Say Hello to Hollywood: Woman Unmoved By Stars Till Clooney Says Hi

Apr 05, 03:32 PM

Current Headlines: By Kim Underwood, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Apr. 5--TOBACCOVILLE -- The list of George Clooney fans grew by one yesterday.

When Courtney Fontaine found out that Clooney would be shooting scenes for Leatherheads -- a movie about the early days of professional football that Clooney is directing and starring in -- right across from her house on Donnaha Road, she was unimpressed.

"I'm not really into pop culture that much," she said. "We have four kids.... I'm more worried about paying my mortgage than I am watching them make a movie."

But her three older sons -- Carter, 10, Chandler, 6, and Chase, 5 -- recognized a golden business opportunity. With help from their father, Chad, and Carter's friend Taylor Roberts, they dragged the family's picnic table out into the front yard and set up a lemonade stand.

"Lemonade, 25 cents," they wrote on a sheet of cardboard that Chandler had used for his science-fair project.

With it being spring break this week, Chad Fontaine was taking the day off work so he could look after the kids while his wife went to work at her shop, Used to Be New in King. With all the excitement, though, she ended up coming back home to help.

Set up on the railroad tracks across the road were two railroad passenger cars, along with two cars with generators and other support gear, plus a diesel locomotive at each end. The action was taking place inside the passenger cars while the locomotives rolled the cars up and down the track with the green fields on the far side serving as the background.

Early on, business at the lemonade stand was slow. But as the heat caught up with people, things picked up. When shooting broke for lunch, Clooney disappeared into a trailer. About 1:15 p.m., he came out of the trailer -- having traded in his 1920s attire for jeans and a T-shirt -- and crossed the road where he ordered a cup of the Fontaine's finest.

Clooney stuck around long enough to pose for photos with Courtney Fontaine and a couple of other women lucky enough to spot him slipping over and quick enough to scurry down before he returned to the set. Having stood next to the man who has been called the "sexiest man alive," Courtney Fontaine wasn't feeling so blase.

"I think I did get a little star struck," she said.

Courtney Fontaine offered the lemonade to Clooney on the house, but he insisted on paying and sent someone back with a $20 bill. Chandler mentioned more than once that Clooney's representative didn't want any change.

Another crew member gave them $5, and customers regularly told them to keep the change when giving them a dollar. So they cleaned up. And Carter didn't waste any time capitalizing on Clooney's business. He quickly made a sign that read, "George Clooney was here!" and planted it at the road.

Although Renee Zellweger also stars in the movie, Clooney was the clear draw. Of the dozens of people who came and went along Donnaha Road, far more were women and girls than men and boys. One woman, who thought it was best not to give her name because she had called in sick to work, said that she had come down with a bad case of "Clooneyitis."

Among the men, there was a running joke about Clooney's height.

"He's the short guy," said Kenneth L. Culler.

Culler's son, K.C., agreed. "He's short."

One man, Larry Shamel, said that he was there only because, after his wife called him at work, he decided she was having way too much fun. So he took off early to keep an eye on her. His wife, Betty Shamel, freely admitted to being gaga over Clooney. She was a member of a cluster of women and girls who spotted the back of Clooney's head inside a railroad car during a break and stood vigil at the edge of the road in hopes that he would turn and wave.

They waited for a good while. But their patience was finally rewarded. Afterward, Betty Shamel said she was reminded of the song "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You." With Clooney, she said, God worked overtime.

The moments when Clooney waved to fans were few and far between. Most of the time, people were just there passing the time. An hour or two after that first wave from Clooney, fans were rewarded with a second one as he walked from the train car to his trailer.

"Dog, girl!" Deborah Prim said to Shirley Sizemore and Sizemore's granddaughter, Katelyn Blackwood. "I ain't going to be right for months."

--Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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