George Clooney thrown into air in motorbike crash in Italy

OLBIA, Sardinia — Actor George Clooney slammed his motorbike into an oncoming car that turned suddenly into his lane Tuesday and was thrown several yards in the air on the Italian island of Sardinia, according to video of the crash.

“He is recovering at his home and will be fine,” Clooney spokesman Stan Rosenfield told The Associated Press in an email.

Surveillance video of the crash, apparently taken by a fixed security video, was obtained late Tuesday by the newspaper Corriere della Sera. It shows a blue Mercedes veering into oncoming traffic apparently to turn into a resi- dential compound near Olbia. The video shows what is reported as Clooney’s scooter crashing into the car while another scooter alongside him manages to veer around it.

Clooney is thrown over the front of his bike and up in the air before landing on the asphalt, where the car driver and other witnesses come to help.

The John Paul II hospital in Olbia confirmed Clooney was treated there and released after a few hours.

Local media representatives who gathered at the hospital said the Oscar-winning actor- director left in a van through a side exit.

The newspaper La Nuova Sardegna said the 57-year-old Clooney was heading to a film set when the accident happened at a curve in the road near the entrance to the Costa Corallina residential compound in the province of Olbia.

An oil stain and police paint remained on the road. Photographs taken by someone passing the scene showed the car’s front right bumper damaged and Clooney’s bike on its side.

Clooney reportedly was in Sardinia filming a television miniseries adapted from Joseph Heller’s World War II novel “Catch-22.”

He has been staying at a lush, gated rental villa in the high- end Puntaldia neighborhood.