Clooney and his bride set sights on new life in politics
Having admitted he ‘wasn’t very good’ at marriage and declared that he would never wed again, george Clooney caused much surprise earlier this year with the announcement that he was engaged to British human rights lawyer amal alamuddin.
now, his aunt has added to the i ntrigue by confirming that the 53-year-old Hollywood actor plans to enter politics and that his glamorous, Oxford-educated fiancee, 36, will help him achieve his ambitions.
‘george will run for office now, especially after his marriage to amal, as that will open so many doors for him,’ Starla Clooney tells me from her home in Dayton, Ohio. ‘at least around here.’
Starla is married to Joe Clooney, the brother of george’s father, Tv news anchorman nick, 80, who fought unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in 2004.
‘nick ran for political office here and he lost,’ she says. ‘But being married will make george look more grounded and less of a playboy and that will be a big boost for him. and make him look more serious.’
george, who was married to actress Talia Balsam for four years from 1989, has not yet publicly admitted that he plans to seek political office. However, there has been widespread speculation that he might emulate fellow actors arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan and try to become governor of California.
Clooney, who counts Barack Obama as a close friend, once declared that he could never run for public office because he’d ‘slept with too many women, done too many drugs and been to too many parties’.
He took amal, who has represented WikiLeaks founder Julian assange in his s exual assault extradition proceedings, to meet Obama at the White House in February.
Starla, who is in her 50s, spoke to her nephew about his engagement at a recent family reunion in Kentucky.
‘george has been looking for places in the U.S. to honeymoon,’ she says. ‘He’s keeping his options open.’