Sources close to Hollywood actor George Clooney say he is "seriously considering a run" for President in 2008.

"Look," said a highly placed source at New York's Plaza Hotel. "We all know that if Hollywood were to field a candidate then it would have to be George Clooney. He's not just another pretty face."

The actor is currently shooting in New York City and carrying on a war with Gawker.com, a celeb-watch site that has recently come under fire for its paparazzi techniques which it couples with Go,ogle Maps.

"George knows what he is doing," said a cynical staffer at the website. "It's a great platform to head coming off a movie like Good Night and Good Luck, which is about freedom and journalistic integrity. The American people love that."

Although plenty of people have asked him about his political ambitions, Clooney has hitherto laughed them all off.

"Still no political office for you?" asked Diane Sawyer in 2005.

"No, no, no," replied Clooney. "Done too many bad things in my life. I would literally have to run on the ticket of, 'Yes, I did it.' 'Wasn't it true that...' 'Yes, I did.' And, 'Weren't you with...' 'Yes, I think, I believe I was. And I drank the bong water at the time.'"

Talk around tinsel town is that Clooney changed his mind after reading an article in the LA Times, which hailed him as a leading neocon voice in Hollywood.

"All of a sudden," said (former) close friend Arianna Huffington, "George could see how this thing could work. After all, if George Bush could do it with just Karl Rove by his side, then George Clooney can do it with Hollywood and all that movie magic behind him."

Support for Clooney has been hotting up with voices from across the Atlantic pitching in.

"A good-looking, independently minded, lapsed-Catholic, clean-and-sober actor versus a bought-and-paid-for, dry-drunk fundamentalist and four-decade failure of a human glove-puppet?" asks The Guardian.

He's been Batman, saved us all from Killer Tomatoes, robbed casinos without violence, helped bring down McCarthy, been blown up by the CIA, and won an Oscar. Is there anything George Clooney cannot do?

Clooney publicist Stan Rosenfeld says, "I doubt it."