I wasn't as clear as I should: I wasn't making a comparison between Clooney and Hailey. I'm objecting to the general idea that "southern white trash" can never become A-list. Clooney was white trash. Brad Pitt was white trash. So many of those people didn't have the "elegance" they have now when they first arrived in Hollywood, in fact many of them had to hire dialect coaches to change their natural accent. Stephen Colbert talks all the time about having to hide his southern-ness in the beginning of his career, so much so that he lost it. Jennifer Lawrence was born in Kentucky, dropped out of high school at 14yo, never got so much as a GED.
The difference between these people and Hailey? They planned on becoming actors from childhood, so they took the steps to become "acceptable by general audiences" before it happened. Hailey got drunk, said something stupid, went viral overnight.