George Clooney spent 10 years as an acting unknown until his role as Dr. Doug Ross in the hospital drama E.R. made him TV's hottest heartthrob in 1994. He left the show in 1999 and moved on to an even more successful career in films, as an actor, producer and sometime director. Clooney comes from a show business family: he's the nephew of singer Rosemary Clooney and the son of newscaster and chat host Nick Clooney. His films include Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight (with Jennifer Lopez), the Coen brothers' comedy O, Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, with Holly Hunter), and Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve (2001 and 2004, with Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Don Cheadle). Clooney's feature directing debut was Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, the 2002 film based on the writings of game show impresario Chuck Barris. In 2005 he co-wrote, directed and acted in Good Night, and Good Luck, the biographical feature about newsman Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn). The film earned Clooney Oscar nominations in 2006 for writing and directing. The same year he won the Oscar as best supporting actor for his role as a CIA agent in the political thriller Syriana. He also directed and starred in the football comedy Leatherheads (with John Krasinski).
Clooney and Jason Alexander both had roles in a 1984 medical sitcom titled, coincidentally, E/R... Clooney was married to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 until their divorce in 1992. She is the daughter of actors Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten... Politically outspoken and left-of-center, Clooney has had an off-and-on feud with TV personality Bill O'Reilly... Clooney owned a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig name Max for 18 years, from 1988 until its death in 2006... Clooney has twice been named the "sexiest man alive" by People magazine: in 1997 and in 2006.
Career Highlights: Three Kings, Out of Sight, The Thin Red Line
First Major Screen Credit: Combat High (1986)
Biography
George Clooney embodies one of Hollywood's most formidable renaissance men. As a remarkably intelligent and capable actor, and a director of surprising skill and intuition, Clooney has almost completely exempted himself from criticism. In light of these qualities, the thespian's formidable charm and devastating physical appeal seem, astonishingly, to be almost incidental.
As the son of broadcast journalist Nick Clooney and the nephew of chanteuseRosemary Clooney, George Clooney entered the world with show business coursing through his veins. Born May 6, 1961 in Lexington, Kentucky, the future E.R. headliner appeared at the tender age of five on his father's Cincinnati talk program, The Nick Clooney Show. This spot represented an anomaly, however, and George remained off-camera until his post-adolescent years. In lieu of acting, Clooney acquired and honed a sharp interest in sports - particularly baseball - and sought a career as a major leaguer with the Cincinnati Reds. When ousted from the tryout roster, Clooney launched himself as an onscreen presence, seemingly without effort. He first auditioned for (and landed) a string of television commercials, then signed with Warner Brothers Entertainment as a supporting player. It took time for Clooney's recognition to build, and a series of permanent roles on short-lived sitcoms and brief roles on hit series dramas ensued. The failed efforts included a characterization as Ace, a neophyte physician on the prime-time series E/R - not the blockbuster NBC drama, but the first E/R - a 1984 CBS sitcom with Elliott Gould and Marcia Strassman. This period also included third billing in the disastrous sitcom Baby Talk - a kind of unofficial TV spinoff of Look Who's Talking rightly voted in a 1991 Electronic Media poll as the worst series of that year. Clooney's single-episode contributions to hit programs included work on such series as The Golden Girls, Riptide, Crazy Like a Fox, Street Hawk and Hunter.
These assignments understandably attracted little attention because of their transience. But die-hard television enthusiasts (particularly Gen-X viewers) will recall Clooney's participation as a semi-permanent character on at least three series: first, he played George Burnett (c. 1985-6), the genial carpenter who helps rebuild Edna Garrett's gourmet food shop into a neo-malt shop following a tragic fire, on the sitcom The Facts of Life. Next, he turned up as Booker Books (c. 1988-89), a lusty foreman with sexual designs on Jackie Harris (Laurie Metcalf), in first season of the blue-collar sitcom Roseanne; and finally, he portrayed Detective James Falconer (c. 1993-4), who married Sela Ward's Teddy Reed in mid-plane crash but was murdered by a drug dealer not long after, in the Saturday night soaper Sisters (alongside Swoosie Kurtz, Julianne Phillips and Ashley Judd).
