Sarah Larson: How I met George Clooney

Couple first set eyes on each other in Las Vegas three or four years ago

Saturday, 12 April 2008

From cocktail waitress to A-list girlfriend – Sarah Larson is living the dream.

Now the former Fear Factor winner is opening up about how she snagged George Clooney, one of the planet's most eligible bachelors.

Although it's been widely reported that the two met at the June 2007 Ocean's Thirteen premiere at the Palms Casino Resort on Las Vegas, she says they actually met much earlier.

"It was on his birthday three or four years ago at Whiskey at [Vegas's] Green Valley Ranch," Larson says, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

The actor was with a group of pals, including Whiskey Bar owner Rande Gerber (Cindy Crawford's husband). "I was with some friends. We were all dancing, taking pictures, being silly."

At the time, Larson worked as a cocktail server at the venue – but she was dating someone else.

Then, when Clooney arrived in Vegas for the Ocean premiere last summer, "he heard I was working at Moon [nightclub]." The actor tracked her down, she says, and "we hung out." A month later, he invited her to go to Italy.

As their one-year anniversary approaches, Clooney and Larson can certainly look back on a very eventful year.

They've survived a motorcycle crash. They've ruled the red carpet at film festivals and the Academy Awards. And, the Review Journal reports, she's even met his parents.

Next up for the couple? Clooney, who turns 47 next month, will whisk Larson away for a vacation at his Italian villa.

It's a trip, she said, that could help her burgeoning modeling career. (The 28-year-old recently strutted her stuff in a swimsuit in an Ashley Paige fashion show. She also modeled a Pucci gown – and $500,00 worth of diamonds – in Los Angeles this week.) "We'll be in Como," she says, "which isn't that far from Milano."

The Leatherheads star is very supportive of her career, she added.

"Your boyfriend better be," she noted. "If they aren't, you gotta kick 'em in the butt and walk away."

By Caris Davis