Celebrity prank wars can be so much fun to witness, and George Clooney and Brad Pitt have one of the most infamous ones. While Clooney, in particular, is well-known for sending fake letters from other celebrities, both of the Ocean’s Eleven stars have done some pretty diabolical things to each other. So where did the whole war start? Let’s dive into the inciting prank between these “forever friends” and the stories behind some of the other stunts they’ve pulled.
George Clooney’s First Prank On Brad Pitt Involved A Pot Leaf Bumper Sticker
George Clooney appeared on a segment of The Graham Norton Show ahead of the release of his upcoming Netflix movie Jay Kelly, which hit the 2025 movie calendar on November 14 for a short theatrical run. When asked about the prank war between the Wolfs stars, Clooney admitted that they’ve done “terrible things” to each other, and he thinks it all started when they were filming Ocean’s Eleven. He recalled:
One of my favorite things is to get those things that go around your license plate or a bumper sticker — because you never go to the back of your car and look — and put it on people’s cars, because it’s funny and they can ride around with some horrible, embarrassing bumper sticker.
He makes a good point that the back of one’s vehicle is a vulnerable spot, but this should serve as a warning to all of George Clooney’s future co-stars. So what did he do to Brad Pitt’s car? He continued:
I found a bumper sticker in the shape of a pot plant that said, ‘Fuck cops.’ I put it on the back of his car, because I figured there’s no way you don’t get pulled over. There’s no way! And he got pulled over.
I can only imagine how that conversation between Brad Pitt and the responding officer went down. However, that’s certainly not the only fun the Up in the Air star has had at Pitt’s expense.
George Clooney Sent Meryl Streep A Gift ‘From Brad Pitt’ Ahead of The Iron Lady
It sounds like Jimmy Kimmel is actually to blame for some of these antics, as the late-night host has said he’s the one who gifted George Clooney stationery with Brad Pitt’s name at the top. That resulted in quite a few celebrities getting fake letters from the Fight Club actor, including Meryl Streep ahead of her Academy Award-winning role in The Iron Lady. Clooney told Graham Norton:
I sent Meryl Streep a letter from Brad, where I got a big thing of CDs that had, it was a dialect coach. He had, like, every dialect, you know, Gaelic, Yiddish, every dialect in this huge thing, and I sent it to her with a note from Brad that said, ‘I hear you’re going to be doing The Iron Lady soon. This guy helped me with my dialect in Troy. I thought maybe this would help.’ I sent it to Meryl, and you know, she’s very confused.
If one is going to dish out the pranks, however, one should be prepared to get them in return, and Brad Pitt got retribution when the Ocean’s Twelve cast traveled to Italy for filming.
As George Clooney has told it, his co-star sent a memo to the movie crew and residents of Lake Como, the Italian town where Clooney has had a house for decades, saying the actor requested that no one look him in the eye and that they only address him as “Mr. Clooney” or “Mr. Ocean.” When he realized what Pitt had done, Matt Damon said Clooney was “the maddest I’ve ever seen him.”
Expect More Pranks Between These Two In The Future
One of the more brilliant (and terrible) things about George Clooney’s tricks is that he doesn’t reveal his hand for a year or two later, he said. In fact, he’s currently got one in the works, and he indicated that we’ll all know when the jig is up, saying:
I’m doing one now that I can’t tell you about, but in a year you’re going to hear that I’ve been arrested. And I’m not kidding, because I think I’ve crossed the line.
Well he certainly knows how to leave us wanting more! While we wait for George Clooney’s apparent arrest (I hope he actually is joking about that), you can catch him in Jay Kelly in theaters now, or wait until Friday, December 5, when it can be streamed with your Netflix subscription.