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They say it’s good to know people, and it’s nice to have friends in high places and all of that, but I don’t think that most of us – no matter how great or rich our friends are – expect them to gift us substantial amounts of cash, no strings attached.
Money does weird things to relationships, after all, a fact that people like George Clooney – who have a ton of it – know all too well.
Even so, he decided to gift 14 of his closest friends $1M apiece just because they’d always been there for him, supporting him before he hit the big time.
https://twitter.com/GQMagazine/status/1328701083129143296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1328701083129143296%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.complex.com%2Fpop-culture%2F2020%2F11%2Fgeorge-clooney-explains-why-1-million-gift-friends
He confirmed the gifts to GQ reporter Zach Baron.
“I just thought basically if I get hit by a bus, they’re all in the will. So why the f–k am I waiting to get hit by a bus?”
It turns out that gifting people a million bucks in cash isn’t a simple, task, either. There was the logistics of finding banks with the cash on hand, and then taking preventative measures to be sure they weren’t robbed in the process.
“I packed in a million bucks, cash, which isn’t as much as you think it is, weight-wise, into these Tumi bags.”
They drove the money around in a van made to look like it belonged to a florist, only telling an assistant and “a couple of security guys that were sh–ting themselves.”
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
These 14 people are some of Clooney’s closest friends, and have been for decades.
“I just held up a map and I just pointed to all the places I got to go in the world and all the things I’ve gotten to see because of them. And I said, ‘How do you repay people like that?’ And I said, ‘Oh, well: How about a million bucks?'”
At the time he was still a bachelor, but it doesn’t seem like he would make a different decision now.
“I was a single guy. All of us were aging. I was 52 or something. And most of my friends are older than me. And I thought, what I do have are these guys…I’ve slept on their couches when I was broke. They loaned me money when I was broke. They helped me when I needed help over the years. And I thought, you know, without them I don’t have any of this.”
People on social media had some thoughts on the story – the biggest one being that it sure would stink to have been George Clooney’s 15th closest friend.
https://twitter.com/yoyoha/status/1328920354228752390?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1328920354228752390%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.complex.com%2Fpop-culture%2F2020%2F11%2Fgeorge-clooney-explains-why-1-million-gift-friends
Then there’s the thought that wow, maybe the story here is actually that he’s in his fifties and has 14 friends? How?
https://twitter.com/nuffsaidny/status/1329051294640824320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1329051294640824320%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.complex.com%2Fpop-culture%2F2020%2F11%2Fgeorge-clooney-explains-why-1-million-gift-friends
And yeah. I hope he doesn’t HAVE a 15th friend. Otherwise, that would be awkward.
Wouldn’t it be a great day to be able to gift something like this to your friends?
Also, it would be pretty nice not to miss $14M bucks.
I’m just saying.
