Girls of all ages can't get enough of George Clooney.
On his first day of shooting here on Wednesday, a few spectators (mostly
high school
students) lined the street hoping to meet the A-list actor.
That scene was noticeably different yesterday. What began at 9 a.m. with
12 women,
some with toddlers and babies, steadily multiplied through the day. At 10
a.m., there
were 27; at 11:30 a.m., there were 45. By 1:30 p.m., far more than 60 fans
were in
attendance, armed with copies of yesterday's Times Herald-Record and DVDs
for
Clooney to sign.
One mother even had a head shot of her aspiring actress daughter. Another
woman
rushed a hair-coloring job to stand with her friend.
"I was in the middle of coloring my hair and my neighbor called and said,
'Do you want
to see George Clooney with me?' and I said, 'Yes, but I have to wait 10
minutes for my
color to be done,'" said 56-year-old Blooming Grove resident Barbara
Stubecki. "I'm
so ecstatic I can't stand it!"
She was standing next to 70-year-old Blooming Grove resident Joan Butler,
who became
a mini-celebrity at her dance school.
"My son told me George was here and I went to my dance school where I
teach, and I
told the teenage dancers and they called their mothers," Butler laughed.
"The mothers
came in from everywhere, and I was stunned. They asked me where he was
filming and if
it was being filmed in my neighborhood.
"They wanted to know if they could come over and have lunch with me."
As more and more fans lined the street, the crew instructed them to stand
in a single file
for their safety and not to use flash photography. They also had to be
told to quiet down
more than once.
When break time came, Clooney, his bodyguard and the Blooming Grove police
were
quickly surrounded.
"Hey, guys," Clooney said, smiling as he left for lunch. "It's a nice day,
right?"
While signing autographs, Clooney commented on the Hudson Valley and the
his
chances on Oscar night.
"I've been around here before and it's stunning," Clooney said. As for his
chances of
winning an Oscar? "Probably not very strong," he said. "We've been
losing."
When Clooney got back from lunch about an hour later, the fans were still
there,
including 18-year-old Alexis Lowey of Monroe. She got on the school bus
this morning,
but didn't make it to class.
"I got on the bus, went two blocks and got off. What's more important? Our
education or
meeting George Clooney?" Lowey laughed. "He tipped the scale. It's sad,
but true."
Forty-four-year-old Donna McGoldrick of Blooming Grove didn't hide her
excitement.
She'd been waiting all morning and finally got a chance to talk to him.
"I need a Dr. Ross," she yelled to Clooney. "I got a cold and a cough and
I got out of bed
to see you."
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