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8 months ago 14th Oct 11:22
Over the past decade George Clooney and Brad Pitt have become two of Hollywood's hottest properties and highest paid stars.
This week sees the pair re-unite, after the varying degrees of success of the Ocean's franchise, in the Coen Brothers' follow up to the multi Oscar winning No Country for Old Men comedy Burn After Reading, which also sees Clooney reunite with the sibling directors.
However in recent years the pair have not had it all their own way at the box office as they have both tried to more away from their pretty boy images and carve out careers as serious actors.
So to celebrate the release of Burn After Reading FemaleFirst has put the pair head to head.
It seems that both Pitt and Clooney have wanted to move away from their good looks and pin-up status with both taking on roles that have caught the attention of the Academy.
Despite still working on the Ocean's movies Clooney has made the biggest leap taking on roles in The Good German and Syriana. But the actor has also cemented himself as a fine film maker with Good Night and Good Luck in 2005.
This year saw him take on the role of Michael Clayton which won rave reviews from the critics and earnt him a Best Actor nomination.
After the disaster that was Troy and the interesting Mr and Mrs Smith Pitt followed in his pal's footsteps with Babel and Jesse James which were both critical hits.
There's also Oscar hype surrounding the soon to be released The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which is released early next year.
Clooney critical hit Michael Clayton did also go on to find commercial success grossing a healthy $92 million at the global box office, easily making back it's $25 million budget.
However that success didn't last long as his next project, sports comedy Leatherheads, which he directed, produced, wrote and starred in was considered a box office disaster.
Made for just $77 million Leatherheads only managed to gross $29.7 million at the American box office and taking just $6 million from overseas making a total of $35.8 million. And only being met with mixed reviews from the critics Leatherheads is perhaps a chapter in Clooney's directing career he would rather forget.
Apart from the Ocean's movies, how they managed to make three is a mystery, Pitt has struggled turning his popularity into bums on seats.
He was part of the ensemble cast of Babel in 2006 which was a critical and commercial hit grossing in excess of $135 million and going on to earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination.
Despite critical praise for his role as outlaw Jesse James in western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford the film did not pull in audiences grossing just $4million in the States.
In the awards department it's George Clooney that has had the most success with multiple nominations in 2005. He bagged nods for Best Director and Best original Screenplay for Good Night and Good Luck, which was a critical hit.
However that same year he won a surprise Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the role of Bob Barnes in political thriller Syriana as well as winning the Golden Globe for the same role.
More nominations followed this year for his lead role in Michael Clayton as he secured a best Actor nomination but lost out to Daniel Day Lewis, however he did win the Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance.
Despite rave reviews for Brad Pitt's role in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and much talk of an Oscar nomination Pitt was not nominated for his performance.
When you are one half of Hollywood's most famous couple everything that you do is news worthy and this is certainly the case for our Brad who can't seem to go and buy a pint of milk without it making the front pages.
With Angelina Jolie on his arm and the pair adopting children left, right and centre Brad is currently holds the title for Tabloid Heavyweight Champ.
And Clooney isn't that far behind if he's not trying to save the world with his projects in Darfur then his dating antics are enough to keep us all glued to our mags and newspapers.
Burn After Reading is released 17th October
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Your Comments:
by Brie - 00:44:03 15th Oct 2008
Some real talent would be nice. gc is an old man and has shown the public that he is no cary grant, not even close. the pitts, well they are just the pits.