Countdown to Las Ramblas

George Clooney, in case you hadn't noticed, isn't your status quo penis-having star. The new crop of bed-headed rent-a-dudes standing on stage in True Religion jeans and flip-flops at this years' Upfronts could take a lesson from the tanned, tailored, facial-hair-frozen-at-five-o'clock throwback. This is a man who oozes Suave (the quality and the styling aid) and is safely three degrees of separation from anything that even rhymes with 'Valderamma'. So when George tells the Associate Press today from 'his home on Lake Como in Italy' (ed: is that where that is?) of his plans to build a new Las Vegas resort that will

"...be like old Vegas and old Hollywood. It's going to be a classy joint,"

our initial reaction isn't a jaded "give up the Rodent Pack fantasy, Clooney, you once had roadie hair and a tool belt and were trading fat jokes with Nathalie on The Facts of Life," but rather a relieved, swoony sigh that finally someone, anyone remembers how it used to be done, and, what's more, wants to do it to us one more time.

"I could end up just losing my shirt on this whole thing, but these guys are pretty good at what they do," Clooney told The AP. "It's going to be an adventure."

Probably not the Clooney-shirt-losing adventure that most 40-something single women had in mind, but an adventure nonetheless. The resort, uncatchily named Las Ramblas after Barcelona's outdoor shopping boulevard, is at present nothing but a $3-billion dollar business plan. And while rumors are circulating that George and his Ocean's Eleven co-star and gadabouting partner Brad Pitt have already met with Donald Trump's hair and possibly Donald Trump himself, the official word is that Pitt has not yet "committed into buying into the development." Perhaps he's waiting for a firmer offer on one tantalizing, gay-making possibility:

"We are entertaining having Brad design one of the buildings," (Clooney business partner and Cindy Crawford husband Rande Gerber) said.

Now THAT's entertainment!