George Clooney’s penchant for bachelorhood is the stuff of legend in modern Hollywood, so when he kicked off a highly un-Clooneylike public relationship with unknown cocktail waitress Sarah Larson, many speculated that the Oscar-winning actor might be willing to settle down.

Nearly a year later, the old George Clooney has reared his bachelor-loving head yet again, splitting with Larson for unspecified reasons. Despite the undisclosed causes of the split, it’s not hard to speculate as to why things didn’t pan out.

After his four-year marriage with actress Talia Balsam ended in 1993, Clooney swore off marriage and children. Since then, he’s done his share of dating (usually from the A-list), but the most marriage-like relationship he had during that time was with his beloved pot-belly pig, Max, who died last year. Many think a lapse of love-fueled judgement caused Clooney and Larson to get too heavy, too quick, and their breakup was just old-fashioned George resetting the scale.

Sarah Larson seemed to be living the dream. She went from Las Vegas cocktail waitress to A-list arm candy in a matter of weeks. If everyone didn’t know her simply for dating one of Hollywood’s leading men, her name was plastered across headlines when she and Clooney were both injured in a motorcycle accident.

In the days that followed, she bravely hit red carpet events (an honor few Clooney girlfriends enjoyed) for ‘Michael Clayton’ on crutches, showing her dedication to her man. Months later, a slew of mildly-raunchy undated photos of Larson hit the Web, altering the perspective many had of her.

Once the photos emerged, bloggers and tabloids began the countdown for the couple’s demise, speculating that Larson isn’t the innocent everyperson Clooney likely thought she was. She does seem to have some upward momentum, though, as she was named one of PEOPLE’s 100 Most Beautiful for 2008.