George Clooney has had to scale back his promotional activities at this year’s Venice International Film Festival for his new movie, “Jay Kelly.”
After arriving in Venice earlier this week, the actor missed the festival’s “Jay Kelly” press conference early Thursday. The festival moderator told attendees Clooney’s absence was due to a “bad sinus infection” and that the star was “very sorry” he could not be there. “Jay Kelly” writer-director Noah Baumbach, for his part, noted with a laugh, “Even movie stars get sick!”
The conference’s moderator also told attendees that Clooney “should” still be able to make an appearance at the film’s red carpet world premiere Thursday night.
Baumbach was joined at the press conference by several of Clooney’s “Jay Kelly” co-stars — namely, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Emily Mortimer. The film, which Baumbach co-wrote with Mortimer, also stars Riley Keough, Grace Edwards, Stacy Keach, Jim Broadbent, Patrick Wilson, Eve Hewson and Greta Gerwig, among others.
Baumbach’s first feature directorial effort since 2022’s “White Noise,” “Jay Kelly” follows its eponymous, fictional movie star (Clooney) as he embarks on an unexpected, profound journey through Europe with his longtime manager (Sandler). Over the course of their trip, the two men are forced to reckon with the choices they’ve made, their personal relationships and the legacies they have each built for themselves.
Clooney is a Venice Film Festival veteran. He was, in fact, at the festival just last year to celebrate alongside Brad Pitt for the premiere of their Jon Watts-directed crime comedy “Wolfs.”
Netflix, meanwhile, has three movies premiering at Venice this year: Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.”
Following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, “Jay Kelly” will be released in select theaters by Netflix on Nov. 14, before premiering on the streamer on Dec. 5.
