The 'mystery' woman George loved when he was 23

Alright, this is just for a laugh, but hell, anyone else want to do a bit of speculation who it was that George was so obsessed with way back then?

This is what he was quoted as saying:

DEADLINE: I imagine you have had an easier road with women unwilling to commit than most of your species, George. You’ve been through that hell?
CLOONEY: We all had that. We all had them.
HESLOV: He had one in particular.
CLOONEY: He remembers, very well, and she will remain nameless.
HESLOV: I mean, it was on again, off again, on again, off again, and she…
CLOONEY: Yeah, and then she dumped me in the most insane way.
HESLOV: She’d love him, and then…
DEADLINE: How did she dump you?
CLOONEY: I don’t remember now…
HESLOV: But the more she dumped him, the more he loved her.
CLOONEY: Yeah. Yeah. It was hysterical. I was 23, what did I know?

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If my maths is right, that puts us in 1984 . . .

He was married to Talia Balsam in 1989

And copying some replies from the original interview here:

Missa wrote:There's lots of good stuff in here, but let's focus on the most important piece: who do we think the woman he was obsessed with at 23 was?  Based on the assumption that he insisted on keeping her name out of it because we'd recognize her name, and the timing (this would have been 1984-ish), I'm guessing Kelly Preston.

LizzyNY wrote:Missa, thanks so much for posting this! It's the most interesting interview they've given in a long time. Fascinating.

And I agree. Considering the timing, I think the girl was probably Kelly Preston.

Donnamarie wrote:Great read Missa.  Thanks so much for posting.  Don’t know if Kelly Preston is the mystery girl.  Checking online and the timeline of when they dated it seems they moved in together in 1988.  George would have been around 27 then.
He moved to Hollywood when he was 21 so this girl was someone he knew when he was a very young struggling actor.

Completely forgot having read this interview before, but I still think it's one of the best they've given. The questions are much more in-depth than usual and I learned a lot about how George and Grant came to be partners and how they feel about their craft and the industry. Fascinating.

As far as who the heart breaker was, I'm not sure. My first thought was Kimberly Russel, but she was around in the 90's. Could be Kelly Preston, but on reflection, I don't think she kept dumping him and coming back - and thinking about it now, the timing doesn't seem right. It's possible it's someone we've never heard of because they were done before he became famous.

Kudos to Missa for asking the question in the first place - I just made it a new thread!

I still wonder about Talia. Wasn't the story that they'd dated a few years before they married, broke up and then got back together and married?

LizzyNY wrote:It's possible it's someone we've never heard of because they were done before he became famous.

Almost certainly, but I miss those days when we could speculate about who George was seeing. Ah, happy days.

Another George prank to keep everyone guessings, and talking about him??????

....Laura Dern? (Grizzly 1 was being made around that time, wasn't it?)

party animal - not! wrote:....Laura Dern? (Grizzly 1 was being made around that time, wasn't it?)

Ooooooh!  Now there's a thought!

Well, it was definitely before he became "George Clooney movie star", so I guess it could be. I would never have thought of her.

Ooooh, Laura Dern is a good guess! It has to be someone with a recognizable name that could also be connected to him, right? Otherwise he could just have said, “Oh yeah, Amy, she drove me crazy!” I feel like he deliberately didn’t say the name because we’d instantly recognize it.