4. George Clooney
As with many of the actors so far on this list, I feel that George Clooney was a victim of his own status as a heartthrob. It may have faded somewhat now, but initially, he was "that guy from E.R." that lots of girls liked. Such is the hatred for the man, that it even inspired an episode of American Dad! entitled Tears of a Clooney. "That arrogant, overrated, memo-writing bastard! He's not even an actor! He just does the same cheesy move every time. Looks down, then looks back up, squinting underneath his eyebrows. And everybody's buying it!", Francine says; but in that very same episode, it turns out that Clooney is so great that even Stan can't resist his charms and then, Francine realises that she was just projecting her own inadequacies onto him. Not that I'm saying that everyone who dislikes Clooney is just using him as a hate-absorbent projector-screen. It's just that the simple fact is that Clooney has given some great performances in some fantastic films: The Descendant, Up in the Air, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, to name but three. Also, he's a damned fine director. The Ides of March wasn't just directed by George Clooney, it was stylishly co-written and directed by George Clooney - and it's a great film on its own merits. Still not sold? Without George Clooney, there would be no South Park. As you may well know, South Park originated as a short film by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in which a snowman magically comes to life only to turn into a gigantic monster, killing people including a prototype Kenny. Clooney saw a copy of the film and loved it so much that he commissioned another for use as a Christmas card. He sent a few hundred copies out to friends of his and, understandably, this got the pair a lot of Hollywood buzz which later led to the card getting a spin-off show by the name of South Park. In the early days of the show, Trey and Matt were inundated with requests by celebrities to do guest appearances on the show. Finding it funny, the duo usually offered the celebrities tiny bit-parts. Jerry Seinfeld was offered the role of Turkey #2 in the episode Starvin' Marvin, for example. Most of these roles were declined on the grounds that they were beneath the star in question, but Clooney graciously accepted the part of Spark, Stan's gay dog in the episode Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride, vocalising a number of canine grunts as his character was, at one point, masturbated to completion by a small child. Clooney didn't see that beneath him because Clooney is cool.