Second-billing on the NBC medical drama E.R., of course, represented Clooney's breakthrough to superstardom. When that program shot up to #1 in prime time ratings, Clooney carried it (much more, in fact, than a first-billed Anthony Edwards) - his inborn appeal to women and his onscreen grace and charm massive contributing factors. This appeal increased as his character - initially something of a callous womanizer - matured with the show, eventually evolving into a kind and thoroughly decent, if somewhat hotheaded, human being.
Until E.R., Clooney landed only occasional roles in feature films (he debuted cinematically with a small role in the 1986 flick Combat High) and starred in a couple of low-budget videos. Following the E.R. triumph, however, he was suddenly deluged by scripts and movie offers. For his first big-budget project, he opted to play an acid-mouthed, rifle-wielding antihero (one of the Gecko Brothers, alongside Quentin Tarantino) in the Robert Rodriguez-directed, Tarantino-scripted horror comedy From Dusk Till Dawn (1995). Not long after, Clooney shifted gears altogether, co-headlining (with Michelle Pfeiffer) the light-as-a-feather (and eminently forgettable) romcom One Fine Day (1996).
Clooney maintained a busy project slate in 1997, appearing in three A-list features. In the most hyped, Batman & Robin, he replaced Val Kilmer as the mysterious Dark Knight. Though the film is widely considered the worst of the series, Clooney did receive some praise for bringing an extra sensitivity to his interpretation of Batman. He drew concomitant acclaim the following year, with roles in two wildly divergent films: action-laced crime comedy Out of Sight, as a suave bank robber amorously involved with U.S. Marshal Jennifer Lopez, and Terrence Malick's adaptation of The Thin Red Line. Out of Sight represented a massive watershed moment for Clooney: the first of his numerous collaborations with director Steven Soderbergh.
In 1999 -- following his much-talked-about departure from E.R. - Clooney continued to work on a number of high-profile projects, first lending his voice to the animated South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut and then starring alongside Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube as an American soldier reclaiming Kuwaiti treasure from Saddam Hussein in David O. Russell's Three Kings. Clooney won a 2000 Golden Globe for his portrayal of a pomade-obsessed escaped convict in the Coen brothers' Odyssey update O Brother Where Art Thou? It was around this time that Clooney, now an established actor equally as comfortable on the big screen as the small, began to branch out as the Executive Producer of such made-for-TV efforts as Killroy (1999) and Fail Safe (2000). Soon producing such features as Rock Star (2001) and Insomnia (2002), Clooney next re-teamed with Soderbergh for a modern take on a classic Rat Pack comedy with Ocean's Eleven (2001). After the dynamic film duo stuck together for yet another remake, the deep-space psychological science-fiction drama Solaris (2002), busy Clooney both produced and appeared in Welcome to Collinwood and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind later the same year.
Confessions marked Clooney's behind-the-camera debut, and one of the most promising actor-turned-director outings in memory. Adapted by Charlie Kaufman from Gong Show host Chuck Barris's memoir (who claimed rather dubiously in the text that he had led a double life, for years, as a CIA assassin - and then described his exploits), the picture exhibited Clooney's triple fascinations with politics, media and celebrity; critics did not respond to it with unanimous enthusiasm (and it suffered from occasional self-indulgences), but it did earn a substantial number of enthusiastic reviews for exemplary craftsmanship and a remarkable lead performance by Sam Rockwell, as Barris.
In 2003, Clooney starred alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Coen Brothers movie Intolerable Cruelty. The film was a sleeper hit and a great showcase for Clooney's abilities as a screen comic. He moved on to team up with Zeta-Jones again, along with almost the entire cast of Ocean's Eleven, for the sequel, Oceans Twelve, which earned mixed critical reviews, but (like its predecessor) grossed dollar one at the box office.
By 2005, Clooney achieved his piece-de-resistance by writing, directing, and acting a sophomore outing: the tense period drama Good Night, and Good Luck.. Shot in black-and-white by ace cinematographer Robert Elswit, the picture followed the epic decision of 1950's television journalist Edward R. Murrow (played by David Strathairn) to confront Senator Joseph McCarthy about his Communist witch hunt. The picture (arguably one of the finest of 2005) drew raves from every critic in America and received a much-deserved nomination for Best Picture, and a Best Director nod for Clooney (though the film lost to Crash on the first count and Clooney lost to Ang Lee, for Brokeback Mountain, on the second).
