GEORGE CLOONEY - CLOONEY LOSES WINO ROLE

GEORGE CLOONEY missed out on playing a wino suffering a midlife crisis in new indie film SIDEWAYS because director ALEXANDER PAYNE insisted he wasn't the right man for the part.

Clooney was so desperate to work on the film, an adaptation of REX PICKETT's bestselling novel about a group of wine drinkers, he met with ABOUT SCHMIDT Payne in a bid to persuade the director to cast him.

Payne recalls, "I said, 'You're a wonderful actor, but I wouldn't believe that one of the world's most handsome, most famous movie stars can play one of the world's biggest loser actors."

The part Clooney wanted to play eventually went to American thespian THOMAS HADEN CHURCH.