From the Set of Ocean's 12 (thank you Tammy, Mek, Kathy, Allison, Shelby and Britta!)

April 17, 2004

Allison

Tammy

So I went to the O12 set today in Lake Forest [Illinois] and saw George a few times throughout the day. He looked very good. Not the O11 hair but nice and neat. Nice shades...

They filmed inside a bank and later in the day on a train platform. George's trailer had a basketball net out back and he was seen playing. He signed a LOT of autographs and took a LOT of pictures with fans. Very accommodating. The paparazzi were there. They sat in Starbucks and uploaded their pics to the web.

They're off tomorrow. Julia arrives Monday night. Tuesday and Wednesday they're in Winnetka. Andy and Matt should be there then. Don't know anything about Brad.

It was nuts today. The crowds were crazy and a LOT of screaming young people. But, it was funny when a couple busloads of girls' lacrosse teams went by screaming 'WE LOVE YOU GEORGE' from every bus window.

Lisa and Mek

We spent the morning at the O12 set in Lake Forest 4/17 and were lucky enough to see George Clooney several times. 

GC was very nice with the fans. Each time he emerged from his trailer, he would wave and acknowledge the crowd (actually, not too many folks had found his trailer when we first showed up!). As Tammy stated on your site, he did sign autographs and hobnob with folks a bit.

First scene was filmed inside a Metra train (which was equipped with Amtrak cars). The train left the station then returned several times before filming was finished. When GC got off the train, he spent a bit of time waving to the crowd (VERY LARGE crowd by that time, around 1pm), then was driven back to his trailer (with fans in hot pursuit, lol!).

We weren't able to stay for the bank shoot.

Yes, the paparazzi were present, and one actually knocked over a couple of kids to get photos of GC outside his trailer (probably the Z review pics, from the looks of it). Shame on him.

Additional Photos

Chicago Tribune

Chicago area seeing stars--again
Rebound of state's film industry brings in celebrities

By Trine Tsouderos
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 20, 2004

Thanks to recent balmy temperatures and a revived Illinois film
industry, these have been good days for star-gazing.

With three films being shot in the Chicago area--"Ocean's Twelve,"
"Ice Harvest" and "The Weather Man"--a perfect storm of such A-list
celebrities as George Clooney and Julia Roberts has converged on
local streets.

On Monday, hundreds of camera-toting women and girls mobbed Lake
Forest hoping to spy Clooney, who was shooting "Ocean's Twelve," the
sequel to 2001's heist movie "Ocean's Eleven."

"Oh my God! I'm standing 20 feet from George Clooney!" Stacy
Plucinski, a 19-year-old college student, squealed into her cell
phone. "Oh my God! He's so cute!"

Sharp-eyed celebrity watchers also might catch a glimpse of Catherine
Zeta-Jones, Matt Damon, John Cusack, Andy Garcia and Bernie Mac, all
of whom have been in town in recent days or are expected to pop in
over the next few weeks.

Suddenly, Illinois is a hot place for filmmaking.

In the first three months of this year, the state rang up more than
$60 million in moviemaking revenues, a dramatic turnaround compared
with last year, when studios spent just $25 million in the state all
year, said Brenda Sexton, managing director of the Illinois Film
Office.

"What a difference a year makes," Sexton said. "This is the first
time in over five years that we have three movies at the same time."

Sexton credits a new state tax incentive for filmmakers, her office's
aggressive push to sell Illinois to Hollywood and Chicago's
versatility for the revival of the state's once-ailing film industry.

"Chicago is the perfect place for them to come," she said. "We have
every location except for mountains. We have gritty urban. We have
quaint little villages. You don't get more quaint than Lake Forest."

"Ocean's Twelve," starring Clooney, Roberts, Zeta-Jones, Damon,
Garcia, Mac, Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle and others, is expected to
continue filming through the month.

"Ice Harvest," starring Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton, is filming
through the end of May, as is "The Weather Man," starring Nicolas
Cage.

In July the new Batman movie starring Christian Bale will begin
shooting, and three other movie projects are considering filming here
this year, Sexton said.

Many of the women and girls jockeying for position Monday to view
Clooney also spent Saturday watching the 42-year-old actor shoot
scenes, play basketball in a parking lot and, best of all, shake
hands and sign autographs.

"I'm never going to wash it!" Cristina Morales, 13, exclaimed as she
pulled a balled-up yellow T-shirt out of her purse and pointed to the
initials "G.C." that Clooney had scrawled on its sleeve.

"He smells really good. He has really white teeth and really soft
hands," she said.

Morales and her friends from Deer Path Middle School in Lake Forest
said they persuaded school officials to give them passes Monday to
get out of chorus and lunch so they could watch filming.

All were veterans of Saturday's shoot and described chasing Clooney's
white sport-utility vehicle through the streets of Lake Forest when
he left.

"Nothing ever happens here, so it's exciting," said Jamie Fusello,
13, a Deer Path 7th grader.

Fans and the merely curious traded rumors and fueled business in
downtown Lake Forest as they watched Clooney shoot and reshoot a
scene in which he strolls across Bank Lane before entering a jewelry
shop.

The crowds meant a brisk business for Sweet's, a candy store at Bank
and Deerpath, which may end up in the scene.

"All weekend long we did an awesome business," said Sweet's owner,
Susan Dick. "It was a great weekend. Our streets were lined."

Additional pictures here (thanks Shelby!)

And here (thanks Britta!)

Back to Sights and Sounds