With Good Night, and Good Luck. still generating buzz, Clooney appeared in the harshly explicit and openly critical Syriana. He took the lead in this political thriller about the oil industry, directed by Stephen Gaghan of Traffic and heralded by critics as a disturbingly real look at a hopelessly flawed and corrupt system. Never one to rest for very long, Clooney then joined the cast of The Good German.
As scripted by former Washington Post movie critic Paul Attanasio, and directed by Steven Soderbergh, German unfolds in post-WWII Berlin, where Clooney plays a war correspondent who helps an ex-lover, Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett) search for her missing husband - a man sought by both the U.S. and Russian armies. The period thriller took its stateside bow in December 2006 to favorable (if not spectacular) critical response but terrible box office, merely grossing a little under $6 million worldwide. Nevertheless, it perpetuated Clooney's long-standing working relationship with Soderbergh in the process.
Indeed, the following year, Soderbergh and Clooney partnered up a sixth time with the third installment in the Ocean's saga, Ocean's Thirteen. That go-round upped the ante on celebrity talent by tossing in Al Pacino (as a casino owner with the wonderful name Willie Banks) and seductive Ellen Barkin (as love interest Abigail Sponder), the new leading lady in Julia Roberts's stead. The studio reportedly did much to keep the story of the film sealed prior to its summer 2007 opening.
Lest it seem, however, that Clooney was leaning too heavily on elephantine Hollywood extravaganzas (via his involvement in the Ocean's series), he continued to appear in smaller, more individualized projects - and, at about the same time, took a sharp turn away from his onscreen good guy typecasting. The foremost examples include Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton where his portrayal of a morally compromised legal "fixer" earned him strong reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Meanwhile, Clooney continued to maintain and cultivate his reputation as one of the most electrifying (and classiest) directors in contemporary Hollywood. 2008 brought one of the most anticipated events of the actor-turned-filmmaker's career, with the release of a project that Universal had shepherded through development for almost a decade. Leatherheads, a period romance set against the backdrop of professional football's first gestations in the 1920s, originally emerged as a drama to be directed by Jonathan Mostow and star Jon Favreau, then evolved into a romantic comedy to be helmed by Steven Soderbergh and star Clooney. When this fell through, Clooney took the project on his own shoulders, rewrote the script, and opted to star and direct. He plays Jimmy "Dodge" Connolly, an affable but scabrous football hero who saves the sport for eons by pooling a group of down-and-out players, and guiding their evolution from shabby ne'er-do-wells into national celebrities - thus creating the embryonic NFL. Renee Zellweger plays the film's romantic interest, Lexi - an ace reporter determined to dig up dirt on the coach, but who winds up as the third side of a romantic triangle including both himself and Carter Rutherford (The Office's John Krasinski).
In Clooney's second directorial outing that same year, the much different Belmont Boys (for producer Jerry Weintraub), seemed to retrace the footsteps of the Ocean's series (not to mention The Longshot) in its tale of a bunch of weathered ex-cons who gather to pull off a racetrack heist that they abandoned three decades earlier.
Clooney was born in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce (née Warren), was a former pageant queen , while his father, Nick, is a journalist, anchorman, game show and American Movie Classics host, and an aspiring politician from the state of Kentucky. Clooney is of Irish and German descent. He has an older sister, Adelia (aka Ada) and his cousins include actors Miguel and Rafael Ferrer, who are the sons of his aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney, and actor José Ferrer. He is also related to another singer, Debby Boone, who married José and Rosemary's son, Gabriel Ferrer. From an early age, Clooney would hang around his father's sets, often participating in shows, where he proved to be a crowd favorite.
Clooney began his education at the Blessed Sacrament School in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. Spending part of his childhood in Ohio, he attended St. Michael's School in Columbus, St. Susanna School in Mason, Ohio, and Sir Thomas Rich's School, Gloucester, in the United Kingdom. There he developed an interest in theater.
