Clooney splits from model after she uses the m-word

Stand back: George Clooney is single again. The 50-year-old American actor announced that he is no longer dating Italian model Elisabetta Canalis, bringing an end to the couple's two-year relationship.
 
Already, two key questions are being asked: 'Why?' and 'Who's next?'
 
In response to the first, popular media consensus is that Clooney's ambivalence towards marriage is to blame. Earlier this month, Canalis used an interview with Chi magazine to suggest that she'd be open to tying the knot. "I am a firm believer in marriage, in the future I will be married," she said. "I am very happy at the moment, thanks to my man, and my fairytale is continuing."
 
Just days later, the fairytale is over. Did Clooney get cold feet after Canalis started to dream of wedding bells?

He certainly has shunned the idea in the past. "I tried marriage and it didn't work," he has said, referring to his four years married to actress Talia Balsam in the early 1990s. "My fear is that I would make a lousy husband and I don't want to put myself, or anyone else, through the pain of finding out."
 
Whatever the reasons for the split, bets are already being placed on what sort of woman the eligible actor will turn to next. William Hill is offering odds of 11-8 that she will be in her twenties, and 8-11 that she'll be brunette.

The bookmaker considers it unlikely the actor will date a woman his own age. It's offering 25-1 against that happening – and 100-1 against her having a blue rinse.  ·