Working in the movies often gets hectic: you are frequently on set 12 hours a day and your co-stars and crew become like an extended family for the duration of the shoot. It’s, therefore, not so strange that actors and crew take to pranking one another. Some take it as far as doing it in their spare time as well.
The No. 1 Hollywood prankster is George Clooney. He’s come up with some of the funniest pranks around, but he’s also been on the receiving end of some as a result. In his defense, he doesn’t only prank people though—he’s also one of the driving forces behind charity work in Hollywood, and he’s been known to fight people who treat actors and crew badly on set. He’s a true gentleman—with a not so gentlemanly sense of humor.
George Clooney and the pig
Clooney once bought his girlfriend a piglet—a piglet that grew very, very big. Then, he split with his girlfriend and ended up keeping the pig, Max, which he became very close with. In fact, they became so close that Max used to sleep in his bedroom in his house in the Hollywood Hills.
One night, Max woke Clooney up. Clooney was a bit grumpy about it, until he realized that there was an earthquake. As any sane man would do, Clooney ran out of the house with Max and up the hill (you don’t want to be down the hill during an earthquake). Clooney had a tenant in his guesthouse, who did exactly the same thing, only his tenant had thought that it was a burglar he heard first and, therefore, ran out with his gun. Both men were stark naked.
Clooney, once on top of the hill, proceeded to text his parents saying that if he died, it wasn’t what it looked like with two naked men, a pig and a gun. I’m sure his parents appreciated that text. I know it’s not quite a prank, but give it to him—he has a sense of humor!
This George Clooney story particularly amused me as I used to live in a guesthouse in the Hollywood Hills with my best friend. On the property, there was a goat, George, who was very friendly and used to roam free. I could see myself ending up in a very similar situation—myself and my best friend running up the hill naked in the middle of the night and bumping into George.
George Clooney and peeing in your pants
On set, people suddenly realized they had peed their pants. How? Why? What!
It turns out that Clooney was walking around with an Evian water bottle that he had turned into a spray bottle. As he chatted with people, he sprayed them so that it looked like they’d peed their pants.
Charming.
George Clooney and the great (hideous) painting
One day, Clooney drove by an ugly painting that someone had thrown out on the street. Clearly, he just couldn’t resist stopping his car to get out and pick it up, as one does when one finds ugly paintings.
Clooney then carefully painted over the signature and signed the painting himself. For the next year or so, when one of his best friends called him, he sometimes said that he couldn’t meet up at certain times because he was taking art classes.
On his friend’s birthday, he brought a massive present—the painting. He told his friend that he and his art teacher both felt this painting was very, very special. As a result, his friend couldn’t really do much but hang it in his living room.
All of Clooney’s friends knew about the prank and had a good giggle whenever they dropped by and saw it. Only the recipient of the painting was unaware of the true nature of the painting until, about a year later, when Clooney told him the real story. The painting was promptly taken down.
What are friends for but to torture you?
Jennifer Lawrence and the corpse
Once upon a time, Josh Hutcherson decided that he was going to play a prank on Jennifer Lawrence on set while filming The Hunger Games. So, he enlisted the help of a dummy (if dummies can help…) that, in the movie, is killed by genetically modified wasps. In other words: it looked like a corpse.
Hutcherson took this dummy and placed it in Jennifer Lawrence’s trailer. More precisely, he placed it on the toilet, with toilet paper in its hand. Lawrence got such a fright when she opened the door to the bathroom that she peed her pants.
Brad Pitt gets back on Clooney
Brad Pitt is close friends with George Clooney and has, as a result, been pranked by him quite a few times. Of course, he also gets back at him. After Clooney was voted People’s Sexiest Man Alive twice, Pitt put ads in various Hollywood publications taunting Clooney. Pitt and Matt Damon also got together once and ordered a male stripper to confess his undying love for Clooney during a press conference.
Sometimes Clooney and Pitt join forces as well. Once, during a flight to L.A., they challenged producer Jerry Weintraub to a drinking game. Of course, they weren’t drinking alcohol, but water. Weintrub, however, passed out and Clooney and Pitt filled his boxers with M&Ms. One can only hope his wife/girlfriend likes chocolate.
It’s clearly difficult to be in the limelight all the time—the pranks that get played on you seem exhausting. If you ever film something with George Clooney, you should probably show up armed with an artillery of pranks. Maybe also with a pig—a very large pig.
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