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Brad Pitt and George Clooney, perhaps a little exhausted from their Las Vegas casino plans, are thinking smaller. Taking their cues from what countless other aging, well-to-do couples have done before them, the two have gone to Laguna, bought a gay bar and plan to spruce the place up into a delightful bed and breakfast [sub. req'd]:

George Clooney, Brad Pitt and an airplane finance tycoon are buying one of Laguna Beach s best-known gay bars and plan to turn it into a ritzy restaurant and bed and breakfast, according to sources.

The actors have teamed with Beverly Hills billionaire Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, chief executive of airplane lessor International Lease Finance Corp., to buy the Boom Boom Room and its adjoining Coast Inn on Pacific Coast Highway, sources said.



UPDATE Clooney and Pitt have issued a denial of any involvement. More after the jump.

The bar and hotel could be converted into a restaurant and the first bed and breakfast in a chain of such getaways to bear the names of Clooney and Pitt. Clooney also has teamed with developers who are planning the $3 billion Las Ramblas condominium and hotel complex near the Strip in Las Vegas.

The real money behind the Laguna Beach deal, sources said, is Udvar-Hazy, who ranks 125th on Forbes list of richest Americans with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion.With a mansion in Monarch Beach, Udvar-Hazy also appears on the Business Journal s list of the county s Weekend Wealthy.

With visions of window-treatment fabrics dancing in his head, Pitt is particularly ecstatic; he has never been one to mince words when it comes to his feelings on the subject of a new decorating project.


UPDATE Towleroad reports that Clooney and Pitt have since denied having bought the Boom Boom Room. According to the Orange County Register [sub. req'd]:

Publicists for George Clooney and Brad Pitt say recent news reports that the actors are planning to buy the Boom Boom Room- a well-known gay bar in Laguna Beach - are false.


"I don't know who started that rumor, but it's not true," said Clooney's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield.

We hope this denial is simply a PR smokescreen; we know how dejected Brad gets when you snatch his swatch-book out of his hands.