George Clooney puts Tina Fey on notice after Golden Globes joke

1/5

George Clooney. The name says it all: the films, the awards, the looks. We reflect on the actor’s career. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

2/5

Clooney has his cousin Miguel Ferrer to thank for giving him his first mini-role in Ferrer’s horse racing film “And They’re Off.” Nearly 10 years later, Clooney landed his breakout TV role as seasoned pediatrician and expert womanizer Dr. Doug Ross on “ER.” (Patrick Downs / Los Angeles Times)

3/5

Clooney then starred in a comedy chronicling two single working parents (Michelle Pfeiffer and Clooney) and their children, who encounter a day full of surprises. (Gemma La Mana / For The Times)

4/5

With Ben Affleck, center, and close freind Grant Heslov, Clooney held the producer’s role in the political thriller “Argo.” With Oscar nods for “Argo” in 2013, it made Clooney the only person in Academy Award history to be nominated across six categories. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

5/5

The Hollywood bachelor tied the knot with Beirut-born human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in September. It’s the second marriage for Clooney, who was previously wed to Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. (Luca Bruno / AP)

By Nardine Saad

Jan. 20, 2014 3 PM PT

Color us delighted if the next faux Hollywood feud is between George Clooney and Tina Fey.

Clooney is doing the rounds for appearing in the Oscar-nominated lost-in-space flick “Gravity” and sitting as producer on “August: Osage County,” which received Oscar nods for actresses Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Fey, who served as co-host of the Golden Globe Awards with Amy Poehler this month, got one of the show’s biggest laughs when she poked fun at the “Gravity” star and his high-profile proclivity for dating younger women.

“ ‘Gravity’ is nominated for best film,” Fey quipped. “It’s the story of how George Clooney would rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.”

The 52-year-old wasn’t at the Golden Globes to absorb the punchline firsthand, so a cut to costar Sandra Bullock, 49, laughing hysterically with “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuaron had to a suffice.

That is, until now.

“Well, listen, here’s the thing. It’s a well-crafted joke, I can appreciate that,” he told “Access Hollywood” of the jocular ribbing.

“They have poked the bear with a stick. Oh, they have poked the bear,” he added. “I don’t want to scare Amy or Tina — I don’t want them to be afraid at all — but, uh, they’ve poked the bear.”

PHOTOS: 50 most beautiful female celebrities

You know, the big foxy bear isn’t to be messed with. But we enjoy these exchanges far too much to see them cease, and apparently so did his costar.

At the Critics’ Choice Awards a few days after the Globes, Bullock won the lead actress accolade and courteously thanked her eclipsing costar in her acceptance speech.

“I’d like to thank George Clooney for floating away and not coming back,” she quipped.

To that, Clooney said, “There’s going to be some payback.”

PHOTOS: Our favorite ripped Hollywood hotties

So add it to the recurring award season’s script of wisecracks that has included Leonardo Di Caprio’s sex life and trouble with pronunciation, Jared Leto’s so-called man bun and Matthew McConaughey’s “all right, all right, all right.”

As for the funnywomen highlighting Clooney’s predilection, he said “that there is no defense. It was a really good joke,” adding, “Just remember, don’t poke the bear.”

His “Monuments Men” costar Matt Damon knows a thing or two about that.

While the two were filming the World War II flick, Damon told the notorious prankster that he was trying to lose weight. Clooney’s response? A caper that involved the wardrobe department giving Damon’s costumes a little extra attention.

“He took in my wardrobe by an eighth of an inch, every other day,” Damon, 43, told People at a press junket last week. “[He] had the wardrobe department do that because he knew that I was trying to lose weight.

“This was a job where I would go back to New York, where I was living with my family, and I would come back [to film in Europe] for two weeks,” Damon continued. “And then I’d go back to New York, and every time I came back my pants were tighter, and I was like, ‘Ugh, this is weird. I’ve been going to the gym!’”

So hide your clothes, hide your costumes, Amy and Tina. And hopefully we’ll see this feud come to fruition during the Oscars on March 2. (Here’s hoping host Ellen DeGeneres is in on the gag.)

ALSO:

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard spark engagement rumors

Kim Kardashian talks about the ‘head trip’ that was her pregnancy

SAG Awards 2014: ‘Modern Family’ has an awkward moment backstage

Follow Ministry of Gossip @LATcelebs.