George Clooney & Amal Alamuddin - I salute thee!

By Mary Grace Nguyen

Writing about celebrity news, particularly gossip, has never been my forte. Not that it doesn’t interest me, because it does by giving me tremendous satisfaction and reaffirmation that the glamorously rich and well-known have their flaws too! - but also that there isn’t much justification to prod and probe into celebrities lives (or anybody for that matter) unless it has consequences that affect others. However, news just in that George Clooney is engaged to a British human rights lawyers is a revolution for me, and probably a zillion Clooney fans out there.

Clooney has been the epitome and golden example of bachelorhood. Proudly has he flaunted himself in the media including TV interviews of his conviction and confidence of what he was: a bachelor without entitlement or devotion to one. In today’s society, relationships, sexual interests and behaviours have changed and diversified more than ever and bachelorhood is no substitute as it is just as acceptable. Clooney, as a good-looking older man, had only enhanced his status and sex appeal which made his bachelorhood easily agreeable.  Take for example, his recent commercial for Nespresso coffee where he approaches a lady who then screams to all the women on a roof bar that he was present. We know, and he actively knows, he is God’s gift (or nature’s gift if you're an agnostic or atheist,) to the world.

How can this be? He is a bachelor! He can’t be engaged! Can he even fall in love? Ok fine, maybe he can fall in love (with several women,) but who is she? Who is Amal Alamuddin? Are you ready? Drum roll please…

Well, she graduated from Oxford University, studied law at New York University School of Law and now specialises in human rights and international law in Doughty Street Chambers, London.  She has served as counsel to the inquiry for the UN on special rapporteur on counter-terrorism, advised Kofi Annan as well Syria to the UN Special Envoy. 

She is a legal adviser to the King of Bahrain and also represented Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, in his battle against extradition to Sweden. Additionally she has represented clients before the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights including domestic courts in the UK and US. 

If that isn’t a mouth full, there is more. She also manages to train judges, state officials and UN investigators on international criminal law and human rights and has trained police forces in the Gulf.  She has also contributed to many books on international criminal law, co-edited The Law and Practice of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and lectured at the University of North Carolina, The Hague Academy of International Law SOAS, The New School in New York and Chapel Hill. 

Phew, what a lady! I am sure she has done a lot more, but from these key points alone her career history sounds impeccable and being brutally honest, I am not surprised that Clooney has fallen for her –I’ve fallen for her! I have always respected those who were career driven, have endeavours and goals - in any shape or form - that were humanitarian. (Please note this is not an opportunity for trolls to come in and burden me with their political views on Assange, the UN, Syria, Gulf or any of the above mentioned.)   

As the tabloids have expressed, Clooney saw interest in her focus of work within human rights inDarfur, which is perhaps where it may have ignited the spark, so to speak. The relationship was described as platonic years ago by his spokesperson but, that doesn’t seem to be the case now. :  )

Clooney was formally married to Talia Balsam which, ended in 1993. He claimed he wasn’t cut up for marriage thereafter (or something along those lines,) to then having a string of short term relationships with women including actresses and models. Yet, his situation and marital status has now transformed - he has a woman who has radically changed his worldview. 

Naturally, when I saw the tweet by LBC radio talk presenter, Julia Hartley-Brewer, that he was engaged I was curious and had to find out who the engagement was to. Now knowing what I know, I am actually happy for him and Miss Alamuddin, soon to be Mrs. Clooney (unless she decides to keep her name.) Not that my consent will make any difference, but I completely approve and as a fan of Clooney’s looks and charms, I salute thee.

May I add Amal is only 36! I am not referring to the age gap but, I am referring to how much she has achieved at 36. Brava! She is definitely up there with Michelle Obama.

Ben Falk - Entertainment journalist and visiting lecturer at Birkbeck University on his passion for Hollywood movies and the moment he almost spilled a drink on Natalie Portman

Why did you decide to get into entertainment journalism? 

I fell into entertainment journalism mainly because my dad was actually a film critic and I remember quite early on going to film previews like going for my 10^th or 11^th birthday to Howard the Duck preview screening. I seemed to love movies and it transformed from there and that’s where I got into the whole showbiz spiel.

Why did you write the books you wrote such ‘The Rise and Fall of Robert Downing JR’ or your most recent book, ‘The Wonders of Brian Cox?’

It is a good test for a journalist to write a book because we are used to writing 400 or 1200 word pieces. This gave me an excuse to delve into something deeper and try to write something well thought which I think is a real skill.

Did you get to meet Brian Cox or Robert Downing Jr.?

Oh no! They were unauthorised biographies. You don’t need to have permission to do them as such. Brian Cox, I interviewed before I did the book. I was actually commissioned to write the Brian Cox book. As for Robert Downing Jr., he is such an interesting guy and I love his movies. I thought it would be a great story to tell.

You’ve covered the Oscars, Emmy’s and Golden Globes at Hollywood. How glamorous is it really?