In middle school, Clooney developed Bell's palsy, a debilitating condition that partially paralyzes the face. While suffering from the malady—it went away within a year—his left eye closed and he was unable to eat or drink properly, earning the nickname Frankenstein. "That was the worst time of my life," he told the Mirror in 2003. "You know how cruel kids can be. I was mocked and taunted, but the experience made me stronger." In 2004, Clooney injured himself on Syriana's set during a torture scene. He had some excruciating headaches and suffered short term memory loss. It took a few weeks for his doctors to find the reasons for his health problems. During The Good German's promotion (two years afterwards), he revealed that he still had to wear a back brace due to this injury.[4]
His parents eventually moved to Augusta, Kentucky. He went to Augusta High School where he was the lead in several plays. Clooney has stated that he earned all As and a B in school,[5] and was an enthusiastic baseball and basketball player. He had considered a career in Law at this time, but later retracted. He tried out with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 to play professional baseball, but was not offered a contract. He did not pass the first round of player cuts.[6] He attended Northern Kentucky University from 1979 to 1981 and, very briefly, the University of Cincinnati, but did not graduate from either.[6][7]
Career
Early roles
His first major role came in 1984 in the sitcom E/R. It should not be confused with ER, which Clooney more famously starred in a decade later. Additionally, he played a handyman on the series The Facts of Life. He played Bobby the detective on one episode of The Golden Girls. His first significant break was a semi-regular supporting role in the sitcom Roseanne, playing Roseanne Barr's overbearing boss Booker Brooks, followed by the role of a construction worker on Baby Talk and then as a sexy detective on Sisters. In 1988, Clooney also played a minor role in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.
Initial success
Clooney achieved stardom when he was selected to play Dr. Doug Ross on the hit NBC drama ER from 1994 to 1999 and returned for a guest spot in the show's 15th and final season. Clooney was also partnered with Deborah Leoni in their production company Mirador Entertainment.
Prior to his success on ER, he met Grant Heslov, a later close friend with whom he co-wrote Good Night, and Good Luck. Clooney said in an interview that he was driving an RV through the country with Heslov, who, at the time, was getting over a broken engagement, when he got a phone call from his agent telling him that NBC just picked up ER for a full season. Clooney said, "Acting is not my life; acting does control me, but acting is what leads me."[cite this quote]
In 1999, George Clooney left the cast of ER to pursue his film career full-time. However, in 2009, Clooney returned to ER for one episode during its 15th and final season.[9]
Movie career
After leaving ER, George Clooney starred in major Hollywood successes, such as The Perfect Storm and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. In 2001, he teamed up with Soderbergh again for Ocean's Eleven, a remake of the 1960s Rat Pack film of the same name. To this day, it remains Clooney's most commercially successful movie, earning approximately US$444,200,000 worldwide. The film spawned two sequels starring Clooney, Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean's Thirteen in 2007. In 2001, Clooney founded the production studio Section Eight with Steven Soderbergh. Clooney is generally considered Chief Actor.
In 2005, Clooney starred in Syriana, which was based loosely on former Central Intelligence Agency agent Robert Baer and his memoirs of being an agent in the Middle East. The same year he directed, produced, and starred in Good Night, and Good Luck., a film about 1950s television journalist Edward R. Murrow's famous war of words with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both films received critical acclaim and decent box-office returns despite being in limited release. At the 2006 Academy Awards, Clooney was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Good Night, and Good Luck, as well as Best Supporting Actor for Syriana. He became the first person in Oscar history to be nominated for directing one movie and acting in another in the same year. He would go on to win for his role in Syriana.
It was reported on April 4, 2008 in Variety that Clooney had quietly resigned from the Writers Guild of America over controversy surrounding Leatherheads. Clooney, who is the director, producer, and star of the film, stated that he had contributed in writing, "all but two scenes," of the film and requested a writing credit, alongside Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, who had been working on the project for 17 years. In an arbitration vote, Clooney lost 2-1 and ultimately decided to withdraw from the union over the decision. Clooney is now technically a "financial core status" nonmember, meaning he loses his voting rights, and cannot run for office or attend membership meetings, according to the WGA's constitution. He must continue to pay his dues, but gets a break on "non-germane" WGA activities, such as political and lobbying efforts. His decision is also irrevocable. Beforehand, Clooney was an active member of the WGA, even receiving an Academy Award-nomination for writing Good Night and Good Luck.[10] He is currently writing two screenplays with Grant Heslov.
