Celebrities react to Obama’s Win

Oprah Winfrey has long been Barack Obama’s No. 1 fan, so it’s no surprise she wasted little time in speaking out about the Democrat’s historic victory Tuesday night.

“It feels like hope won,” the TV icon told Britain’s BBC. “It feels like there’s a shift in consciousness. It feels like something really big and bold has happened here, like nothing ever in our lifetimes did we expect this to happen.”

The talk-show host was on hand in Chicago to watch Obama’s victory speech, along with Brad Pitt and Jesse Jackson.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Courteney Cox and hubby David Arquette hosted a Barack Obama victory party Tuesday night at their Beverly Hills home, E! Online reports. Jennifer Aniston, Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher were reportedly among the guests.

Celebrities React

Other celebrities were also quick to sing the praises of the President-elect, who won a decisive victory over John McCain, becoming the first-ever African-American to claim the White House. Here’s a sampling:

• Actor George Clooney: “I congratulate President-elect Obama on his historic victory, and now it’s time to begin unifying the country so we can take on the extraordinary challenges that this generation faces.”

• Singer Usher: “This will go down in history, in black history, for all of the sacrifices that the great Joseph Lowery and Martin Luther King made, this actually pays off for their sacrifice. … I’m speechless. I don’t even know what to say.”

• Music mogul Diddy: “I felt like my vote was the vote that put him into office. … And that may not be true but that’s how much power it felt like I had.”

• Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz to PEOPLE: “My parents met working for [Obama's running mate on one of his early campaigns]. If it weren’t for Joe Biden, I would not exist as a human being. … I am proud to be a part of history in the making.”

• Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: “We’re very, very proud to have a new American President who also happens to be African-American … As I watched [the news anchors call the election] – pretty moving moment. Everybody cried … I am overjoyed.”

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George, Go into Politics?

GO INTO POLITICS? NO, I’VE SLEPT WITH TOO MANY WOMEN
by Ivor Davis

George Clooney might laugh off suggestions that he run for office. But the star best known for his reputation as a ladykiller now spends more time speaking out on issues that matter most to him

GEORGE CLOONEY has a disarmingly simple way of putting things. Ask him why the actor voted “sexiest man alive” should choose to direct so much energy towards highlighting the situation in the desperate African region of Darfur and he comes up with an answer too clear to argue with. My Dad taught me that I had to give back to people and that’s what this is all about, ” he explains. His father, Nick Clooney, is an actor and a big name in Cincinnati where he anchored the news. George says his dad has always been a humanitarian who showed him there was more to life than showbusiness.

Darfur has been stricken for years by civil war, genocide, poverty and starvation – but with little publicity in the west. After the 45-year-old movie star heard of its plight, he travelled there with his father to highlight the situation.

When he arrived, he did so with camera in hand to chronicle the terrible fate that has befallen families in Darfur and to help publicise the need for international relief. Since his return, he has spoken to the United Nations and used press conferences and interviews originally designed to promote his latest film to highlight the plight of Darfur and shame the American government into doing something about it.

“I’m not about to give up my acting job for this, ” he says, “but I hope what little I can do will have some effect. People, perhaps unfortunately, pay attention to movie stars – wherever I go cameras follow, so the least I can do is use that to draw attention to something that is really important.” If, in these days of rather pampered celebrities, it feels refreshing to have such a Hollywood A-lister concern himself with the plight of those less fortunate, it also also puts one in mind of movie stars of another era. Or rather, of one in particular.

In his time Warren Beatty was – like George – rather the gentleman about town, enjoying the company of the world’s most beautiful women, living a lifestyle that was the envy of every redblooded man and doing it all with the kind of easy charm that kept him just on the right side of public affection. And in the midst of it all, Beatty maintained a very active political conscience, using his position in the public eye to put forward an agenda that had – and still has – commentators speculating whether he will run for political office.

CLOONEY, however, is insistent he will not join the likes of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger and move into politics full-time. “Run for office? No. I’ve slept with too many women and I’ve done too many drugs. And I’ve been to too many parties, ” he once jokingly noted. “Anyway, I don’t like sharing my personal life. It wouldn’t be personal if I shared it.” And George’s personal life is an awful lot more colourful than that of the average politician.

Still Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor (he married actress Talia Balsam in 1989; it lasted four years) he knows more than most how to have a good time.

His list of lady friends reads like a wish-list of the world’s most desirable women and includes Renée Zellweger, Mariella Frostrup and a five-year relationship with British actress Lisa Snowdon. This weekend he was linked to former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson after they were spotted dining out as a couple.

He bought himself a grand villa on Lake Como in Italy, which is known as the ultimate in bachelor pads by the admiring locals, and insists that he is in no rush to commit to one woman. Until recently, his most significant companion was a 300 lb potbellied pig. When it died recently, he was devastated.

