Newlywed screen icon George Clooney thrilled the crowd at New York Comic-Con Thursday by joining the last few minutes of a panel discussion about his upcoming science-fiction film Tomorrowland.
While director Brad Bird, producer Damon Lindelof and the movie's stars Raffey Cassidy and Britt Robertson tried to avoid giving away too many plot details about the eagerly awaited picture during the event, Hugh Laurie was happy to joke about his initially absent castmate Clooney.
"I'm glad he's actually not present at the moment because it frees me up to say one or two things about George Clooney, who has constructed, painstakingly, this image of the good guy, the nice guy, everyone's friend, a chivalrous saint. Well, there's been no mention of the drinking. There has been no mention of the shouting; the ceaseless shouting! Lying about his age. He's 75, if he's a day," Laurie quipped, as Clooney arrived on-stage behind him and the thousands of people in the Javits Center auditorium cheered and clapped.
"It is not lost on me that I am spending my honeymoon at Comic-Con," said Clooney, who married human-rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in Italy late last month.
The panel's moderator Chris Hardwick then chimed in: "Was that a conversation with the wife? Were you like, 'We're going to Comic-Con!'"
"Yes, she was as confused as Hugh was," Clooney played along. "It's good to see you all. I was backstage so I couldn't hear, but if you guys need to know anything about the plot, just ask me. Everybody dies in the end. ... Quick question because I was backstage and I was watching the teaser trailer that we all just saw for the first time. What the hell? That's it? We worked on this thing for a year and a half and that's it?"
"Is this your first Comic-Con?" Hardwick wanted to know.
"Yes, on top of it being my honeymoon," Clooney replied. "Since my Batman [movie in 1997,] I was disinvited from Comic-Con. ... I met Adam West back there just now. I said, 'I'm really sorry.' He gave me a fist-bump and I was like: 'Just hit me. Just hit me. Sorry about the nipples on the [bat]suit.'"
Clooney went on to say Bird had "a real vision of the film he wanted to make" with Tomorrowland and working with Laurie, in particular, was loads of fun.
"Hugh and I got to get in trouble in the Bahamas; that was fun -- two former television doctors," he said, referring to his work on ER and Laurie's performance in House. "We got to see the world, we got to work with really fun people."
He then talked Lindelof into showing the audience a second clip from the film, which is due in theaters May 22.