Instead, a mostly female audience of business executives gathered at the Sydney Convention Centre in Darling Harbour to hear the famously handsome Clooney speak about his humanitarian work in Southern Sudan.
Welcomed with roaring applause, Clooney joked with his audience. "Thankyou for the weather," he quipped, as Sydney's spate of unseasonably cold and overcast days continued.
Clooney held court for about an hour, to the delight of the crowd.
"Any woman on the planet is going to be excited about meeting George Clooney," said Emma Isaacs, CEO of women's networking firm Business Chicks.
"I admire his philanthropic work and that he is using his profile to benefit the world ... his social work is what I'm interested in hearing about today."
Clooney was speaking at the Global Leadership Forum in his capacity as co-founder of Darfur aid organisation Not on Our Watch - which he created in 2007 with fellow actors Don Cheadle, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt - and as co-founder of the Satellite Sentinel Project, which tracks war criminals in Sudan.
Other speakers at the event included entrepreneurs Jeff Taylor, hip-hop magnate Russell Simmons and domestic queen Martha Stewart.
For celebrity chef and author Maggie Beer, there were two good reasons to attend. "I'm here to see Martha Stewart and George Clooney," she said with a laugh.
When asked if she had offered to cook Clooney dinner, she replied: "If I had have been quick enough thinking, I would have."
Merril Skyring, a director at Deloitte, paid $1400 for a VIP ticket to the event. "I'm interested really in leadership and innovation so it's a great day for that ... and George Clooney, of course," Ms Skyring said. "I think people think he's just a movie star but he's actually a really strong political activist and human rights activist.
"I was really pleased to see him represent himself that way and then still be the Hollywood star at the end of it and make all the ladies swoon - it was gorgeous."
Clooney spoke about collaboration and the art of making things happen.
Fashion photographer Leah McQueen, who flew from New York to hear Clooney speak, said, "He kept me captivated for the whole time.''
After paying $1100 for a ticket, and leaving immediately after Clooney's appearance, was it worth it? "Yes, I think so," she said, smiling.
Clooney, who flies out of Sydney today, has made the most of his whirlwind trip. He saw Cate Blanchett in Sydney Theatre Company's Gross und Klein on Sunday, saying the Australian star was "very, very good".
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