It's gong to be good!

Clooney rescues meaty Chuck Barris flick; Britney's beau smooched Destiny's Child front woman; Halle Berry sets mind, body free; and Lorraine Bracco can't fasten a bra!

Published June 27, 2001 7:23PM (EDT)

Get out your gonging shoes! George Clooney has a "Confession" to make.

It looks like the Chuck Barris biopic "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is a go after all. The movie, which is based on "The Gong Show" host's bizarre autobiography of the same name, has been rescued by none other than Mr. Clooney, who is said to l-o-v-e love the script, written by Charlie Kaufman of "Being John Malkovich" fame.

In fact, according to Variety, Clooney is set not only to star in the film, but also to make his directorial debut, with a little guidance from his Oscar-winning buddy Steven Soderbergh.

But don't go trying too hard to picture Clooney as the diminutive, yet feisty Barris; that role is expected to go to Johnny Depp. Clooney will play the CIA agent who hires the game-show host to go undercover as a hired assassin.

Yep, a hired assassin. It's all right there in his book.

I don't know about you, but I haven't been this excited about a film since ... um ... you know, I may never have been this excited about a film before.

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Um ... I thought you already did

"I wish I could bottle it and franchise it. I wish we were smart enough to market it and make a fortune off it."

-- Billy Baldwin on the interchangeable "Baldwin brothers" phenomenon, in the Toronto Sun.

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Lip Sync

Should Britney ask Justin to say her name?

Destiny's Child front woman Beyonci Knowles says she and Justin Timberlake made out at a party -- and that he's got quite a lip on him.

"He's adorable -- I am a big fan," Knowles said of the 'N Sync singer in the U.K. Sun. "He's a good kisser, too."

And she's not talking about no on-screen snog for no music video. Nuh-uh. This was 100 percent real life ... albeit some time ago.

"Don't get the wrong idea. It was once at a party," she insists. "He's doing his thing with Britney now."

Whatever his thing is ...

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All too briefs?

"I wear them once and throw them out. When you're on the road, you don't want to mix ... I'm just so used to throwing them out that I wouldn't even think of washing them."

-- Timberlake's band mate J.C. Chasez on why he never washes his socks or undies, in the teen mag J-14.

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Just don't convince him to make that sequel

If encouraging John Travolta's delusions were a crime, they'd lock the members of the Battlefield Earth Clan fan club up. But, alas, the British group will gather to pay tribute to the flick in the near future. And they'd really like Travolta to come join them.

"We've spoken to John's manager and we're awaiting a response," club spokeswoman Andrea Henry told Ananova.com. "I know the movie had bad press, but it really has become a cult piece of cinema in a few people's eyes."

Very, very few ...

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Freedom to bare arms ... and then some

"I had been afraid of doing nudity my whole career. But I realized that I was just afraid of what people would morally think of me doing nudity. Now that I've released myself from that, I feel free to use my body in any way a character calls for."

-- Halle Berry, who goes topless in "Swordfish," on how you haven't seen the last of her breasts, in Glamour.

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The doctor's hangin' loose

If you think Dr. Melfi was the only one suffering long-term damage from that "Sopranos" rape scene last season, think again.

The actress behind the psychiatrist, Lorraine Bracco, who presented new bras and panties to women benefiting from the "Dress for Success" program on Monday, confessed that she herself was unable to participate in the lingerie-wearing fun.

"I'm not wearing a bra!" Bracco confessed, according to USA Today.

No, she hasn't burned them. She simply can't move her arm around to snap them shut since she injured her shoulder during the violent scene.

"I can't do the twisty bra thing," she told the paper's Jeannie Williams.

I trust the producers of "The Sopranos" have given the injured actress their full support.

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Miss something? Read yesterday's Nothing Personal.


By Amy Reiter

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Celebrity George Clooney Johnny Depp