George Clooney – Man of Extremes

A while ago I listened to a SmartLess podcast that featured George Clooney as the guest.

SmartLess is a podcast hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. They typically interview a celebrity guest, in a free form style, about their career, family life and other topics that pop up.

In this podcast, George Clooney told a couple of stories that convinced me he has the gate 15, Gate of Extremes. Sure enough, when I ran his chart there it was, a defined gate 15.

The first story was about when George was just starting out in Hollywood. He was living with actor Richard Kind in his friend’s apartment. Richard would go to work for the day, and George would be in the apartment waiting for audition calls. Richard had a small cat that he cherished. One day while in the bathroom George noticed the cats litter box and decided to scoop it clean and flush it down the toilet.  He continued to clean box and after a few days Richard became concerned. He mentioned this to George, but he said nothing. So, Richard took his cat to the vet, and they gave him something equivalent to cat Metamucil. Now the cat was going like 10 times a day and George continued scooping and flushing. After a couple more days George had an epiphany. He scooped the box and then George crouched and took a crap in the box. Richard comes home, goes into the bathroom and suddenly exclaims loudly. He ushers George in to see the large poop compared to his tiny six-inch-long cat. Slowly Richard pieces things together and gets very mad at George.

In this prank I see at least 3 indicators of Gate of Extremes.

1. The time commitment. It took many days to carry out the gag, yet still everyday George cleaned the litter box.

2. Even though his friend was so concerned about his cat, George did not say anything and come clean about scooping.
3. A human taking a crap in a cat box, need I say more.

So, we have extreme in time invested and commitment to carry it through which are often signs of the Gate of Extremes. Additionally, George originally didn’t have and end game to the prank, and his gate 15 is in the unconscious, so it appears Extremes was behind the scenes as a driving force.

George and Richard

In the second story, George was walking along when he saw a painting someone had thrown out. He brought the painting home, went out and got some paints and an easel and set it up in his living room and signed his name to the bottom of the painting. Richard came over and he sees the painting that George seems to be working on.  Over the next year George continues the ploy. He picks up good paintings from flea markets for like $12 each and puts them on the easel. Richard would come over and ask if George want to play golf, but he declines as he has to go to art class. Other times George would be driving with Richard and divert to the art supply store to pick up brushes and pallet knives. This goes on for around a year, and Richard continues to compliment George on his new paintings and how he is quite impressed.

Richard’s 40th birthday rolls around and George wraps up the original painting he salvaged from the trash. George says to Richard, “I want to thank you for supporting me with my painting and my art teacher thinks this is my best work and I think it would look great in your living room above your couch.  Now, understand this painting is 3 feet by 6 feet of a naked woman and is a hideous combination aqua and pink colors. For two years their friends would visit Richard’s apartment and comment how nice the paining looked even they knew the background story.

Finally, George tells the story on the Tonight show. He gets home and calls Richard and he suggests that he watch the tonight show. Richard later calls up George exasperated and says, “I always hated that painting.”

Again 2 extremes

George was riding a motorcycle at 70 mph in Italy and hit a car and was thrown into the windshield headfirst then flipping through the air and landing on his hands and knees. I am guessing he probably liked to ride fast, perhaps to an extreme. The motorcycle had an extreme ending, thankfully George was OK and did not.

Gate 15 is in the channel of Rhythm and is opposed by the gate 5. Gate 5 tends to have a very consistent pattern. It sometimes makes me think of a train conductor, watch in hand  isto make sure they are always to the station on time. Gate 15 on the other hand has its own flow. Like both the cat and painting stories, there were opportunities for them to culminate earlier, but for the gate of extremes the ending had to happen at the right time within the flow.

People that don’t have the gate 15 sometimes struggle with people around them that have the 15. The extremes try to pull them into a rhythm that may not fit their style or preference.

Do you have any of these people in your life?

My focus on George had been the gate 15, but of course there are so many other elements of design that played a role in these examples. He is the cross of the Sphinx which gives direction to others and in his case the lead gate is the gate 2, which leads forward or into the flow. He has the channel of the Family or the tribe, the 37-40, so he is tightly bound to his tribe, and this leads me to my finally story about George.

In 2013, George threw a dinner party for Richard and 13 other close friends. These were people like Richard, that gave him a place to stay, loaned him money or helped him in some other way when times were tough. Next to each chair was a briefcase each filled with 1 million dollars cash. George thanked them all for what they have done for him and he says, “The taxes are all paid so all that money is yours to keep. One condition, everyone has to accept this gift, or no one gets it.”  I guess Richard finally got paid for being the victim of the pranks.

Here we have Extreme and Tribal energy all in one!

Link to the SmartLess episode on Spotify with George Clooney.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/79uFnmB8KwocxLliXHRpN5

Full report for George Clooney