In the midst of promoting his new film Jay Kelly, due for release via Netflix on December 5, George Clooney was asked about the headline-making jewel heist at the Louvre museum last Sunday. Investigations continue into the reportedly seven-minute theft of a number of historic jewels snatched from the Apollon gallery at the opening of the institution, sparking a heated debate about the security measures and resources in place to protect these jewels of French history. Among them: a diamond bodice knot belonging to Empress Eugénie, an emerald set given by Napoleon to his second wife Marie-Louise, and a sapphire and diamond diadem worn by Queens Hortense, Marie-Amélie and Isabelle d’Orléans. Estimated loss: 88 million euros (or more than 102 million in U.S. dollars).
This almost implausible crime had all the trappings of a fantastical fictional tale, in the tradition of the great burglary stories that have permeated popular culture for decades. And who better to speak to the fictional parallels than Clooney? In Ocean’s Eleven (2002), he played Danny Ocean, a burglar just out of prison who assembles a crack team to pull off a new heist in a Las Vegas casino. After two sequels, a spin-off (Ocean’s Eight in 2018) and a future prequel starring Bradley Cooper and Margot Robbie, Ocean’s Fourteen is still in the works. While walking the red carpet at Jay Kelly’s Los Angeles premiere on October 23, Clooney was asked if the Louvre Museum theft would be included in the script.
“We should rob the Louvre [in the film],” Clooney gamely replied when asked by Variety about incorporating the real-world heist into the next Ocean’s movie. “But somebody’s already done it, man, I don’t know. You know what we’re gonna do? We’re gonna rob Adam Sandler,” Clooney joked, referring to his on-screen partner in writer-director Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly. Clooney plays an introspective movie star and Sandler, his devoted manager.
Clooney went on to say that the upcoming Ocean’s script is in “great shape” with only scheduling for the production to be determined. “I wonder if they’re gonna catch these guys,” he continued. “They seem to have done a pretty good job of getting away with it. It was cool. It’s terrible,” Clooney hastened to add, “but, if you’re a professional thief like I am, I was very proud of those guys…” he added with a grin. “In the middle of broad daylight, it’s crazy.”
Entertainment Tonight also asked Clooney about the Louvre robbery. “I’m the culprit,” laughed the actor. As for whether or not there could be a direct reference to the museum in the next Ocean’s movie, in which Robbie and Cooper will play Clooney ’s character’s parents, he replied, “They should use CGI [computer-generated imagery] and put us in that basket coming down from the Louvre.”
Originally published in Vanity Fair France
