threatened to pack up if he saw a photographer, asked for other diners to be locked out of a local trattoria so he and his family could eat there (his request was denied). Bruce Springsteen has serenaded fellow guests. Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, plus their many children, came down for dinner in desert boots. Arnold Schwarzenegger and family were staying at the same time, and I saw him march right past Woody without saying a word.
In 2006 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie visited, seemingly in search of a wedding venue. The press decided they had chosen Villa d’Este. They wouldn’t believe me when I repeatedly told them that Brad and Angelina never made a booking. Then their focus shifted to the couple’s friend George Clooney and his villa. Surely il bel Giorgio knew the whereabouts of the couple and their wedding site, as well.
The local papers even published the dates. And the mayor of Cernobbio, Simona Saladini, held a press conference to announce the fact. She was photographed in a lucia, a rowboat typical of Lake Como, which had been purchased by City Hall because the mayor planned to marry the couple in it. Of course Brad and Angelina never showed up. But then, they never had made a booking, so I wasn’t entirely surprised.

Thanks! LOL, I get the impression that the writer doesn't like George much.

as if George Clooney had discovered Lake Como.