The A-List Mom Who Thought She Had a Chance with George Clooney

Thanks to becoming one of TV’s hottest hunks with his career-making stint on the hit NBC drama, “ER,” the stunningly transformed George Clooney transitioned into movies in the late ’90s, which bumped him up against other A-list actors — and their moms. While filming The Perfect Storm, Clooney starred alongside Mark Wahlberg, which reportedly led to his mom Alma Wahlberg becoming not just smitten with Clooney, but convinced that she actually had a chance with the Hollywood hunk.

“My mom came to the set and met George and got a picture, and she had it on her wall. I think she liked that picture more than she liked the picture of her own kids,” Mark told Variety in August 2024. She bragged that Clooney asked her out, but she ultimately turned him down. While Mark didn’t entirely believe that story, he gave his mom his blessing anyway. “I said, ‘Well, f*** it, have a baby with him! I want a little brother.’ George can be my stepfather. It’s all good.”

You might be thinking, wait a minute, Mark Wahlberg already has a bunch of siblings. Yes, he does, but he was also the youngest, so clearly, he wanted a crack at not being the low man on the totem pole for once. Also, the truth about Mark Wahlberg’s dad is that he was out of the picture, so why not help his mom find love?

Alma and Donald Wahlberg Sr. divorced in 1981, but before they separated, Mark Wahlberg was able to spend some quality time with his dad thanks to being the baby of the family. (See? It had its perks.) Despite his parents’ split that left his mother struggling to make ends meet, Mark still looks back fondly at being with his father and wishes he had more time to spend with the man, who passed away in 2008.

“I was close to my dad because I was the youngest, so even before I was in school I was spending time with my dad. I would go to work with him when he drove his truck and delivered to all the schools,” Mark reminisced to Esquire in a 2014 interview. “You know, both my parents worked very hard to put food on the table, so we didn’t get the kind of time that I would have liked with him, especially when they got divorced.”

While Mark has positive memories about his dad, his mother Alma revealed that life was very tough for her both during and after the marriage. Perhaps that’s why Mark gave her blessing for a love connection with George Clooney. The woman had been through a lot.

After a battle with dementia, Alma Wahlberg passed away in 2021, prompting her celebrity sons Mark and Donnie Wahlberg to leave touching tributes to her. Mark shared a cherished photo of his mother and wrote on Instagram, “My Angel. Rest in Peace.” Donnie wrote a more lengthy message to the late Alma. “I’m so blessed to have been brought into this world by, raised by, taught by, and set on my life’s path by, such an amazing woman,” he said. “My mom Alma’s joy for life, love, and people — combined with a pride in her humble beginnings and refusal to forget where she came from — undoubtedly shaped me into the man that I am.”

Before being in the throes of the heart-wrenching disease, Alma opened up to Boston’s WCVB-TV in 2018 about being a celebrity mom. True to form, she pulled no punches while citing the wonderful life her that children had provided her, but it was a hard road to get there.

“People know me as being the mother of famous children, and although this fact has brought many gifts into my life and has afforded me opportunities that may never have been possible otherwise, there is a whole lot more to my story than most people know,” Alma said (via NBC News). “I’ve lived with alcoholism and abuse; struggled with poverty and experienced great wealth; lost so many that I’ve loved; struggle to raise nine children, and I love them more than anything else; watch them suffer, learn and come out on the other side; lost myself; found myself, again and again; and kept moving forward, no matter what.”