Nick's writes about the many family birthdays in the month of May. Here's what he has to say about George's recent birthday.

• Our son George's birthday is only four days later on May 6th. He is buried in work, so it wasn't possible for us to throw him a party. Also, I was scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the University of Kentucky on the 6th, so Nina and I flew to North Carolina, to his film location, so we could have a scaled-down celebration. This has been one of the longest "shoots" of George's career. He and his crew have been in the Carolinas since the middle of January, and it isn't over yet. He will still be filming for another week or two.  Perhaps some of you have heard about this movie. It is called "Leatherheads" and deals with the earliest days of the National Football League. This latest version was written by George, and he is also the director and the star, which accounts for his 14-hour days. His co-star is Renee Zellweger. It's a great story from the days when college football ruled the roost and savvy promoters stole college stars, like Jim Thorpe and Red Grange, and jump-started the pro game.  You should see George in a 1920s football outfit after experts cake real mud all ever him. Quite a sight. We pulled him away and cleaned him up for a birthday dinner at a nice restaurant in Winston-Salem. Like Ada's gathering, there were many laughs and much fun.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 6, 2007) - The University of Kentucky today recognized a record number of candidates for undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees, at its 140th Commencement in Lexington Center's Rupp Arena.  The event honored more than 6,300 students who completed their degrees in May 2007, December 2006 and August 2006.

Broadcast journalist and Kentuckian Nick Clooney addressed the graduating class, telling the group "don't be afraid to challenge with an open mind what you think you know, but hold tenaciously to the knowledge what survives the challenge."

He told the graduates they are an important part of Kentucky and its place in the world.  "None of this could have happened, and none of it will ultimately succeed, unless Kentucky's intellectual centers – pre-eminently the University of Kentucky – continue to raise the bar for what we expect from ourselves," Clooney said. "The energy released here will ripple through our communities, our Commonwealth and our nation for years to come."

Clooney said he "knew" a lot as a young man, but now finds it easy to understand what his paternal grandfather, a former Maysville mayor, meant when he said: "It ain't what you don't know that hurts you. It's what you know that ain't so."

Clooney, 73, a retired Cincinnati television newsman and a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, was the guest speaker at UK's 140th commencement, held at Rupp Arena.

KENTUCKY WRITER'S DAY 2007 

Nina Clooney thinks doing many different things at once is normal, which is why she and husband Nick have racked up enough frequent flyer miles to keep them in the air for the next 20 years, while traveling for work, pleasure and family events. When not in the air, Nina has rehabbed three houses with plans to do four more; run an antique store for ten years, served on the Augusta, Kentucky City Council; handled Nick's bookings and attended personal appearances with him; received a design patent for a new type of bag for carry-out food; designed a park in Augusta and worked in television. Nina presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Maysville Community College and a proposed outdoor drama theatre near Augusta, Kentucky. Nina is married to Nick Clooney, a radio and TV personality, television newsman and writer. She is the mother of two children. Her daughter, Adelia Zeidler is a merit scholar and accountant who is also the mother of Nina's grandchildren, Allison and Nickie Zeidler. Nina's younger son is George Clooney, an award-winning actor and producer. Nina will be reading from her new book And His Lovely Wife Nina. Friday April 20, Saturday April 21, Sunday, April 22, 2007 (Thanks to Tammy for reporting this on CNCP Forum)

Nick's latest columns are Political fortunes are being reversed and Solomons were key to victory in WWII  Click titles to read.

A Rosemary Clooney biopic?

If George Clooney is planning a movie about his famous Aunt Rosemary, he hasn’t told his family. “He’s said nothing about a Rosemary project. I think he would have mentioned it,” says Nick Clooney, his father and Rosemary’s brother. In Touch magazine says George Clooney and actress Reese Witherspoon discussed a Rosemary Clooney film over dinner last month in suburban Los Angeles. “There is talk of a movie about George’s aunt, the singer and actress Rosemary Clooney, and Reese (who won an Oscar for playing June Carter) has expressed interested in it,” the magazine quotes “an insider” in the Feb. 26 edition. The “insider” also speculates that George was romantically interested in Witherspoon, who separated from her husband in October. Nick says her read a rumor last fall in an email about a possible biographical movie about his sister, who died in 2002 at age 74. Nick called Rosemary’s son, actor Miguel Ferrer, who had not heard about it. Nick says he has not spoken in the past week to George, who is in South Carolina directing “Leatherheads,” a feature film about 1920s football with John Krasinki, Stephen Root and Renee Zellweger. Rosemary’s story already has been told on film. Sondra? Locke starred in the 1982 TV movie, “Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story.” The Maysville native began singing on WLW-AM in 1945. She had several hit songs, her own TV series and co-starred in “White Christmas” in the 1950s. She rebounded from drug addiction and mental health problems in the 1960s to tour with Bing Crosby in the 1970s and record many jazz albums. After George dropped out of Northern Kentucky University, he moved to Los Angeles in 1982 and lived for a year with his aunt while trying to establish a show business career. (The Cincinnati Enquirer)

Northern Kentucky getting its day in sun

Column by Nick Clooney

Northern Kentucky had better prepare for an avalanche of attention. Since the region is not at all used to it, the people had better get ready so they do not react inappropriately. May I suggest a calm demeanor? Let the focus settle over you as if it were the most natural thing in the world. As if it were only your due. Of course, we in Northern Kentucky believe the opposite is true. For a couple of hundred years, in good times and bad, Northern Kentucky has stuck out like a sore thumb on the map, neither fish nor fowl nor good red herring. Read more at The Cincinnati Post

'Back on cable TV expounding on movies'.
Column by Nick Clooney

"Nick, did I see you on a movie channel a week or two ago? Are you going to host movies again?" - Mike Petrie, Cincinnati.

