

Willie Brown has floated rumors in his Chronicle column before that have not had any legs  remember when he claimed within a week that both Ed Lee and Dianne Feinstein might become ambassador to China?  so perhaps take this with a hefty grain of salt: Now Willie says he's been hearing, from "sources," that "our Hollywood-like hunk, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, is in a lather over rumors that real Hollywood hunk George Clooney is thinking of running for governor in 2018."

To be clear, Willie has heard a rumor that Newsom is upset about a rumor.

Also: Clooney has been rumored to be running for office the last couple of years, so perhaps that part does have legs, though Clooney vehemently denied the rumors both in 2014, and in 2015, going so far last year as to tell reporters he had "zero interest" in running for California governor in 2018.

In 2014, despite news reports from the Washington Post and San Mercury News that cited Clooney friends (and foreign tabloids) as furthering the rumor of Clooney's political ambitions, Forbes dismissed it all as "more like a liberal pipe dream than reality, although California does have a history of electing actors as governor."

There would probably still be time, though, to build up a campaign war chest for November 2018  and it definitely would give Gavin a run for his money.

Clooney's been a longtime Clinton supporter and human rights activist, and this past April he and wife Amal hosted fundraisers for Hillary Clinton both in the Bay Area and in LA.

Previously: 1600 Sanders Supporters To Bang Pots Outside George Clooney's SF Fundraiser For Hillary Clinton