Clooney has always balanced his playboy impulses with a more serious sensibility, however. The star of mainstream movies such as Ocean’s Eleven, Batman And Robin, Three Kings and O Brother, Where Art Thou? has also displayed a political conscience in his films. In 2005 he directed and starred in Good Night, And Good Luck – a scathing depiction of the Right-wing US Senator Joseph McCarthy – as well as starring in Syriana, which was highly critical of US foreign policy in the Middle East and for which he won a best supporting actor Oscar.

His current film, The Good German, sees him act opposite Cate Blanchett and is similarly uncompromising, addressing the American postwar employment of Nazi rocket scientists – or, as he puts it: “It’s about how we were pardoning war criminals.” These are heavy subjects and a far cry from the usual movie heartthrob fodder one might expect. But then George has a disarming answer to that too: “We do these films because we think we might be able to spend this time we have pushing to get films we think are interesting made – as opposed to the other kind. We want to aim a little higher than the low bar.” And always in his mind, he says, is the truth that despite the rave reviews, the gorgeous girls and the flattering labels, fame is fleeting.

“I know you have to take advantage of success because it never lasts, ” he says, noting that he has only to look at the career of his late aunt, the legendary singer actress Rosemary Clooney, to see that showbusiness can be a rollercoaster.

“One day she was queen, the next she was down. She always told me she had no control over that.

“I know it had nothing to do with her immense talent. It’s that the public is fickle. So I know I may be riding high one day and gone a week later.” His career has been a slow build but for now at least he seems to supply something Hollywood desperately needs: if he’s an oldfashioned man’s man, in the Clark Gable mould, he’s also got that everyman Beatty touch.

They used to say of Beatty that he was adored by women and envied by men but Clooney’s appeal is even more pronounced. He’s adored by women and, if anything, admired by men. Admired not just for the women who adore him, and not just for his political sensibility – but admired because, in the end, he seems like a thoroughly good bloke.

He somehow manages to combine the roles of leading man, political campaigner and ordinary Joe.

The handsome actor first caught Hollywood’s attention as the paediatrician in the TV drama ER. After leaving the hit show, which for many actors spells the beginning of the end, he began to translate his small screen success into big screen stardom.

And like Beatty before him, along the way his reputation as a ladies’ man has grown and his list of female companions has quadrupled.

A few years ago his former costars Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer bet him

10,000 that he would be a dad by the time he hit 40. The big day passed without the patter of tiny feet and they duly paid up, but then George sent the money back – and bet them doubleor-nothing that he wouldn’t be a father by the time he hits 50.

IT’S the kind of story that raises a smile and a wink from both men and women – and it also displays exactly the kind of charm that could prove political dynamite. Indeed, in his home state of Kentucky there is a pressure group calling itself “George Clooney for Senate”. It already boasts more than 1,000 members who are hoping to persuade the actor to run in the 2008 elections.

But unlike Beatty, who has never completely ruled out the possibility of a career in politics, George for the moment maintains that he has no such ambitions – and even that he feels “celebrity politicians” may not be such a good thing. He politely declined the chance to campaign alongside presidential hopeful John Kerry in 2004 and kept a low profile during his own father’s bid for a congressional seat that same year – though he did contribute cash towards the campaign.

At the time he was reported to have been worried that his celebrity would hurt, not help, his father’s chances. But it could be that, following the father and son’s recent trip to Darfur, George feels that the time for more overt political work has come.

“I still have a lot of work to do in Darfur, ” he says. “I’ve still got a couple of places to visit where I’m going to talk to a couple of heads of state. There is a lot of work there to be done and it’s a long, long haul.

A lot of people are going to get killed before that gets done.”

1535 words
22 January 2007
The Daily Express
English
(c) 2007 Express Newspapers

George willing to raise funds for Obama campaign

Obama’s staff was busy working the Hollywood crowd this week to set up a number of gatherings here in February. “People are falling over each other to have fundraisers,” said one insider. Nothing is set, but there’s talk that Geffen will hold a fundraiser for Obama here next month. George Clooney, meanwhile, said he would also be willing to raise money for Obama’s bid. After all, Clooney said recently, he and Obama have been close friends for several years. (LA Times)

George Mention: Barack Obama

Sure, he [Barack Obama] is on easy street at the moment — and not really tested politically — but he oozes charisma. In fact for just plain sex appeal, Obama is right up there with George Clooney. Last April he shared a press conference with the Hollywood actor to elevate the crisis in Darfur. They had to shut the doors to the room of the National Press Club leaving many young women bereft outside. They had come to see Clooney but it was Obama who carried the room. I asked him afterwards if he outdid Clooney. “Man, I’m just a dim lightbulb compared to that guy.” (The Australian)

George Mention: Obama Campaign

DreamWorks SKG moguls Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, along with activist actors George Clooney and Barbra Streisand, each forked over $2,000 to Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign, according to Newsmeat.com, a Web site that tracks celeb contributions. In October, Clooney said an Obama presidential bid “would be the most electrifying thing to happen to the Democratic Party since [President John F.] Kennedy,” the Los Angeles Times reported. He could not be reached for comment yesterday. (NY Daily News)

Senator Clooney?