Yeah it is. I wish I can say otherwise but there are elements of it that aren’t like the fact that the Oscars’ red carpet starts around 3 or 4pm in the afternoon Hollywood time. So you have to be there at midday and sit out in the sun for quite a long time in a tuxedo…it’s quite hot and there’s a lot of waiting around. Seeing all these people walk past is incredible however, especially when you get to go backstage and experience it from the auditorium.

And would you go back?

Yeah, I would love to do it again. Blagging your way into a party is always fun. I remember almost spilling a drink on Natalie Portman once and going to… what was it called? Oh, Elton John’s Oscar party. Free champagne obviously and I did some work for the red carpet so we got to see Elton John and John Legend sing ‘Rocket Man’ duet and I think Prince and Pamela Anderson. So it is glamorous in that way but obviously you have worked the whole day so by 10 o’clock that night you’re absolutely exhausted in a really good way, on a high.

You’ve also produced for the likes of Channel 4 and Sky. Is this something separate to your journalism career or have you used producing shows and pod casts as another form of entertainment journalism?

Producers are journalists or at least they should be. I was doing segments for TV shows and working on breakfast shows choosing content, editorialising the content, making it feel journalistic, compelling and executing it. So I was writing scripts, reviews and raddling talent. It is absolutely journalistic.

We tend to have negative pre-conceptions of working at a newspaper as stressful and chaotic. Was this the case when you were at the Sun newspaper?

I was actually a freelancer there. Hmm, not really, however, when I worked at the press association office, it is hard work and now it seems harder since I left. The turn over of content is huge.

What made you decide to take on teaching? And why, Birkbeck University?

When I started out in Journalism I was aware of how important it was to have someone giving you shots. I learnt on the job really and I would practice on my own but no one particularly other than my dad, I suppose, helped me. Someone taking you under their wing is important. So every journalist needs someone to say, ‘this is how you do it,’ but everyone is busy these days and it happens less and less. You need to be in multi-media. You need to be able to shoot and edit, work with different mediums and be a positive force in some way to make people think that journalism is an enjoyable thing to be part of.

In terms of Birkbeck, I like the flexibility in that it is during the night and there are good, nice people. There is no particular reason as when you are a freelancer, you take any job and that’s how you treat it as.

So you write books, produce, have a television pod casts, write articles for big media names and teach - how do you manage your time? 

I write fast so I write quickly as I get going. I decompartmentalize a lot and figure out what I am doing. Be prepared to work weekends and nights that’s why it is important to enjoy and be passionate about what you want to do.

Do you have a diary or check list?

No. I write lists, lots and lots of lists that I tick off on that yellow ‘things to do’ pad.

What is your greatest and most memorable moment in your career so far?

(Laughs) That is a really hard question. The greatest moment is writing a book. Writing a book, finishing a book, having it in your hands and seeing it there in a shop is pretty amazing. The Robert Downing Jr. one was by myself and it was really hard work.

Some of the people I have met are fun that’s part of memorable things. Like going on a junket to New York to meet Julia Roberts. One of the great things about journalism is the comradery. There will be a group of us going to the junket and we would do stuff together. I remember my friend, Colin, and I flew first class to New York and it was totally awesome. We went to a junket in Athens and it was someone’s birthday out there. We went out there for work but we were by the pool and Vinnie Jones was learning his lines for his next film in the hot tub. We also went out for someone’s birthday and visited the Acropolis. And was thinking what a great job this is. I mean I love talking about films and talking to movie stars like Angelina Jolie, who I also interviewed there. It’s running to the Oscars and covering it. I had to get to a party but because it’s Oscars night Hollywood is blocked and there are so many limos around that you can’t get anywhere. It is gridlock and I had to file my copy from the back stage still in a tuxedo. I sent my copy back home and then I ran down to try and find a cab to get to this party. It is things like that that is a weird thing to do for a job but it is cool.

Where do you think Journalism is going?

I am comparatively old. I am 37 and there is a whole raft of people that are two generations of journalists below me that are doing things that are really innovative but I think that ultimately there are still readers that still want to read papers and magazines. So I think print is not going anywhere but how we treat print maybe different and more like a luxury item. I know a lot of magazines and media conglomerates are spending money on tablet journalism so soon we will read our paper on tablet. But journalism is not going to change. We still need to find stories, hold people to account, review records, or whatever you want. The things journalists do on a day to day won’t change but new journalists will be able to do a lot more. I think the journalists coming through now will, hopefully or certainly the people I teach.

Any advice for amateur journalists who want to make a mark in the world?

Remember that journalism is a craft and you can’t get good at it straight away. Writing my opinions is not what journalism is. It is not just about saying what you think. Realising that quickly is already important. You have to practice and it takes people a long time to get really good at it. You have to love the media and you have to love reading. You have to cover yourself with media until you become part of the media you want to be in. You have to love reading the papers and be part of the magazine. Just be a part of it and just enjoy reading, watching and also understanding what you are good at and what you are not good at. Also finding a niche quite early on and I don’t mean something that you can only do but having a focus from the get go is really useful.