George Clooney~~~A Fan's Encounter

It was December 2005 and all of the people in my parents neighborhood were recieving flyers in their mailboxes from a movie production company wanting to know if they would be interested in them using their homes for a movie.
Alot of the people just threw them away, thinking it was a scam of some sort. My parents neighbor, Marie decided to fill it out and send it in.

A few weeks later, Marie recieved a telephone call from the production company telling her that someone from their location department would be coming by to check out her home to see if it would be right for their needs.
Two men came and looked at her home, and said they would call her with their decision. Within a few days, they called Marie and said the have chosen her home for the film, and that production would start sometime in February 2006, never saying what the name of the movie was, or who would be in it.

In mid-January 2006, my parents had a knock on their door and it was the same two men from the location department from the production company who looked at Marie's house. They wanted to know if my parents home could be used for cast and crew involved in the film, and also wanted to use their garage to set up food tables. My parents agreed, and everything was arranged.

Early in February 2006, the excitement was mounting because no one knew who the star of the movie would be, we were all trying our best to guess. One day a bus load of people came to Marie's house with equiptment and all went inside. Then what appeared to be a moving truck parked outside her home, a few men went inside and started removing furniture. Everyone was there for a few hours. After they all left, Marie came over to my parents house and told them that the moving men removed her furniture to a storage facility so they had room for the prop furniture, and they were going to knock out walls and alot of renovating to make her home look like it belonged to a sick, old man, and that she found out the star of the movie was going to be none other than George Clooney !!! We all were SO excited, but were sworn to secrecy because if word ever got out, there would be a mob scene, so we bit our tongues and kept quiet.

Marie found out that production would start about the 26th of February. Crews were already busy in her house doing all of the renovations so it would be ready in time for the filming to start. We then found out that Tony Gilroy was the writer/director of the film. I went to Washingtonville High School with Tony and his brothers Dan and Frank Gilroy. Dan is married to Rene Russo. Their family has a home in the same neighborhood as my parents, and they all grew up here

February 26: Filming day 1) We were all up at the crack of dawn eagerly awaiting George's arrival. He came up at about 6:30 AM and went directly into Marie's house. Later in the morning, George came out to take a break to see all of us standing outside in the cold to meet him. He greeted all of us, said hello and posed for pictures. My parents home was used for computer relays, one of their bedrooms was used for a classroom to tutor all of the children who were in the film, her garage was transformed into a buffet room with all of this incredible food, which of course we were allowed to share. All of the crew members used their bathroom, and my parents dog, Ginger never had so much attention!!!

Later in the afternoon, the school buses came through and all of the kids were wondering what was going on. It only took one of them to find out, and later, the street was filled with people eager to get a glipmse of George.
The next morning, the police had to set up baracades to keep the growing crowd back. People were lining the street with cameras and video cameras in the freezing cold, armed with all sorts of things, hoping to get George to autograph them.

February 27~~The second day of filming, George was getting ready to break for lunch. He left Marie's house and walked right down to where the crowd was gathering. He took pictures with everyone and signed everything people shoved at him. I had pictures taken with him, and he is the most generous, nicest man who you would ever want to meet. Not a Hollywood snob at all like some celebrities seem to be.

The filming continued and on Friday, February 28th we found out that Jon Stewart was coming up. We were so excited because not only was one celebrity in our neighborhood, but now there would be two !!

Jon arrived about 11:00AM and came straight into my parents house, sat down and just started talking to all of us like he was an old friend. He told us that he and George were going film a scene for the Academy Awards in my parents bed !!! That year "Brokeback Mountain" was a contender for an Oscar, and they were going to spoof it.

George came over to my parents house about 12:30. We were SO excited that George himself was in my parents home!! He met all of us, and then went into my parents bedroom with Jon to shoot the scene.

When they were finished, George and Jon posed for family photo's with my entire family, and took other photo's with us, sat around and we all talked for a while. My daughter's teacher gave her the day off from school because she knew George Clooney was going to be at her "Grandma's" house.
When we were getting ready to take the family photo with Jon and George, I introduced my daughter to George. I said "George, this is my daughter Danielle, Danielle, this is Mr. Clooney" George reached out and shook her hand and said "Hi Danielle, you can call me George". I thought that was so sweet of him!
They are both the nicest people you would ever want to meet.
My sister worked for a french cookware company and they gave her a Risotto pan to give to George to take back to his Villa in Italy. My sister, being a shy person, made me give the pan to him!! They were outside in my parents driveway getting ready to leave for lunch, so I took this very heavy pan outside, and gave it to George. He said to say thank you to my sister and her company, kissed me on the cheek, and thanked me! WOW!!!

The last night they were here, we went to the Ramada Inn where George and the cast and crew were all staying. George came down from his room, and was having drinks with all of us like a regular guy.
It was great seeing my neighborhhod in a major motion picture, and to see first hand all of hard work that goes into making a movie, and of course meeting George and Jon.
It was an experience we all will never forget.