Clooney Leaving Las Vegas

Tue., Jun. 6, 2006 5:40 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

For now, only in the movies will George Clooney be the toast of Las Vegas.

The Syriana star and his business associates have scrapped plans to build a $3 billion "vintage Vegas" resort complex near the Las Vegas Strip. They cited rising construction costs and slow residential sales as some of the reasons why they weren't going ahead with the hotel-casino-condo idea.

Real estate developer Related Las Vegas, Centra Properties and Rande Gerber--Cindy Crawford's hubby and Clooney's business partner--announced Monday that they are selling the land they planned to build on to another development company for $202 million. Related bought the 25-acre site for about $90 million last year.

"I'll donate my profits from the sale to the African Debt Relief Project," Clooney, who has become celebrity advocate number-one with regard to the human rights crisis in Darfur, Sudan, said in a statement. "And I guess I'll find someplace else to gamble."

The 45-year-old Oscar winner got on board with the venture in August, coining the development Las Ramblas and touting it as a Rat Pack-style retreat for the cocktail and tuxedo set. He talked about bringing Brad Pitt along for the real estate ride, but that partnership never panned out.

After costs started inching upward, Related considered a redesign, but adding more hotel rooms would have necessitated a larger casino.

"For us, it became more about gaming than the residential community we were trying to build," Related Las Vegas President Marty Burger told the Associated Press. "We're the largest developer of residential property in the country, and we saw ourselves getting away from what we do best."

While he may not get to be the next Donald Trump, at least Clooney has a few other claims to fame to fall back on. For instance, the 45-year-old Oscar winner was named the number-one dream celebrity date a few days ago in the latest Lifetime Television Pulse Poll. He blew the competition out of the water, scoring 39 percent of the vote.

The Good Night, and Good Luck director has also been chosen to receive the 21st American Cinematheque Award, which honors writers, directors and actors who are committed to making a contribution to the motion picture industry, on Oct. 13.

And Clooney will still get a dose of Vegas glamour this summer when he reprises his role of dashing thief Danny Ocean for Ocean's Thirteen, which finds the original Eleven--plus a few more--back in Sin City for their next big score. Cameras are set to roll July 21.