Arts: How Pitt and Clooney Became Our Newman and Redford

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Brow Beat How Pitt and Clooney Became Our Newman and Redford By David Haglund Posted Wednesday, Feb 22, 2012, at 02:13 PM ET One of the many annoying things about The Artist's apparent march to Oscar gold—not only in the best picture category, supposedly, but, if you follow the prognosticators, best actor, best score, and maybe a few others, too—is that it has thwarted a showdown that fans of American movies and watercooler debate deserve: Brad Pitt vs. George Clooney, for all the marbles. Instead we've got Clooney vs. Dujardin, or so they say—and that just isn't as fun. Clooney and Pitt have of course been twinned in the minds of the movie-going public since Ocean's Eleven (though they became actorly rivals even earlier: Clooney was the runner-up for Pitt's breakout role, J.D. in Thelma & Louise). A review of the sequel compared the pair to Newman and Redford—and if you follow Google to chat rooms and comment threads across the Internet, you'll see the analogy pop up more than a few times. It's an imperfect analogy for any number of reasons—first and foremost, there is only one Paul Newman, obviously—but it's a useful one for pointing out how the general perception of Clooney and Pitt as actors has become thoroughly warped. Clooney, it should be perfectly clear (and yet somehow is not, if those comment threads and chat rooms are any indication) is Redford. Pitt—well, like I said, there's only one Paul Newman. But Pitt is much more like Newman than Clooney is. George Clooney is ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Spitzer: Why Romney Is Collapsing If an Illegal Immigrant Gay-Marries an American, Does He Become a Citizen? "Between You and I": A Grammar Mistake That Just Won't Die	Advertisement
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