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George Clooney and his male pals enjoy hanging out in each other’s company, and they call themselves ‘The Boys’.

You might expect a little more on the creativity front, but George definitely doesn’t come up short on the generosity front.

We already know that in 2013, Clooney invited 14 of his closest friends to his house for dinner, and gave each of them $1 million in cash.

Rande Gerber, Cindy Crawford’s husband, told the story in 2017.

(You can see the couple, with George and Amal, below.)

Clooney himself has remained rather mum on the topic, but in a recent interview with GQ, he finally opened up about the reasons behind his gift, and how he managed to keep it under wraps until he handed over the goods to his stunned friends.

The entire interview is worth a read, but let’s cut to the story in question.

It starts with the fact that Clooney, into his 50s with friends generally older than himself, had just landed some serious cash after the box office success of Gravity.

Rather than being paid upfront, he was given a percentage of the movie’s earnings, because studio executives thought it would be a flop.

When he raked in the dough, he started thinking about some of the tough times in the past:

…in 2013, he didn’t yet have a family, nor any real idea or hope that someday he would. “And I thought, what I do have are these guys who’ve all, over a period of 35 years, helped me in one way or another. I’ve slept on their couches when I was broke. They loaned me money when I was broke. They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I’ve helped them over the years.”

We’re all good friends. And I thought, you know, without them I don’t have any of this. And we’re all really close, and I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they’re all in the will. So why the fuck am I waiting to get hit by a bus?”

Brief interjection – please, 2020, let’s not hit George Clooney with a bus. I can think of far more deserving individuals.

So, how does Clooney get his hands on $14 million in actual cash, and transport it to his home?

…Clooney did some research, and what he found was that in downtown Los Angeles, in an undisclosed location, there is a place you can go, “and they have giant pallets of cash.” So Clooney got an old beat-up van that said “Florist” on it, like he was in a heist movie, and he drove downtown, and he got in an elevator with the florist’s van, and he took the van down to the vault and loaded it up with cash.

He told no one but his assistant “and a couple of security guys that were shitting themselves. And we brought it up, and I bought 14 Tumi bags, and then I packed in a million bucks, cash, which isn’t as much as you think it is, weight-wise, into these Tumi bags.”

The next day, his friends come over for dinner, and before George whips out the cold, hard, cash, he waves a map around, telling his mates that the reason he’s been able to visit all of these places is because of the help they’ve given him along the way.

And I said, ‘How do you repay people like that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well: How about a million bucks?’ And the fun part about it was: That was the 27th, the 28th of September. A year later, on the 27th of September, just by happenstance, was the day I got married.”

When he told the story, Gerber noted that not all of the actor’s friends were rich, and some could really use that lovely cash-filled bag.

If anybody can locate the application form for being George’s pal, please send it along.

He has a point, though – why wait until you’re dead and buried to share your riches with those closest to you?

[source:gq]