George Clooney calls for boycott of Brunei-owned hotels

WASHINGTON, United States — American actor George Clooney has called for a boycott of nine Brunei-owned hotels over the sultanate's imposition of the death penalty for gay sex and adultery.

"Every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery," Clooney wrote on website Deadline Hollywood.

"I've learned over years of dealing with murderous regimes that you can't shame them. But you can shame the banks, the financiers and the institutions that do business with them and choose to look the other way," he added.


The nine hotels are located in the US, Britain, France and Italy.

Brunei will implement the harsh new penal code -- which also mandates amputation of a hand and foot for theft -- starting next Wednesday.

Homosexuality is already illegal in the tiny sultanate, but it will now become a capital offence. The law only applies to Muslims.

Brunei first announced the measures in 2013, but implementation has been delayed as officials worked out the practical details and in the teeth of opposition by rights groups.

In addition to film-making chops that have netted him two Oscars, Clooney is known for his globe-trotting political activism, especially his tireless campaigning to draw attention to the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

source: philstar.com

Telethon raises $44 million for Hurricane Harvey, Irma relief

LOS ANGELES | A celebrity-packed telethon for the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma raised some $44 million, organizers said on Wednesday, after more than 130 stars including George Clooney, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey and Justin Bieber joined forces to sing, man the phones or appeal for donations.

The hour-long Hand in Hand telethon, which aired across broadcast, cable and digital platforms on Tuesday night, raised more than $14 million during the live broadcast.

Organizers on Wednesday said that the total rose to $44 million in pledges made after West Coast and other re-broadcasts.

Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic Ocean storms on record, ravaged several islands in the northern Caribbean, killing at least 60 people. It barreled into the Florida Keys on Sunday, where 90 percent of homes are believed to be destroyed or heavily damaged.

Beyonce, appearing in a taped message, spoke of the urgent need for supplies in her hometown of Houston after Harvey became the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, killing more than 60 people, displacing more than 1 million and damaging some 203,000 homes.

During the show, Stephen Colbert said Apple Inc had donated $5 million, which the comedian quipped, “is also the price of the new iPhone.”

The telethon aired from New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, where Stevie Wonder kicked off the event singing “Lean On Me,” with a gospel choir as stars such as Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Cher clapped along while sitting at their phone stations.

source: interaksyon.com

George Clooney vows to sue French magazine over twins’ photos

LOS ANGELES | George Clooney on Friday said he would take legal action against a French magazine that published the first photos of his newborn twins.

The “Ocean’s Eleven” actor said photographers from Voici magazine “scaled our fence, climbed our tree and illegally took pictures of our infants inside our home.”

Clooney said in a statement that the photographers and the magazine “will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The safety of our children demands it.”

Clooney and his humanitarian lawyer wife, Amal, announced the arrival of the twins – a boy and a girl called Alexander and Ella – in June but have given no details, photos or interviews about them.

Voici on Friday published grainy photos of Amal and George Clooney, dressed in swim wear, each carrying one of the babies in their arms. They appear to be walking in a garden in what the magazine said was the Clooneys’ villa near Lake Como in Italy.

Voici magazine did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The babies are their first children for the couple, who married in Venice, Italy in 2014 in a big celebrity ceremony but who have tried to keep their personal lives private since then.

source: interaksyon.com

George Clooney's fiancee to bring ex-President Gloria Arroyo's case to UN - Star columnist Pedrosa

MANILA – International human rights lawyer and Hollywood star George Clooney’s fiancée Amal Alamuddin has “committed to help former President (Gloria) Arroyo by advising her on her rights under international law” over her continued detention despite her deteriorating health, Philippine Star columnist Carmen Pedrosa said in her column that came out Sunday.

“This was not about power politics but about human rights and every individual was entitled to it,” Pedrosa said, quoting Alamuddin.

According to Pedrosa, Alamuddin’s mother, Al-Hayat foreign editor Baria Alamuddin, is her long-time friend she met in London while the columnist was in exile during the Marcos dictatorship.

She said the Lebanese-born British lawyer made this commitment during a recent visit to Pedrosa’s home in Manila after a speaking engagement in Singapore.

The 67-year-old Arroyo, a representative of Pampanga’s second district, is under hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City facing non-bailable charges of plunder.

Who is Alamuddin?

Before she gained international fame over the recent announcement of her engagement to Clooney, the Lebanese-born British lawyer has been a reputable international human rights lawyer.

In the past, she has represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a human rights claim before the European Court of Human Rights in Sweden; Cambodia against Thailand in the territorial dispute over the Temple of Preah Vihear; Abdallah Al Senussi, former Libyan intelligence chief, in the case of alleged crimes against humanity before the International Court of Justice; and Yulia Tymoshenko, former Ukrainian prime minister, in the case against Ukraine.

Clooney has also taken up advocacies for peace in Sudan and Syria, which was what brought the couple together in the first place, Pedrosa said.

 “Amal will bring in the interest and the push needed in the world for human rights violations with George Clooney of Hollywood by her side,” the columnist said.

source: interaksyon.com

George Clooney Arrested During Protes

George Clooney was arrested on Friday (March 16) in Washington, D.C., after participating in a protest. The Oscar nominee was taken into custody outside the Sudanese embassy.

According to MSNBC, the group was protesting Sudan's blockage of food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains and aimed to bring attention to the treatment of the people in that area of Sudan. His father, journalist Nick Clooney, was also arrested, according to MSNBC, as well as Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Jim Moran and former Rep. Tom Andrews.

Clooney and the other protesters knew that, because the embassy is private property, they would be arrested if they refused to move. MSNBC reports that the protesters were warned three times before police moved in. The group reportedly held a sign that read, "Sudan: Stop Weapons of Mass Starvation." He told the large crowd at the protest, "We need immediate humanitarian aid into Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."

He asked "the [Sudanese] government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them."

According to People.com, the group was then taken to a Secret Service van.

"He's being charged currently with disorderly crossing of a police line, which is a misdemeanor and he will be transported to the second district of the Metropolitan Police Department for processing," Max Milien, spokesman for the Secret Service, told the site, noting that Clooney was being cooperative.

"They were protesting the violence committed by the government of Sudan on its own innocent men, women and children," Clooney's rep said in a statement. "They were demanding they allow humanitarian aid into the country before it becomes the largest humanitarian crisis in the world."

The actor has been trying to bring change to the area, even meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Obama in the Oval Office on Thursday. One day before, he attended the White House state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron. He is expected to appear on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on Friday.

source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1681220/george-clooney-arrested-protest.jhtml