God save us all from Amal the attention-seeker!
At this year’s Cannes film festival, Amal Clooney broke the golden rule of red carpet etiquette. she stole the thunder and grabbed the limelight from under the noses of the real hollywood stars, winning all the attention for herself.
trotting around on the arm of her husband, George, the hair- tossing, cheek- sucking barrister was the plus-one from hell.
Mr Clooney was there to be photographed with Julia Roberts, director Jodie Foster and British actor Dominic West, among others, to promote their new film, Money Monster.
Amal was the only one posing in the billiondollar line-up who had nothing to do with the movie — so what was she even doing there?
Far worse, she was there in an eye-popping, lemon meringue pie of a dress; one that simply refused to behave. her Atelier Versace oneshoulder gown foamed and billowed around her loins like a runaway parachute.
it revealed every inch of her flamingo legs, certainly more than was polite. the flowing train — train! — got tangled up in her towering Jimmy Choo heels. Bystanders had to be drafted in to help.
if you are the husband or wife of a star, it is your duty at public events to hover politely, but prettily in the background, basking in the reflected glow of their celebrity status. What you must never do is overshadow the talent.
Nor ever, ever upstage the leading lady, especially if that happens to be Julia Roberts. the reclusive actress, 48, had been winkled out of her New Mexico ranch and flown halfway around the world only to stand there and be ignored as Amal battled with her chiffon frills and the cameras rattled like gunfire.
Who on earth could compete with this knicker- flashing fiesta? Not even the original pretty woman Julia Roberts.
As for director Jodie Foster, she shot Amal looks that seemed to hint at more than a little malice.
Many must have looked askance at Amal in all her faux-panicked, knock- kneed gaucherie and wondered who in the legal world could take her seriously again.
it has been nearly two years since Amal Alamuddin and George Clooney were married in a lavish three-day celebration in Venice.
he was the most eligible bachelor in the world, she was the beautiful, international human rights barrister who had captured his heart. since then, the axis of Amal’s world has changed for ever. these days she seems to be a celebrity first and a lawyer second.
the most important dates in her diary are the days she blocks off to appear on the red carpet with George: the Cannes film festival, the Berlin film festival, the string of glittering movie premieres held in capital cities across the globe. Whether it is a hollywood awards ceremony or the launch of Clooney’s tequila brand in spain, she’s by his side, looking more like a movie star than a movie star does.
it is clear she loves the attention and absolutely adores being photographed. the only outward sign she might feel the pressure brought by such intense scrutiny is that she sometimes tries too hard. Way too hard.
For 38-year-old Amal has singlehandedly turned over-dressing into an art form and, whether on duty or off, she’s never seen in the same outfit twice.
her million-dollar wardrobe groans with couture and she seems to have more handbags than a mediumsized leather goods emporium.
Yes, she does a nice line in power dressing, where she looks businesslike and fabulous. then she will pitch up alongside hubby George in the kind of twee, dolly dresses most women stopped wearing when they were about six.
What kind of powerful career woman wears a too-short balloon hem and then adopts a knock-kneed girlish pose when standing next to her man? it’s all very confusing. it’s all very mixed message.
there are dreadful moments when Amal presents herself as some sort of decorative geisha at best or, at worst, a little girl in a party frock taking her old grandpa out for the day.
Watching her come across like Kim Kardashian with a law degree is all very disappointing, particularly when one considers what an inspiration she first seemed to be.
oxford-educated Amal is brilliant and beautiful. At a stage in her career when most barristers would be knuckling down to the hard grind of making their name, what is she doing?
skipping around the world with George like some rich man’s arm candy. how can this fit into the demanding timetable of a hardworking barrister?
When he was the same age as Amal, a QC friend of mine said, he didn’t have a holiday for years and delayed his wedding to take a case. surely clerks and solicitors would soon get fed up of Mrs Clooney’s plangent lack of availability?
Perhaps none of this matters. Amal is deep into Cherie Blair territory, where putative clients are as interested in their barrister’s connections and high profile as they are in her legal abilities.
When the simple act of engaging a Mrs Blair or a Mrs Clooney brings world attention to your case, you’ve practically won already. No wonder part-time Amal seems more in demand than ever.
she works for the right-on, Leftwing Doughty Chambers in London, a set of self-regarding high-achievers who like to call themselves human rights lawyers, but surely all law is human rights?
in a recent interview on U.s. tV, Mrs Clooney said some lawyers were content to work on bread-andbutter cases such as traffic violations — not her bag, baby.
she noted that they had a bigger success rate and could sleep better at night than she — with her important political cases — could.
i’m sure she didn’t mean to be patronising, but surely the man with the bogus speeding charge is just as entitled to his human rights as anyone else?
Amal specialises in the tempesttossed, she lifts her lamplight beside the golden door.
she is representing a female journalist who was detained in Azerbaijan after exposing corruption by the country’s rulers.
PReVioUsLY, she handled the case of the former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison in March 2012 under anti-terror laws.
she also helped the Greek government in its bid to have the elgin Marbles returned and has represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange — neither of those cases ended particularly well.
According to some sources, she often works for free for those in challenging circumstances. At the moment, she is a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York, between more glamorous assignments with George.
of course, she could be drafting documents on a yacht or in a firstclass plane cabin, but it is hard to imagine her ploughing through 100 lever arch files as she sifts through the evidence of a complicated case.
No one is saying her legal life is over, but it is hard to see where her career trajectory is going. it seems unlikely she will be a high Court judge or progress much further up the legal ladder. Yet perhaps her ambitions lie elsewhere.
if it is true that George Clooney will one day seek political office and become the new Kennedy, she is certainly paving the way to be his perfect Jackie.
in the meantime, are we reaching peak red-carpet Amal?
oh dear me, yes. From the top of her chocolate bouffant, to her broom- sized eyelashes, to her hemlines whipping in the wind, i do wish she’s stop trying so hard and tone it down just a notch. For her sake, as much as ours.