Prior to his success on ER, he met Grant Heslov, a later close friend with whom he co-wrote Good Night, and Good Luck. Heslov was also the president of television at Section Eight Productions, Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh's production company. In August 2006, Clooney and Heslov started a new company: Smokehouse Pictures. Clooney said in an interview that he was driving an RV through the country with Heslov, who, at the time, was getting over a broken engagement, when he got a phone call from his agent telling him that NBC just picked up ER for a full season. Clooney said, "I think I just got my career."[cite this quote]
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, invited Clooney to play a role in the show as the voice of Stan Marsh's gay dog Sparky in the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", a role with no dialogue except normal dog noises. He later appeared in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Despite their history, the show's creators, Parker and Stone, lampooned Clooney for his outspoken political views in their feature film Team America: World Police. However, Clooney later said that he would have been offended if he hadn't been made fun of in the film.[12] He was also mentioned in the episode "Smug Alert!", which mocks his acceptance speech at the 78th Academy Awards.