Yes and no, Mike. The cable channel is called REELZ and it is headquartered in Los Angeles. It deals with movies 24 hours a day, but I am not a host. Instead, I'll be presenting some brief segments based on a book I wrote a couple of years ago called "Movies That Changed Us". Actually, this is just another example of how a brief encounter can resonate for a long time. Fifteen years ago, I was close to signing on as one of the news anchors for WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. For reasons that are too complicated to go into, the connection didn't occur. (Read More at The Cincinnati Post)

Inclement weather no match for maestro 

It's been a long time since we have been in a deep freeze like this, hasn't it? Day after day of sub-freezing temperatures, often in single digits, takes some getting used to in the Ohio Valley. When Nina and I were invited to a Cincinnati Pops concert over the weekend, we piled on layer after layer of clothes and tried to remember the last time we had a protracted cold spell. This newspaper, several TV stations and various blogs and Web sites have listed chapter and verse on cold snaps, but the most recent that came to our minds was 1994, just about this time of year. That one was considerably more inconvenient for those of us trying to get around, because it began with a foot of snow which then froze rock hard. Read More at The Cincinnati Post

The surge may work for a while

Column by Nick Clooney

The increase in troops in Baghdad is, apparently, underway. Will it work? No one knows. Everyone has an opinion. If recent history is any indicator, the answer is yes, it will work - for a while.

Watching the confirmation hearings for our new top soldiers in Iraq, we learned that there have been several injections of extra American troops in Baghdad in the last couple of years. I didn't know that. The only one I remember is that of last summer. It came with quite a bit of fanfare. The increase was 8,000 American troops. There was also supposed to be a large infusion of Iraqi troops but, according to reports at the time, not all the Iraqis who were ordered to the capital actually deployed.

Melissa, blankets comfort refugees

Column by Nick Clooney 
 

"Nick. It's Melissa."  Melissa Winkler, our pal from the International Rescue Committee. She went with our small group to Africa last spring.  "Melissa. Great to hear from you. Where are you, New York?"

"No. Chad. Bahai. You know, near the camp. Ooh, that is a very big bug. A beetle, I guess, but I've never seen one.... Let me move to another spot."

Look it up: The 'best minds' are often wrong

Column by Nick Clooney  
 
It is time - and past time - that we in this country have a serious national debate over what will happen when our combat troops leave Iraq, what we should do about it, and when.  Right now, we are letting others do our thinking for us and accepting their conclusions as if they had the key to all wisdom. They don't.

The real state of the union

Column by Nick Clooney 

We have heard the State of the Union speech. We have heard the Democrats' response. We have heard or read the pundits' opinions of the speech - some of them even before President Bush spoke.

I have no quarrel with any of that. We have always had a free-wheeling cauldron of ideas. That's the whole point of a democracy.

Romance blossomed at the Alms

This will wrap up your recollections of the Alms and other long-gone Cincinnati hotels.

Neal Slageter remembers a simpler time, June 28th, 1947, when he and Rita were married.  "We had our reception at the Kemper Lane Hotel a few blocks from the Alms. We made reservations at the Alms and walked there for our first night of married life."

Readers recollect fun times at the Alms

Column by Nick Clooney

We received a great response to the column asking for memories of the old Alms Hotel. We'll send all of them to Linda Clark in Bandana, Ky., so she can organize a retrospective for her aunt, who once worked there.

These are the basics. The hotel was built by Frederick Alms, officially opened in 1891. There was one addition in 1898 and another in 1924. It had everything - classy restaurants and lounges, swimming pool, garden, an arcade with many shops, the WKRC radio studios. One of the hotel buildings has been demolished, but the remaining complex is now low-income housing.

Now, for some personal recollections:

Nick Clooney urges Lexington Catholic students to do something about Darfur
By Raviya H. Ismail
HERALD-LEADER EDUCATION WRITER 

Speaking to about 200 students at Lexington Catholic High School on Thursday, Nick Clooney implored them to get involved in stopping the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. He encouraged them to contact their representatives in Congress. "But don't call them once. Bug them," Clooney said. He then asked what the students were doing for Darfur. The former Cincinnati television news anchor and his son, actor and director George Clooney, visited the region for five days in April. A group of Lexington students contacted Nick Clooney in September and asked him to talk about the issue at their school. "It was going to take someone very influential to get their attention," said one of the students, Michelle Payne, 17, a senior. Clooney said Lexington Catholic was the 48th university or school at which he has spoken about Darfur. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in the conflict between Africans and Arabs in the Darfur region. (kentucky.com)