Tale of the Clooney conwoman

Plus: Blair and Clinton; the next James Bond

George Clooney is being sued in a bizarre case.

By Jeannette Walls with Ashley Pearson

MSNBC

Oct. 1 - A woman who apparently conned George Clooney is now trying to sue him.

Stan Rosenfield, the actor, opened his heart last year when a woman told him about her tragic, cancer-stricken daughter, Cindy, and he began making calls and sending gifts to the terminally-ill young woman.

Before long, however, Clooney began to doubt that “Cindy” really existed. “He called her up one day, and said, ‘Great news. I’m getting a private plane and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon and I are all coming to see you.’ Then he gets a call back from the mother that the daughter suddenly died,” Clooney’s spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, told The Scoop. It turned out the whole thing was fake.

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'Now the mother supposedly has a sister who supposedly killed herself — she did it on George’s answering machine. But the woman and the daughter and the sister are all the same person.'

— Stan Rosenfield
“Now the mother supposedly has a sister who supposedly killed herself — she did it on George’s answering machine,” says Rosenfield. “And the mother is suing George for wrongful death. But the woman and the daughter and the sister are all the same person.”

Clooney hasn’t been eager to publicize the bizarre case, explains Rosenfield, because “he doesn’t want it to have a chilling effect on charities like Make-A Wish Foundation (who) do really great work.”

Friend of Bill?
Clinton, Bill Bill Clinton and Tony Blair weren’t the big buddies everyone thinks they were, according to a new book.

The British Prime Minister thought the former U.S. president was “weird” and was less-than-thrilled about his role in the Northern Ireland peace process, according to a new book by Peter Ridell, chief political commentator for the London Times. According to the book, which was excerpted in the paper this week, Clinton and Blair had several angry conversations, including a “huge, monumental explosion” over strategy in Kosovo.

The book also claims that Blair quickly established a closer friendship with George W. Bush than he ever did with Clinton. “The closeness of the Blair/Bush links was marked by a stream of personal notes from the Prime Minister to the President,” writes Ridell, “particularly after the 9/11 attacks.”

Blair’s public image has taken a beating lately, and his handlers are reportedly not eager to publicize his friendship with Bush, who is even less popular in the U.K. than Blair.

Notes from all over
Ben Affleck, who once penned a thoughtful article for Premiere Magazine about the public’s appetite for celebrity news, gave photographers his middle finger as he and J. Lo hopped on a motorcycle. . . . “Croupier” star Clive Owen is being tapped to be the next James Bond, the Daily Record is reporting. . . . Clint Eastwood is going to make some students’ day. The “Dirty Harry” star is scheduled to speak at the prestigious Oxford Union in October.

Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoop appears Monday through Thursday in MSNBC Entertainment.