Kelly Preston

Clooney lived with Preston in 1988, when they were both young actors in LA. He bought her a potbellied pay named Max, who became his longtime (and famous) pet when they broke up. So far, so equal.

Talia Balsam

They married in Vegas in 1989, just a few months after Clooney's breakup with Preston. That year, he was in Red Surf and she was in Trust Me. Trust Me actually has 5.3 stars on IMDb, while Red Surf has a dismal 3.6, so by that measure she was actually doing better than him. They divorced in 1993.

Celine Balitran

This French waitress/law-student was 23 when she and Clooney got together in 1996 (he was 35). Clooney was building his career with movies like From Dusk Till Dawn, One Fine Day, and The Peacemaker. It's unclear if she finished her law studies when she moved to LA to be with him, but IMDb now lists her occupation as "model." She may mark the beginning — at least, that we know of, of Clooney's predilection for the waitress, model, and waitress/model. At least one (kind of questionable) source reports they were engaged. They split in 1999 — she broke up with him.

Lisa Snowdon

Snowdon and Clooney dated on and off from 2000 to 2005. Her career included modeling for Maxim, FHM, Esquire, and GQ. She also hosted the show LA Pool Party. It's worth noting that Clooney's post-Balsam girlfriends generally haven't been famous enough to be interviewed, except in the context of being with Clooney. As a result, we have no idea whether they're smart — only that their careers are nonthreatening and usually involve hotness.

Krista Allen

Allen met Clooney in 2002 and dated him until 2004, perhaps during a "off" period with Snowdon. According to IMDb, "She is also very excited about her new t-shirt line SuperEXellent."

Renee Zellwegger

They dated in 2001, but very briefly, and may have dated again in 2006. Maybe she was too famous for him?

Sarah Larson

A cocktail waitress, dancer, and former Fear Factor contestant, Sarah Larson famously started dating Clooney in 2007. He took her to the Academy Awards, for him an unprecedented commitmenty step. While dating him, she tried to launch a modeling career, of which she said Clooney was supportive. "Your boyfriend better be," she told People. "If they aren't, you gotta kick 'em in the butt and walk away." He broke up with her in 2008.

Elisabetta Canalis

Which brings us to his current girlfriend. Aged 30, she reminds us that while Clooney likes them young, he doesn't always like them so young that cradle-robbing seems like his only motivation. Rather, ever since his marriage, he seems to go for women with undemanding and (at least compared to him) unimpressive jobs in the sexiness professions. Canalis, with her current gig hosting Italian Total Request Live and her "very minor role" in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, is no exception.

Is it wrong to be annoyed that Clooney, a seemingly cerebral actor with risky movie choices and a reputation for international advocacy and interest in politics and policy, seems to date women known mainly for their ability to pose and serve drinks (Lucy Wolvert, whom he reportedly dated for a few months this year, brings his cocktail waitress total to at least three)? In a way it is, because for all we know, these women could all be awesome. At the same time, it's hard not to see Clooney as a powerful guy who pointedly avoids dating powerful women. And that, especially if you like both George Clooney and power, is kind of depressing.

George Clooney's Piece O' The Moment? [Dlisted]

According to Nicole Hess, who authored the study, participants were more likely to trash talk competitors when raises or promotions were at stake. The trash talking was lowered, however, when the competitor had an "ally" in the company, as having a friend "in the know" helps targets of gossip thwart vicious attacks. Both sexes gossip equally, says Hess, but according to Kate Wong of Scientific American, "women more often than men find themselves in situations in which gossiping pays off."

In other words, having a friend at work can help you fight off vicious rumors and attempts to destroy your reputation. It's hard for your competitors to tear you down when there are friendly voices refuting the misinformation they're attempting to spread. Unless you're friends with Regina George, and then you should probably start looking for another job. Especially if your job entails trying to make "fetch" happen. It's NOT going to happen.

Pssst: Gossip Hurts—But Friends Can Protect You From The Worst Of It [Scientific American]

Candy starts her article in the Daily Mail with the somewhat disturbing claim that, as the editor of a women's magazine, she knows all about young women, "from what they wear to who they want to date" (if that's true, I apparently enjoy putting candle wax in my boyfriend's anus and slapping ruching on everything to give myself a bust). Then she says that today's thirtysomething women "are happiness hunters; they have abandoned career ambition and decided to choose love over work, contentment above the stress of success, marriage and kids above jobs, friends above status."

First of all, like so many articles about opting out, balancing family and career, and the like, this ignores the many women who have to work at jobs that are not necessarily high-powered careers, and don't really have a choice between friends and status. Secondly, the idea that career is about drudgery, dues-paying, and obligation while true happiness comes only from family and friends is kind of a strange one coming from Candy. Why did she and her 40-something friends bother "climbing the career ladder" if it didn't make them, in some way, happy? This is an article about women with the luxury of choosing between a fun personal life and an intellectually demanding job — is she really saying only one of those choices is fulfilling?

It's also not true that everyone has to choose. Candy acknowledges that the 30-year-olds she talks to don't "believe a woman's place is with her babies or her boyfriend" — they just want a balance between family and career. And she points out that women her age may have been afraid to ask for such a balance. She says, "I didn't tell my bosses that I was pregnant until I was nearly five months gone, so worried was I about the response." She and other women her age and older "have probably paved the way" for younger women to ask for reasonable hours, family leave, and the like. Candy and those who came before her proved something that shouldn't need proving — that women can work just as hard and well as men. If women truly feel that they don't have to prove that anymore (and unfortunately, we doubt that this is always true), it doesn't necessarily mean their priorities are different from those of women before them — it just means they feel more comfortable expressing them.

So there's really nothing strange about the 30-something "happiness hunters" Candy describes. Everybody wants happiness. And the freedom to balance work and family is good for everyone, even if you pick work. We should be striving to make this freedom available to more women — and men too. When people get a little flexibility in their lives, we shouldn't be surprised when they exercise it — and we shouldn't assume that their desire to take a day off means they only care about love.

Why I envy Generation Me who choose love over career - and children above status [Daily Mail]

photo by Ben Lister for the Daily Mail

Anyway, psychologist Ellen Klosson says, "Women have been aware of the time pressure to establish themselves in a career before starting a family, because of the difficulty of starting this task in their thirties and forties. I think what we are seeing in this study is the solidification of this trend." Yeah, no shit. But isn't it interesting to think — that despite the Kardashians, Paris Hilton and Bratz — a young generation of girls don't see their boyfriends as the only thing in their futures?

Young Women Choosing Careers Over Love [CNN]

A "lifestyle divide", in which women take on the burden of domestic duties, creates a vicious circle as they are then less able to work the long hours needed to win top jobs. They then earn less and are reinforced as responsible for household tasks, says the Europe-wide research.

Ms. Harris commented on an L.A. Times article ("Moms Over 40 A Risky Trend," by Mary Engel), writing: "This story (along with others like it) also misses a broader cultural point. 'Their 40s just seemed to sneak up on them,' Engel writes. Right. But doesn't that happen to lots of us these days — especially as our 20s have become the time to NOT settle down? Isn't everything happening later, including old age?... Every decade is 'the new' previous decade."

What are we supposed to do in a world where women can dream of "having it all" and instead find themselves doing it all?

Career Women Work Longer Hours Than Men [Telegraph]
Childcare Locks Women Into Lower-Paid Jobs [Guardian]
"Their 40s Just Seemed To Sneak Up On Them" [Salon]
Related: Moms Over 40 A Risky Trend [LA Times]