These are photos of George Clooney after the DC Metro police released him on Friday, just hours after he and his dad were arrested outside of the Sudanese embassy. I know he’s probably talking about very serious human rights things, but all I can think about is A) how hot he looks in these photos and B) how he looks like he’s making really dirty hand gestures. So I looked it up – George actually was joking around with the press after he got out – here’s the video:
TMZ also got a comment from George at Dulles, and they asked him who he called when he got his one phone call – he said his mom! Yeah – I think Stacy is on the way out, don’t you? Anyway, George appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss Sudan. I didn’t think George ever wanted to appear on Fox News? Eh.
George Clooney was arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC Friday, but that hasn’t stopped the 50-year-old actor from fighting for what he believes in.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, The Descendants star accused the country’s president, Omar al-Bashir, of “bombing indiscriminate, innocent civilians with Antonov planes.”
Clooney also pointed out that al-Bashir has “programmed” his citizens to live in fear, thus limiting their chances of survival.
“They kill people — one village we were in, there were 34 people killed in the last two months, and it’s a small village — so they kill people, but more than that, they’re keeping them hiding in the rocks, in the caves, so that they can’t farm, and they miss their planting season this year,” Clooney explained. “This is the oldest society in the world, if you read the Bible. These people have been there forever, and now they’re not going to be able to feed themselves coming up in the next few months.”
Clooney has visited the war-torn nation in the past — and he too has come close to losing a limb as the result of a bomb explosion.
“We’re standing on top of this bush, and [our guide] pulls back the bush and there was this bomb. . . so then he kept messing with the bush, and I said, ‘Maybe don’t hit that thing with the stick so many times,'” Clooney said. “We were glad to get out of there.”
Clooney admitted that he’s using his celebrity status to bring attention to the ailing nation’s plight.
“I [asked my journalist father], ‘Remember how you used to get all your stories bumped by, like, Liz Taylor or something happening in Hollywood?'” Clooney recalled. “I said, ‘Well, let’s go to Darfur and you be the newsman and I’ll be Liz Taylor and let’s get it on the air.'”
The actor didn’t mind his brief arrest, as he’s always been politically-minded and socially responsible. “I grew up in a family that believed that your job was to be involved with your fellow man,” Clooney said. “You have a responsibility to participate in the human condition, one way or another.”
[From Us Weekly]
How different would George’s Oscar campaign have been if THIS was the George who showed up? If he went a different route for this past Oscar campaign – away from the rent-a-date and “Clooney Knows Best” speeches and just went for a humanitarian gut-punch? I think he might have actually beaten Jean Dujardin, honestly. People love this side of George.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Hate that pretentious d-bag.
I’m reading a really good book about Darfur at the moment, and it basically says how Georgie and co get everything wrong, and how the interventionists are making things worse:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saving-Darfur-Everyones-Favourite-African/dp/1906702195
I wish celebrities, and other people with influence, would approach things with some kind of humility. The conflict is fiendishly complex, spans several countries and only the people involved can solve it.
This may come as a surprise to Clooney et al., but it cannot be reduced into a genocide, or a “Bashir bad, rebels good” situation. And any solution will have to work with Bashir. Get over that fact or more people will die.
+1
I’ll have to disagree with Kaiser – its not ok to use suffering people to win an Oscar.
I am Sudanese-American, from the state (not village) of Sennar and from the town of Sennar al-Madeena, and I am not programmed by Omar al-Bashir to kill, nor was I living in fear in a cave. In fact, i am currently studying for my Masters in Public Health in DC right now because i believe I can specifically help with regards to health issues facing the area.
@Lis i am very thankful for your comment. this issue is a lot more complex than a lot of people make it out to be.
but what irks me is that a lot of people disregard the major fact that the country has split in two with two completely different governments, people, and issues. South Sudan had the right to vote for its independence, which they did with about 99% of the population voting for their independence. The elected president of South Sudan is Salva Kiir… not Omar al-Bashir, and it is in the southern country that there is the greater of extremes: hunger, low education and literacy, etc. It is South Sudan which needs a lot of recognition as there are internal wars by armed groups in its states (including Kony activity btw) in addition to health disparities.
I am not disregarding dying people by my post or supporting Al-Bashir or denying that there might still be skirmishes on the border of South Sudan and Sudan (a lot of which are due to the nomadic nature of the centuries-old tribes living there and the changing drought/rain seasons), I just wish that all sides of a story were as easily gobbled up by the media as a handsome actor’s 2 minutes in handcuffs.
I am also offended that Kaiser thinks that the plights of one of my home countries, of my family should be used as a ploy for an Oscar statue.
Wonderful post, thanks for sharing Rose.
I still think he’s deflecting from other bad pr.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Rose. You’ve made me want to learn more.
According to the recommendations for the book you reference it: “brings to life its protagonists-rebel fighters, Arab militiamen, displaced villagers, foreign aid workers, diplomats and campaigners.” George Clooney is a campaigner and has directed Western attention at atrocities and human need to people who would have never heard or seen anything about it without the Not On Our Watch or Satellite Sentinel projects. I think to claim that a person who risks their own life to bring attention to a problem that most people would not hear about and then say he is causing/exacerbating this massively complex issue, is bizarre in its illogical stance. How precisely? By filming murder and mutilation or interviewing victims? By trying to engage money for Sudanese (inc South/Darfur) needs and identifying elements of groups intent on murder not unity? Equally if you don’t regard the President of the country as at least the figurehead of responsibility then who is?
never really been a huge Clooney fan, but he’s kinda hot right here. And, if he’s just trying to get the word out, which he seems to be, he’ll go to any and all news stations that will listen to him, can’t fault him for that..