Clooney also received the American Cinematheque Award in October 2006, an award that honors an artist in the entertainment industry who has made "a significant contribution to the art of motion pictures".[11] On January 22, 2008, Clooney was nominated for Best Actor for his role in Michael Clayton, but lost to Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood.
After the success of Good Night, and Good Luck, Clooney said he planned to devote more of his energy to directing. He said that the directing industry is "a great industry to grow old in."[cite this quote] Clooney directed the film Leatherheads, in which he also stars.
Clooney is self-deprecating in interviews, telling STV in April 2008 that Leatherheads, one of his lightest movies, is a "cry for peace." In the same interview, when asked about reconciling George Clooney the actor and George Clooney the director, he said "there's a lot of ego there... so I just take it out on the actors."[12]
Clooney is currently working on his next project, The Men Who Stare At Goats, which is being directed by his best pal Grant Heslov and is set for release in 2010. Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey have also signed on to star. Another project Clooney has signed on for is Up in the Air which is set for a 2009 release. It is being directed by Juno director Jason Reitman.[citation needed]
South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, invited Clooney to play a role in the show as the voice of Stan Marsh's gay dog Sparky in the episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", a role with no dialogue except normal dog noises. He later appeared in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Despite their history, the show's creators, Parker and Stone, lampooned Clooney for his outspoken political views in their feature film Team America: World Police. However, Clooney later said that he would have been offended if he hadn't been made fun of in the film.[13] He was also mentioned in the episode "Smug Alert!", which mocks his acceptance speech at the 78th Academy Awards.
On July 8, 2005, news reports said that Clooney would be working with Cindy Crawford's husband Rande Gerber to design and build a new casino hotel in Las Vegas. On August 29, the same year, Clooney officially announced his involvement with the Las Ramblas Resort project.[14] However, the project never came to fruition, and the property on which the resort was to be built was sold in June 2006.
After serving as pitchman outside the US for products like Fiat and Martini vermouth, Clooney lent his voice to a series of Budweiser ads beginning in 2005 (which were still running as of September 2007). In September 2007, Clooney defended his work when asked by an Italian journalist how he reconciled working in a Nestle advertisement for Nespresso with his criticism of multinational companies.[15]
In August 2006, Clooney and Grant Heslov started a new company: Smokehouse Pictures. Heslov was the president of television at Section Eight Productions, Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh's production company.
Clooney is creating and producing a television series for Showtime titled The Fall of Bob. The Fall of Bob is a half-hour, single-camera black comedy-drama about a man who is committing suicide while a lengthy flashback occurs of what happened before his death.[citation needed]
Clooney is one of only two people to have been given the title of "Sexiest Man Alive" twice by People Magazine, first in 1997 and again in 2006.[16]
In July 2008, George Clooney was declared the worst Batman portrayed onscreen. "Batman should be obsessed and blindered […] but Clooney is all cool, ironic detachment and self-awareness." No comment has been heard from the actor.[17] However, he has publicly criticized his own portrayal of Batman several times.
