'I've learned how to fight'

Guardia': "George Clooney's handshake belongs to what I believe is known as the Bill Clinton school; firm grip, level gaze and that 'special' touch, a discreet squeeze under the elbow that implies, 'If you think it's exciting meeting me, just imagine how exciting it is being me.' Actually, I imagine that a lot of the time it's kind of embarrassing being George Clooney. The path to his door is littered with the corpses of female journalists, who after spending half an hour in his company - smart, funny, so suave as to practically curve at the edges - simply expired on the way out and were left to petrify where they fell, on the green patterned carpet of the Dorchester Hotel. Clooney remains unimpressed. It is part of his regular-guy charm that, at 44, he has lived for more years in obscurity than fame and regards the excesses of the entertainment world with a sort of good-humoured condescension. His image as a rebel has as much to do with his manner as his politics; when he attacks Bush it's with a heavy irony that takes into account the fact that people don't, generally, like being preached at by actors. It is what separates him from other, politically outspoken celebrities whose laudable views are undermined somewhat by the exceptional self-regard that holding them seems to inspire. Clooney is as vain and materialistic as the next guy in Hollywood - 'Fuck it, I love my house in Italy. It's big and audacious and ridiculous, and nicer than any human being has the right to have' - but he is also one of the few really grown-up movie stars. 'I have Irish Catholic guilt,' he says, smiling, 'and want to make up for [my successes].'"