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George Clooney on hitting the AARP years

Yes, our dear George Clooney is 50 years old, and while we (OK, I) think he's no worse for wear, Clooney says he can tell when he looks in the mirror that he's hit the half-century mark."I look at myself on-screen and go, 'I don't look like I did when I was 40 -- I know that.' The people I've respected most in the industry over the years -- Paul Newman, for instance. I just loved the way he handle
Parade / Today

Yes, our dear George Clooney is 50 years old, and while we (OK, I) think he's no worse for wear, Clooney says he can tell when he looks in the mirror that he's hit the half-century mark.

Parade / Today

"I look at myself on-screen and go, 'I don't look like I did when I was 40 -- I know that.' The people I've respected most in the industry over the years -- Paul Newman, for instance. I just loved the way he handled growing old on-screen," Clooney says in the new issue of Parade. "It's understanding that you're now basically a character actor."

Clooney is now qualified to receive a subscription to the AARP's magazine, which came as a stunning revelation. "I find that as you get older, you start to simplify things in general. By the time you get a subscription to AARP, which I just got, you have some idea of who your friends are, at least. [Getting the AARP subscription] shocked me -- 'Are you kidding?' [laughs] I told them they should do 'The Sexiest Man Still Alive,'" he said.

All of this is walk-up press to Clooney's new film, "Ides of March," which will be released Oct. 7. Clooney, who plays an inspirational presidential candidate in the movie, told Parade that project had to wait for political mood in America to be right before "Ides" could hit theaters. "We were in preproduction on this film in 2007, before the Obama election. And then we realized that a good portion of the country was elated with what happened in that election, so we had to shelve the movie until people were cynical again," he said. "I didn't think it would be quite this quick."

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