Clooney to Vive Las Vegas

Mon., Aug. 29, 2005 3:15 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

A year ago, George Clooney had spinal fluid leaking out of his nose. So the man can be forgiven if he's in the mood to do some serious playing in Sin City.

The bachelor movie star is partnering up on a $3 billion Las Vegas casino, hotel, condo pad for which the pseudo adjective "ginormous" best applies.

Befitting his role as ringleader of Ocean's Eleven and Twelve, Clooney will undertake the project with the help of one famous friend, nightlife impresario Rande Gerber, better known as supermodel Cindy Crawford's husband, and perhaps at least one more.

"We are talking to our friend Brad Pitt about being involved in the design," Clooney said in a statement Monday.

Pitt, who rode shotgun in the Ocean's movies, is an architecture buff. Clooney comes by his interest in real estate the old-fashioned way--he likes the high-rise life.

"For the past several years, Rande and I have sought a project that evokes the style, sophistication and glamour of Las Vegas," Clooney said.

In the Los Angeles Times, Clooney said he has a "romantic notion" of Las Ramblas, the name of the development, being a place where fannypacks are out, and dinner jackets are recommended.

Location may aide Clooney's cause. Las Ramblas will not be built on Las Vegas Boulevard, aka the Strip, where the dress-casual lifestyle is as ubiquitous as flyers for in-room entertainers, but rather east of the boulevard, near the Hard Rock Hotel.

Clooney said he and Gerber hatched the idea of recapturing old Vegas during the new Vegas shoot of Ocean's Eleven.

"We're investing financially and creatively to develop an idyllic environment that reflects our personal tastes and interests and where we can relax with our friends who also love this town," Clooney said in the statement.

Clooney and Gerber are putting their money where their tastes are, each dropping "a significant amount of money" into Las Ramblas. Two Vegas development companies are also in on the action.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for mid-2006, with four of the 11 planned towers to be completed by 2008. When Las Ramblas is built out, it'll cover 8 million square feet, feature 4,400 units, and serve as Clooney's and Gerber's personal Vegas hang. (Gerber said he and the former big-screen Batman each will buy residences in the property.)

Gerber is a veteran mover-and-shaker on the scene scene, having launched, with his brother Scott, the Whiskey Bar chain. Clooney is more accustomed to calling the shots on a movie set--his latest directorial effort, Good Night, and Good Luck, is due out in October.

"I don't know that I will make a dime on any of this. I could lose my shirt," Clooney said of Las Ramblas to the Times. "But it will be a big adventure."

If Clooney does make a dime in profits, 25 percent of it will go to the U.K.-based alliance, Make Poverty History. Earlier this year, Clooney, on the mend from a very bad back, lent his celebrity to the Live 8 concerts, also aimed at eradicating world poverty, and spearheaded a fundraiser for victims of the Southeast Asian tsunamis.

All in all, a Vegas vacation sounds in order about now.