China sexier over the weekend, now less so

That's right, the reigning "Sexiest Man Alive" (according to one US magazine) was in Beijing over the weekend trying to persuade unnamed Chinese officials to help put a stop to the ongoing violence in Sudan's Darfur region (China is a major trade partner of Sudan — oil — and has been opposed to forcing UN peacekeepers on the African nation). Clooney is traveling with a posse, let's call them Clooney's Four: Actor Don Cheadle, Kenyan Olympian Tegla Loroupe, American speed skater and Olympic gold medal winner Joey Cheek and David Pressman, a human rights lawyer and former aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Some called this a "secret mission," the low-profile no doubt an effort to stave off the relentless swarms of paparazzi and groupies that tend to follow human rights lawyers like Pressman around.

This story segued Sudan into Clooney's status as a sex symbol and offered us this:

Then, when asked whether he wakes up sometimes and thinks, "I'm George Clooney, I can get any chick I want," the low-maintenance guy who cuts his own hair and washes his face with a bar of soap said, "Um, ah, no, because I also wake up and my knees hurt and I think, 'I'm 45.' "

We assume other celebrities use liquid soap.