Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Clooney for the cause

Turns out after all his time, money and effort have been invested, George Clooney is not sure he is helping, or changing anything for Darfur. I love to see celebrities fighting for a cause; when you can do good things with your fame, I believe in it. Otherwise, I think the way American culture idolizes these people is absurd. They are just people, doing something they are good at (sometimes they're not even good at it, they just enjoy it)- just like you. According to the Time Magazine article, Clooney became interested in Darfur in 2005. His dad and him had been reading about the lack of attention being given to Darfur, so the two went on a trip to Africa to shoot footage. Turns out Clooney wasn't able to get into Darfur until late January, when the U.N. said it would give him an official title. "I have a U.N. passport. It says 'Messenger of Peace' on it. It's very cool," he says.

Later he helped found, Not on Our Watch, which has given away more than $9 million. But now he is wondering if his critics are right, if his scheme to use celebrity to bring attention to the world's plights isn't, if not vanity, at least striving after wind. "I've been very depressed since I got back. I'm terrified that it isn't in any way helping. That bringing attention can cause more damage. You dig a well or build a health-care facility and they're a target for somebody," he says. "A lot more people know about Darfur, but absolutely nothing is different. Absolutely nothing."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are so right! Most celebrities, by virtue of their profession, are narcissists. The ones who are so public about their do-gooding are usually the worst offenders. It's more about claiming maximum attention than it is about understanding the issues and actually helping. Whatever happened to Angelina Jolie and Cambodia--she got bored? I live at ground zero of the hollywood groundswell so what you wrote is all too familiar.