NOW --- UK --- May 5, 1999

"George is lured back to ER"

by Simon Trent

George Clooney is already planning his big ER comeback just months after leaving the show to concentrate on his movie career. George makes his surprise reappearance as Dr Doug Ross after finding out that his girlfriend Carol Hathaway is pregnant with his twins.

When he left the show in February (he makes his last appearance in Britain on 19 May), George was adamant he'd never return to ER. But in an exclusive preview of the next series, we can reveal that he'll appear in four episodes as a daddy.

The show's ratings in America have fallen dramatically since George's departure and ER producers have offered the star £1.5 million for each episode to tempt him back. And his return is already starting rumours that he may be after his old job. 'An appearance by George will make the ratings go through the roof,' says Julianna Margulies, who plays Nurse Carol Hathaway. 'And what better way to get him back than to give him some children to return to? 'George has already agreed and the plots are being developed. We're all looking forward to having him back on set. 'It's all very friendly inside the ER cast and no one blames George for leaving the show. He has an office on the Warner Brothers lot and he's always hanging around the set, so it won't be too much of a strain for the ER producers to work him in. 'The plan is to have George come back for Carol and his kids and then, I suppose, we'll all ride off into the sunset together when I leave the show after my contract expires next year.'

Carol Hathaway will discover that she's pregnant with twins in the last episode of the current series, paving the way for George's return early next year, says Emmy award-winning actress Julianna. 'It all starts when Carol goes to an obstetrician in the hospital because of a stomach cramp. The doctor takes some tests and calls down to the ER to tell her that she's several months pregnant.

'Carol tries to hide her excitement and emotion and ducks into an ultrasound room to try to see her baby. Just then, Mark Greene and Elizabeth Corday come into the room to have sex, but instead they find Carol on a trolley with the ultrasound machine going.

'Having been found out, she gets her friends to help her with the procedure. It's a funny scene, but when Carol looks to see if it's a boy or a girl, she sees two heads and two bodies. All she can say is: "Oh my God, twins!"'

Carol swears both Mark and Elizabeth to secrecy, but the word that she might by pregnant by Doug spreads around the hospital like wildfire. It turns out that just about everyone knows about her pregnancy within a matter of minutes.

'Everyone runs up to Carol and says congratulations and then they give her a makeshift baby shower. It's all very touching and sets up the next series very well - and it leaves the door open for George's return,' says Julianna.

Doug Ross and Carol Hathaway aren't the only ones whose lives are being turned upside down by the ER writers. Other highlights of the new series include Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) and Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) finally getting together, Peter Benton (Eric LaSalle) disappearing with his infant son and Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) and John Carter (Noah Wyle) fighting, then kissing and making up.

Romance heats up for Dr Greene and Dr Corday when they finally admit they have the hots for each other after sharing a passionate kiss. It's the start of a storyline that one ER insider says 'will be a real love story with a tragic and gut-wrenching ending'.

Real drama will unfold for Corday's last boyfriend Benton when he finds out that his son's mother Carla (Lisa Nicole Carson, who also plays Ally McBeal's roommate), has married her boyfriend Roger and is planning to uproot the new family to Germany where her fiancée has a job in the music industry.

'Benton goes nuts when he hears that Carla's planning to take his son Reece out of the country and bring him up in Germany,' says one ER insider. 'Reece is just about the only thing left that Benton has to hold on to. 'His mother is dead, Carla won't have him back, he screwed up his affair with Corday and his brother and sister are furious with him. His son is his only light.

'Then Carla makes the shock announcement: "Roger and I got married last weekend and his company has transferred him to Germany. I'm selling the restaurant and we're going. And Reece is coming with us."

'Benton goes berserk and later that night stops in at Carla's for one last visit with his son. When he gets to Carla's, he finds a babysitter and tells her that he's supposed to take the boy for a last father-son outing.

'Next we see Benton at home with the boy in his arms while Carla screams over the answering machine: "Peter? Where is my son? You aren't supposed to have him. I'll call the cops and tell them you kidnapped him. Peter? Peter?"

In another surprise storyline, Knight and Carter grow closer after she reveals to him that she's taking the mood-stabilising drug Ritalin and that she's afraid to stop because she thinks she'll get 'confused and crazy'.