Federal law decreed that American game show contestants quipping "lascivious remarks" live on air were liable to one year in jail or a $10,000 fine.

Apply that legislature to Blind Date and you have countless smirking Essex boys and white-stilletoed Home Counties gals doing a stretch at HMP Dartmoor.

The Feds read the riot act to the UK hit show's American precursor, The Dating Game, which was originated and hosted by the risque Chuck Barris (Rockwell).

Not content with overseeing the trashy show's weekly innuendo, Barris also ran a sideline as a trained assassin for American intelligence (if that's not a contradiction in terms).

That's a bit like Cilla taking out Britain's sworn enemies of state with a high-velocity rifle when she's not having a lorra, lorra laffs.

The Dating Game cover suited Barris just fine - he'd join the contestants when they were whisked away to "fabulous Helsinki" or "romantic West Berlin" and terminate a Red.

It comes as no surprise to find this bizarre set of circumstance comes from the pen of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the genius behind Adaptation and Being John Malkovich.

Clooney, in his directorial debut, certainly knows who to pick for his team; as well as Kaufman, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon also have nifty cameos.

Roberts is the femme fatale Barris meets on his Cold War missions, while his chick back home is Penny (Barrymore), a girl who thinks they speak Swiss in Switzerland.

This is an astonishingly assured first time behind the lens for the heart-throb and he handles the swerving narrative so lightly you find yourself falling for Barris' paranoid delusions.

Rockwell is superb as the cheesily endearing brain behind the Newlywed Game (which become Mr & Mrs over here) and The Gong Show.

In one memorable party scene, one of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Bunnies brusquely upbraids him with the observation that "the Dating Game is right up there with the Cistine Chapel".

After Solaris (acting role), Adaptation (production credit) and this (director), Clooney has had his name attached to three of the most interesting films to emerge from the US in an age.

And you thought he was just a pin-up.

Tim Evans