I was thinking the same. I’m not a fan, but this is a good look for him.
George was on a lot of Sunday morning shows… GPS on CNN
You can see the ink on his thumb from fingerprinting.
I get the distinct impression that for George, this is about The Sudan and not about George Clooney, which is no doubt why he didn’t play this card during the Oscar campaign season.
For an old dude he’s really hot and its pretty hot to be arrested for something important.
Very hot-you and I think alike!.
I just parted ways with a pretty good looking guy who was all about him for a not as good looking guy (hair loss, just a peeve of mine I WILL get over) because he stands for something and follows through on his convictions.
He is Algerian of Berber descent and his family was driven out (his story) when Algeria gained independence. Still reading up, complicated history, so no debates yet, please.
Anyway, this man, an ESL, is taking creative writing in English because he has “something to say”. Chutzpah-I like it!
Hmmm….I, too, am a troublemaker and crusader. Maybe I should throw myself at George-we are almost the same age, though…
still a looooong way to go to catch up with Martin Sheen’s 60+ arrests for 20 years of protesting nuclear proliferation.
but don’t let it stop you Georgie-boy. you did good. hope it gets better
I didn’t know his dad was in on it too. What a cool dad!
I think George is so passionate about his efforts in the Sudan that his drive to make a difference has eclipsed his passion for acting. He is still a great actor, but the rewards of acting may be diminishing in terms of self-actualization.
The nexus between effort and results is so clear in his Sudan work; the “judging” at the Oscars often reminds me of competitive figure skating judging. My sister said Meryl (older sister, lives in SoCal) won the Oscar for playing Thatcher because she should have won the Oscar last year for playing Julia Child but there there was Natalie Portman-blah, blah, blah.
Bottom line-a wonderful actress, Viola Davis, was cheated out of an Oscar she well deserved because of timing and the whim of the voters. By comparison, I am sure Ms. Davis’ work with her charity (which Streep contributed $10,000 to-guilt money) is much more rewarding for the very same reason-the effort she puts in, despite the setbacks (much more so with the George and the Sudan) is returned with the satisfaction of knowing she has done something important and decent. No popularity issues there.
I take issue with the George and his Sudan cause doubters. The situation in the Sudan is dire, and George has busted his a– to draw attention to it. George travels to the Sudan (now South Sudan, I think) regularly, and because of his trips to the Sudan, risks his health and his life. Malaria, anyone?
Would a pompous douchebag-think Kelsey Grammer-risk contracting malaria and stay in the rough conditions George does when he heads way down south? I know George never asks for special treatment, and stays in barracks-type accommodations. This is the real George, I believe, and I admire him (and his dad) for his efforts.
No Barbie dolls, either…maybe he hasn’t realized yet that the real woman he is looking for (and will likely never find in his Hollywood circle) is the woman who would have the backbone to travel to the Sudan with him. They’re out there, most definitely. In fact, they are probably already in the Sudan taking the same risks he does.
What do you think, George? Could you handle a woman who is your equal? CB’s don’t answer that question!-we know what the answer is at present.
Aside-I still miss Elisabeta-she was slightly crazy, but never boring, and she wore stylish Italian clothes. She was a handsome woman, which does not necessarily mean manly. What’s-her-name may be buff and pretty, but she’s a total snooze. Funny she and Meryl both wore gold at the Oscars-is that ironic (and not the Alanis definition)?
“I take issue with the George and his Sudan cause doubters. The situation in the Sudan is dire, and George has busted his a– to draw attention to it. George travels to the Sudan (now South Sudan, I think) regularly, and because of his trips to the Sudan, risks his health and his life. Malaria, anyone?”
What about the fact that he’s wrong? What about the fact that people like him are making things worse for the people on the ground?
I don’t care that he’s drawing attention to it – he and his pals are making things worse.
Also, the fact that you still refer to it as *the* Sudan, and aren’t aware that the country split last year, shows that maybe you need to do some research.
Like it matters how many times George Clooney is arrested.
Kaiser I agree with you, if George had taken the activist route to the Oscars then then parading Oscar Barbie around the red carpet I think he would have earned more respect from the public. Taking Cray Cray around was a bad publicity move. Also I think his mini van moms might have gone to see his movies, instead of turning on him for bad arm candy choices.
“How different would George’s Oscar campaign have been if THIS was the George who showed up? If he went a different route for this past Oscar campaign – away from the rent-a-date and “Clooney Knows Best” speeches and just went for a humanitarian gut-punch? I think he might have actually beaten Jean Dujardin, honestly. People love this side of George.”
I completely agree. While this Sudan thing was clearly a publicity stunt what with George’s publicist being there, he might actually care about the issue, but it’s hard to tell. So much of what he does is calculated for publicity that when he finally does something good, the message gets lost, and that’s sad. One reason he may have done this is because Keibler’s contract is ending soon, so he wants to seem like a good guy when the “break-up,” i.e. the contract termination, press release comes out.
Yeah, I agree this was a publicity stunt but designed not to enhance his image but for a GOOD CAUSE. I don’t think however, her not being there has any bearing on how soon he’s going to break up with her but I know why Stan was there. To pay the fine. LOL