George Clooney to receive Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion

George Clooney’s long relationship with Venice will culminate in a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on the festival’s opening day.

The actor first attended the Venice Film Festival nearly 30 years ago with “Out of Sight,” Steven Soderbergh’s adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel. He was 37 at the time and appeared at the festival alongside Jennifer Lopez. The following February, he left the television series “ER.”

Venice has hosted several important moments in Clooney’s career. “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which he directed, earned him his first Oscar nomination for best director. His films “Intolerable Cruelty,” “The Dreamers,” and “Jay Kelly” have also featured in the festival’s story around him.

Clooney has become a familiar presence in Italy. He owns a 15-bedroom villa near Lake Como, which appeared in “Ocean’s Twelve,” and married at the Aman Venice. His Italian home has also attracted paparazzi, adding to his unusual prominence in the country despite being born in Kentucky, not speaking Italian, and spending only summers there, according to a Vanity Fair profile cited in the piece.

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That an affable, self-effacing Kentucky-born Hollywood actor is fast becoming the most popular public figure in Italy says a little about Italy and a lot about Clooney, who isn’t Italian, doesn’t speak Italian, and lives here only in summertime.