Randy Newman mentions George

Randy Newman, who worked on the Musical Score for Leatherheads, had this to say about working with George.

It’s a gratifying sideline with one glaring downside: “You have a boss. When he likes what you do, you’re a little puppy dog, and then the next day, you think he’s an idiot again.”

When scoring this year’s Leatherheads, Newman butted heads with director George Clooney. “I wanted to put strings over a shot of Renée Zellweger standing in a doorway,” he says. “It would have glamorized her, but Clooney had never directed a picture with a traditional score, and he was not comfortable with it. New directors somehow think it’s cheating to use music, as if they didn’t shoot the scene well.”

George to host Obama fundraiser

Academy award winning actor George Clooney is set to host a fundraiser for Barack Obama in Switzerland next month.The event, taking place on the evening of September 2 in Geneva, Switzerland will be split into two parts: a reception and a dinner. According to Obama’s National Finance Committee, tickets for the reception where Clooney will speak are going for $1,000, followed by a dinner at the home of NFC member Charles Adams for $10,000 a plate. Space for the dinner is limited to 75 guests.

Clooney made headlines in February when he told CNN he was hesitant to campaign for the presumptive Democratic nominee, calling it a ‘slippery slope.’

“I feel that at times you can harm the person that you are trying to help,” Clooney told CNN’s Kiran Chetry in reference to campaigning for Obama. “I don’t want to damage anybody.”

The Academy Award winning actor officially endorsed Obama early last year calling him a ‘rock star.’ Clooney compared him to the likes of John and Robert Kennedy saying, “Few people in my lifetime, that I’ve heard speak made me want to get up and do something,” but cautioned, “I don’t want to hurt him by saying that.”

Although next months fundraiser is taking place overseas, the campaign specified only U.S. Citizens with a passport will be allowed to contribute to the campaign. (CNNPolitics.com)

and from LA Observed they’ve posted an email that was sent out to the potential Obama donators.

Subject: A Reception with George Clooney in Switzerland for Senator Barack Obama Dear Friends,

We are very excited to announce that Academy Award winning Actor George Clooney will be headlining an event for the campaign. The event will be Tuesday, September 2nd in Geneva, Switzerland and we really need your help to make this special event a success.

The evening will be broken down into two parts - a reception for $1,000 where Mr. Clooney will speak and take questions followed by an exclusive dinner at the home of NFC member Charles Adams for $10,000 per person. The dinner is limited to 75 people so if you are interested in attending, please fax in the attached invite as soon as possible. Or if know of anyone you think may be interested in attending, please forward this email.

If you do send this to friends and colleagues abroad, only American Citizens with US Passport numbers can contribute to the campaign.

Thank you so much!!!

Cookie Parker
National Finance Committee, Obama for America
National Chair, Women’s Leadership Initiative
Democratic National Platform Committee, DNC

More pics from this weekend

I’ve updated the galleries from this weekends events.

George and the group leaving the yacht and arriving in Eze to visit Bono’s villa.

and more from the yahct.

Gallery Links: 2008-08-00 Baie de Anges South France , 2008-08-03 Eze, France (Bono’s Villa)

George Clooney keen to play lead in anti-war Iraq films

New York, Aug 5 : George Clooney is all set to star in a movie on the Iraq war, even though anti-war films about Iraq tend to bomb at the box-office.

What’s more, Clooney will also be producing the pic, as well as starring in it.

Clooney and his production company, Smoke House, have paid seven figures for the rights to Jonathan Mahler’s book “The Challenge.”

The book is the story of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s Yemeni driver, who is charged in the first US war-crimes trial since World War II, now under way at Guantanamo Bay.

The story traces the account of Hamdan’s journey from a mosque in Yemen and bin Laden’s compound in Afghanistan to solitary confinement.

According to reports, Clooney is considering one of the lead roles, that of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, reports The New York Post.

Swift was part of the legal team that took Hamdan’s case to the Supreme Court and won a pretrial decision that even terrorists are covered by the Geneva Convention. However, the victory cost Swift his job and marriage.

Malaysia Sun ,Tuesday 5th August, 2008, (ANI)

Source: LINK