Ellen DeGeneres has been on a long quest to get George Clooney to appear on her morning talk show.  She dubbed her efforts last season George Watch ‘08 and has kicked it into high gear in January, proclaiming George Clooney is Mine in ‘09.

The comedic show host has questioned Clooney’s fellow actors and friends in an effort to find out what will finally entice her favorite male actor to appear as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.   Check out some of her earlier antics here.

A breakthrough was finally reached when ER actor Noah Wyle tipped her off that Clooney is a huge Cincinnati Reds fan, having grown up in that city.  DeGeneres immediately got the producers on the task of inviting two 1970’s Big Red Machine Hall of Fame players, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan to appear on the show.

The rest, as they say, is history.  When Clooney found out that they were going to appear on Ellen, he agreed to be part of the segment that was taped on Thursday and aired today, Monday, January 19.

Ellen’s persistence has obviously paid off.  Check out video from Thursday’s show below and Clooney’s appearance video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK4AfVgqfOQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmBfNtq5L40[/youtube]

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Filed under: Celebrities, Ellen DeGeneres, George Clooney, sports