Personal life
2007 motorcycle accident
On September 21, 2007, Clooney and a girlfriend were injured in a motorcycle accident in Weehawken, New Jersey. Clooney's motorcycle was hit by a car. The driver of the car reported that Clooney attempted to pass on the right,[18] while Clooney stated that the driver signaled left and then decided to make an abrupt right turn and clipped the motorcycle. Clooney suffered a broken rib, road rash, and brain injury with complications resulting from a punctured dura. [19] He was treated and released from the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey.[20] On October 9, 2007, more than two dozen hospital staff members were suspended without pay for looking at Clooney's medical records in violation of federal law.[21] Clooney himself quickly issued a statement on the hospital records matter, saying no one should be punished. He said "This is the first I've heard of it. And while I very much believe in a patient's right to privacy, I would hope that this could be settled without suspending medical workers."[22]
Pets
Clooney had a 280-pound Vietnamese black bristled, pot-bellied pig, named Max, that had lived with him for eighteen years. He initially gave him as a gift to former girlfriend Kelly Preston but she let him keep Max after their break-up. Max died on December 1, 2006.[23] He also had two bulldogs, named Bud and Lou, after the famous comedy team Abbott and Costello. Both of the dogs have since died, one from a rattlesnake bite.[24]
Politics and advocacy
Clooney is a self-described political liberal. Speaking about the Iraq war: "You can't beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people seeking revenge. These days it only matters who's in charge. Right now that's us—for a while at least. Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win.... I believe (Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can't beat anyone anymore."[25]
Clooney stirred up controversy for a joke he made about Charlton Heston at a 2003 National Board of Review event. "The head of the NRA announced again today that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease."[26] When asked if the actor went too far with his joke, Clooney responded by saying, "I don't care. Charlton Heston is the head of the National Rifle Association; he deserves whatever anyone says about him."[27] Heston himself commented, "It just goes to show that sometimes class does skip a generation," referring to Clooney's late aunt, Rosemary Clooney.[27]. Clooney said he subsequently apologized to Heston in a letter, and that he received a positive response from Heston's wife.[5]
Clooney is noted for his public criticisms of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. On January 16, 2006, during his acceptance speech for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Syriana, Clooney paused to sarcastically thank Abramoff before adding, "Who would name their kid Jack with the word ‘off’ at the end of your last name? No wonder that guy is screwed up!"[28]
There has been movement to try to convince Clooney to run for political office in his home state of Kentucky, including talk of a Clooney candidacy for US Senate against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2008.[29] In response, Clooney has said: "Run for office? No. I've slept with too many women, I've done too many drugs, and I've been to too many parties."[30]
Clooney in Abéché, Chad in January 2008 with the UN
Clooney is named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for "using star power to illuminate the crisis in Darfur." After making his first trip to Darfur in 2006, Clooney made the TV special A Journey to Darfur with his father Nick, and advocated for action in the US Author Ishmael Beah writes: "He has used his fame to speak wholeheartedly for those who cannot speak, with genuine concern and insight and a deep commitment and selflessness that is rare but does not have to be."
Clooney is active in advocating a resolution of the Darfur conflict.[32] His efforts include an episode of Oprah and speaking at the Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 2006.
In 2006, he was involved in several events to highlight the issue. In April, he spent ten days in Chad and Sudan with his father to make a film in order to show the dramatic situation of Darfur's refugees. In September, he spoke in front of the Security Council of the UN with Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel to ask the UN to find a solution to the conflict and to help the people of Darfur.[33] In December, he made a trip to China and Egypt with Don Cheadle and two Olympic winners to ask both governments to pressure Sudan's government.[34]
In 2006, Clooney and his father, journalist Nick Clooney, travelled to Darfur and filmed a documentary, A Journey to Darfur, which was broadcast on American cable TV as well as in England and France. In 2008, it was released on DVD with the proceeds from its sale being donated to the International Rescue Committee.[35][36][37][38]
On March 25, 2007, he sent an open letter to German chancellor Angela Merkel, calling on the European Union to take "decisive action" in the region in the face of Omar al-Bashir's failure to respond to the UN resolutions.[41]
Clooney also appears in the documentary film Darfur Now, a call to action film for people all over the world to help stop the ongoing crisis in Darfur. The film was released on November 2, 2007.
On December 13, 2007, Clooney and fellow actor Don Cheadle were presented with the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome. In his acceptance speech Clooney said that he and Cheadle "Don and I…stand here before you as failures. The simple truth is that when it comes to the atrocities in Darfur…those people are not better off now than they were years ago."[42][43]
On January 18, 2008, the United Nations announced Clooney's appointment as a United Nations messenger of peace, effective from January 31.[1][2]
In February 2009, Clooney visited Goz Beida, Chad with NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.[44]
^AmericanLife TV Network (ALN) Donates Proceeds From "A Journey to Darfur" DVD to the International Rescue Committee "In addition to premiering on AmericanLife TV Network, "A Journey to Darfur" has aired on The Community Channel in England and France 2. The documentary has also been shown at festivals and schools around the world including, The second Refugee Film Festival in Tokyo presented by the UNHCR, Ilaria Alpi Journalistic Television Award based in Riccione, Italy, Milano Doc Festival, and the Human Rights Nights Film Festival in Bologna, Italy."
