Celebretarian Intervention

When did Hollywood become Washington for good-looking people?

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | MARCH 16, 2012

 

Between the Bieber and Gaga-fueled spread of the Kony 2012 campaign and George Clooney's arrest in Washington, celebrity activism seems to be the trending topic of the moment. Activists tend to grumble at celebrity do-gooders, but cable networks and politicians tend to focus on the world's undercovered hotspots more easily when there's a famous face to go along with a worthy cause. Here's a look at 10 stars who, for better or worse, are shaping the debate on global poverty and conflict.

GEORGE CLOONEY

Cause: Sudan

Activities: In 2010, the actor helped found the Satellite Sentinel project to monitor human rights abuses in South Sudan. More recently, he traveled to Sudan to document violence in the Nuba mountains, where the Sudanese government is accused of blocking humanitarian assistance as part of an effort to crack down on separatists. Upon his return, he testified before the U.S. Congress, debriefed President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on his trip, and sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama at David Cameron's State Dinner. On March 16, he was arrested along with his father at a protest outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington.

 SUBJECTS:
 

Joshua E. Keating is an associate editor at Foreign Policy.

AIPAC ZIO TEAM LEADERV HEHE

10:57 PM ET

March 16, 2012

hollywonks or hollydinks?

Is that were all about? image? the morally vapid now telling us what think and how we should act? really?from these bloated hollywood morons?

 

BDL2010

8:35 AM ET

March 17, 2012

some approaches are better than others...

Raising awareness the right way is one thing, getting arrested and throwing money at a problem doesn't help the cause much. Maybe they see it as a case of any publicity is better than no publicity.

But on a side note where can I buy one of those AK-47 T-shirts that Gosling is wearing?

 

WEDDING SINGER LONDON

10:56 AM ET

March 17, 2012

Clooney for President!

I think George Clooney has the making of a great politician !

His participation and subsequent arrest gave the cause more promo than they could have wished for and highlighted the unwritten wedding between being in the public eye and helping things in the public eye, which George does well and unlike lots of celebrities that have jumped on peace bandwagon, he has testified to committees and travelled to this torn countries to try and further highlight the problems that are occurring.

 

LONDONLOFTCONVERSIONS

11:38 PM ET

March 18, 2012

George

I agree - George is certainly a great candidate for president -good to see a celeb get arrested for the sake of a good cause rather than some other misdemeanour!!!

 

1853N

6:11 AM ET

March 18, 2012

Uhm...

Who's the swedish ski-instructor standing next to Kirsten Bell? It certainly isnt Ryan Gosling.

 

1853N

6:14 AM ET

March 18, 2012

Ooops...

yeah, i see what i did there...

 

BROWNSHIRTSFORFAGS

9:02 AM ET

March 18, 2012

clooney is just another typical self aggrandizing hollywood guy

please.....enough with these druggeg out found my new religion hollywood people....

 

MARIAHTERESITA

9:41 AM ET

March 18, 2012

Capture Kony

"Raising awareness the right way is one thing, getting arrested and throwing money at a problem doesn't help the cause much. Maybe they see it as a case of any publicity is better than no publicity Josefina Vazquez Mota." - Right right raising the awareness should always go the right way, not causing troubles..I hope Kony Shall be arrested for what he has done!

 

JAN Z. VOLENS

10:01 PM ET

March 18, 2012

U.S. strategic geopolitical "soft power": Hollywood & "Pop"!

General Martin Dempsey, speaking a month ago to the students at Duke University (where he had studied for his M.A. in English literature): "Last week Angelina Jolie was in my office. She wanted some orientation for her international activities!". In the german online "taz.de" the journalist Reinecke wondered about Angelina Jolie's prominent participation in the promotion of the movie which despicts human rights problems during the years after the war against Yugoslavia and he remarked about this obvious message - that at the end, the White Knight comes riding in , in the form of U.S. attack jets! --- The Permanent Foreign Strategy "coven" in the U.S. and the interest of actors to self-promote - is the ideal combination which will increasingly be used by the U.S. and Britain, as their strategies shift to naval domination coupled with "special forces" intervention, AFTER the "humanitarian" NGOs and their "personalities" (such as actors or clergy) have prepared public opinion for the "move". --- But, while the media follows the "personalities" who "work" on preparing the climate for an intervention of U.S. Africom and NATO - there are already other Hollywood personalities detached to prepare the U.S.&NATO future operation - later this decade or in the 2020's against those uppity South Americans, "who are destroying the Amazon, warming the world climate and suppress the rights of indigenous people" --- while developing major oil discoveries and cranking up their extraction of rare earth. Thus one of the crowd of the Sha of Iran's Savak - the CIA sponsored police organization in Iran after President Mossadeque was ousted in 1953, has recruited the "Avatar" producer James Cameron and actross Sigorney Weaver to create publicity against Brazil's national project, the Belo Monte hydro-electric dam. But wait - then also Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton appeared as "odd-couple-tag-team" in the Amazon to propagandize against Brazil's hydro-eletric-dam projects. Yes, Bill and Hillary even put some of their own money behind it - because Clinton Global Initiative - is on the list of Brazil's National Intelligency Agency (ABIN) among the U.S. and British NGOs that are active in Brazil to counter Brazil's development projects.

 

ASCHOPS

12:48 AM ET

March 19, 2012

 

BLUE13326

1:45 AM ET

March 19, 2012

Rich (mostly white) liberals

Rich (mostly white) liberals looking to help Africa (and generally accomplishing nothing good for the people there)....this has been going on for generations now...

 

SEOSEMLT

5:48 AM ET

March 19, 2012

I think

I think Clooney is the great cadidate for the U.S. president. Advokatas

 

MCGANNONMA

8:59 AM ET

March 19, 2012

Why is everyone knocking them

Why is everyone knocking them just because they work in Hollywood? That’s just their job, are they not entitled to have an opinion or speak out on world issues? Do you really think that career politicians are doing any better? How many of the folks in Washington are going overseas to do anything? How many people in Washington are putting up their own money or raising money to support these issues? How many of the people in Washington are doing anything at all to raise awareness about any issues that don’t benefit their chance at reelection.

 

TARDALOVA

10:52 AM ET

March 19, 2012

McGannonma

I am inclined to agree. While some of this maybe for promotional reasons, most of these people are out there (in some cases on the ground) bringing to light to the horrors of human rights abuses throughout the world. It seems that anytime any group or individual stands up and try's to champion a cause, they (famous or not ) are subject to critical and vicious attacks. Its almost like helping people is only okay for a select few whom are experts in foreign policy, or that are affiliated with the UN, USAID, or select NGO's.

This behavior is shameful and is coming to an end. Media is a double edged sword and people that read and give a shit about their fellow man, will find a way to help.The world is changing in that regard, but not without an ugly fight.