We wouldn’t expect one of the best known and most respected actors in Hollywood to weigh in on the Britney Spears meltdown from early this month, but it turns out George Clooney was sort of there as it happened.
Clooney didn’t know he lived near Britney Spears until the area was surrounded by helicopters, police, paramedics and paparazzi during the “custody dispute” on January 3 that resulted in her two-night hospital stay.
The Oscar nominee and boyfriend of Sarah Larson recalled the evening to the Huffington Post, and needless to say, it’s highly amusing:
“I’d gone upstairs, and I came out and I’m in a robe. All of the sudden I look out and see all this s–t going on.
“I have a guest house where my assistant sometimes is, and I think, someone has broken out of prison and like escaped, because it’s a chase scene out there. It was like something out of Die Hard.”
On Jan. 3, Britney Spears imploded, unbeknownst to neighbor George Clooney.
“I get my baseball bat, which is what you always get in every film — I actually think Clive Owen said, ‘Get a baseball bat’ — and I called up my assistant, who I thought was in the guest house, and I said, ‘Are you OK?’
“And she’s like, ‘Yes.’
“And I said, ‘Look, if there’s someone in the place, say the word stonehenge.’
“And she’s like, ‘What the f–k are you talking about? I’m in my apartment.’
“I go, ‘You’re not in the guesthouse?’
“‘No.’
“So I’m, like, ‘Well, then, what the f–k is going on?’ And I go out and I’m running around with a baseball bat in my robe.
“And it turns out it’s Britney Spears’ house is like, 300 yards from mine. So now I have to move.”