Clooney Voices Disappointment

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/17/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

It was a family affair last night for George Clooney, 39, night, who arrived for the New York premiere of his latest movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" by the Coen Brothers ("Fargo"), with several relatives in tow, reports PEOPLE. The comedy, loosely based on Homer's "The Odyssey," places the leading man in a chain gang that escapes its shackles and heads in search of loot. Along the way, the fellows gain success as a singing group called the Soggy Bottom Boys. For Clooney, the most challenging aspect of the role was "lip-synching," he told PEOPLE. Despite his best in-studio efforts to lend his own vocal cords to the soundtrack, Clooney's voice was ultimately dubbed. For his next project, which is "Ocean's 11" (a remake of a '60s Vegas caper film that starred Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack), Clooney, who this summer starred in the soggy hit "The Perfect Storm," says he looks forward to "not lip-synching and not being in water."