John Krasinski has urged his peers not to bet against George Clooney on the basketball court, because the movie star is a formidable opponent.

The star of The Office spin-off challenged Clooney to a game of hoops during a break from their new period sports movie Leatherheads, wagering he could beat the Oscar winner.

Krasinski says, “I was like, movie stars can’t jump… He beat me handily.” Clooney picks up the story, adding, “He’s a really good athlete. He said, ‘I’ll kick your butt.’ I thought he’d take me because he’s younger and taller. “But I beat him straight up. And he paid right there, but I didn’t take his money. “He still comes to my house on Sundays and we still play – but not for money because he can’t afford it.” To pay Clooney back after losing the basketball bet, Krasinski arranged for a net to be erected at the Oscar winner’s holiday home in Italy.

Actress Renee Zellweger has branded her co-star George Clooney a “spoil sport” – because he would never let her fool around on set.

The pair star together in Leatherheads, a romantic comedy set in the world of 1920s football, but Zellweger was constantly told off by Clooney – who also directs the movie – for playing with the replica pigskin balls. But the 38-year-old insists she “couldn’t help” herself when it came to throwing the balls in her period costume.

Zellweger tells Parade magazine, “I had on my hat with the feather, and my little high heeled buckled shoes and gloves while I was throwing the pigskin, but I couldn’t help myself. “When I gave it a toss, the director, that would be Mr. Clooney, scolded me and said, ‘You put that thing down. What am I going to do with you when you miss and take one on the nose and we’ve got a close up? Put that ball down.’ I thought he was a spoil sport.”

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In case you didn’t know:

George Clooney’s great-grandfather was a former mayor of Maysville, Kentucky, where the movie star staged a hometown premiere of his new film Leatherheads on Monday.

The producer of the upcoming Attack of the Killer Tomatoes remake wants George Clooney to reprise his role from the film’s 1988 sequel.

Clooney’s portrayal of Matt Stevens in Return Of The Killer Tomatoes was only his third movie role, and Doug Sarine hopes the star has such fond memories of his B-movie big break he’ll agree to star in the 30th anniversary remake of the original 1978 film.

Sarine also hopes to persuade B-movie king Bruce Campbell to join in the fun. He tells website Bloody-Disgusting.com, “It’s a bit early to talk casting, but we really want George Clooney to be in it and we have a role in mind for Bruce Campbell as well.”

Does anybody remember George in this movie? I sure don’t.

The hottest ticket in town in Kentucky this year isn’t the Kentucky Derby, but a screening for George Clooney’s new flick!

The Oscar winner is set to debut his latest starrer, Leatherheads, which he also directed, Monday night in the tiny town of Maysville, Ky.

”The whole town is abuzz,” Maysville Mayor David Cartmell says.

Why Kentucky? George is a native of the state, having been born in Lexington and reared in Augusta, about 16 miles west of Maysville.

There’s also a deeper connection to Maysville — his late aunt Rosemary Clooney premiered her 1953 film, The Stars Are Singing, in the city that sits along the Ohio River. George’s pop Nick was also born in Maysville, and is looking forward to the Monday night screening, which will be head at the Washington Opera Theater.

”He knows all about that, and he is very interested in kind of connecting the dots as far as family history,” Nick Clooney said. ”He thinks that would be kind of cool for the family, and one hopes for the town, too.”

Leatherheads, also starring Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski, opens April 4.

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George Clooney has revealed he suffered from paralyzing Bell’s Palsy when he was a teenager.

The muscle-weakening disorder left him with a temporary disfigured face, but Clooney has always had the perfect response for people who poke fun at his odd high school photos. He says, “People bring it up and they go, ‘Look how goofy you looked,’ and I go, ‘I had Bell’s Palsy; you feel bad now.’”

And in a new interview with U.S. TV news show The Insider, the grey-haired movie hunk offered another big surprise from his past: “I was a blond.”

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George Clooney denies reports claiming the actor, 46, will return to ER for a 15th season next fall to reprise his role as Dr. Doug Ross.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight Canada airing Monday, Clooney was asked if he is indeed returning to the NBC show. “No, never — we never even talked about it,” he says in the interview. “No one has ever asked me. It’s the funniest thing. The story came out, and I was like ‘Where did that come from?’ It was everywhere — I mean in one day!”

Clooney added that the reports were news to TV execs, as well. “I ran into [ER Executive Producer] John Wells two days ago on the lot … and said to him, ‘What the hell happened?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know where that came from.”

But Clooney isn’t discounting how crucial the role was to his career. “I was 33 when ER hit, so I have a very different outlook on the way things work,” he says. “I don’t think I was supposed to have been famous. I realize how much of this is luck.”

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