Yeah, that might have a little something to do with the fact that the director is showing up on Wednesday night to do a Q&A with Peter Travers afterwards. Some dude named Clooney.

First Sean Penn and Michael Douglass came to support the little theater that could. Then Tom Cruise. Now this? Travers ain’t messing around!

From what I gather from the Picture House’s website, the fundraiser screening, taking place this Wednesday, must have sold out in a matter of minutes (as did the Cruise one I went to a few months back). Never mind the $125 ticket price.

I don’t know what the chance is of us getting a media pass (first dibs usually go to The Journal News film reporter, Kevin Canfield, who broke the Clooney story). Me, I’m just happy that we finally get to christen our first series of George Clooney posts. And here I thought Gawker was the only celebrity site in the Tri-State region that had the good fortune to stalk—and then get stalked by—King George.

Never mind that, according to Joel Stein’s rankings of the Time 100 Most Influential People, Clooney only comes in as the No. 29 (sandwiched between Britney Spears and Muqtada al-Sadr), I still consider him to be at least ahead of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (No. 10 on Stein’s list). Besides, wasn’t it Stein himself who proclaimed Clooney “The Last Movie Star”—and got a courtesy dinner date out of the man? You’d figure that, at the very least, would have given the man a bump in the ratings.

Anyway, back to the Pelham event. Canfield reports that, considering that the film has taken in a less-than-impressive $30 million at the box office, Travers isn’t going to lob out softball questions for Clooney. “I would ask him, I think, right away why the public didn’t embrace the movie we just watched, what he thinks about it and does he feel defensive about it?” Travers said, adding:

“But the conversation we’re having is much more than ‘Leatherheads.’ It’ll be about ‘Burn After Reading,’ the movie he made with the Coen brothers that will open in September; about his style of directing; and how he feels as a celebrity having political ideas and opinions, how it hurts or it doesn’t hurt him.

“The idea is to just talk to filmmakers who have a stake, not just in the particular movie they made but in how movies will get made in the future.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t mind if, in the future, more movies banked on the $125-a-ticket model. Especially limited-appeal stuff like documentaries about Darfur. Just so long as a I’m guaranteed a Clooney at every screening—or, for $45 less, a Clooney impersonator or Muqtada al-Sadr—I’m happy.

“Captain Clooney comes to Pelham” [LoHud]

(Photo: Nathan Strange/The Associated Press)