Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Put on your party dress …

By Caroline Graham and Sharon Churcher - (Mail Online)

George Clooney once famously declared 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’.

But now the Hollywood heart-throb has entered the political arena at
the highest level – by becoming an unofficial adviser to US Presidential front-runner Barack Obama.

Oscar-winner Clooney, 47, is said to be helping the Democratic candidate to polish his image at home and abroad.

But he is also sharing with Obama his strong opinions on Iraq and the Middle East.

Sources say the actor has tried to hide the pair’s friendship for fear his Left-wing views and playboy image would hurt the Presidential hopeful’s bid for the White House.

But Democratic Party insiders have revealed that Clooney and Obama regularly send texts and emails to each other and speak by phone at least twice a week.

One said last night: ‘They are extremely close. A number of members of the Hollywood community, including Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, offered to help raise funds for Barack but it was with George that he struck up this amazing affinity.

‘George has been giving him advice on things such as presentation, public speaking and body language and he also emails him constantly about policy, especially the Middle East.

‘George is pushing him to be more “balanced” on issues such as US relations with Israel.

‘George is pro-Palestinian. And he is also urging Barack to withdraw unconditionally from Iraq if he wins.

‘It’s a very risky relationship. His hope of becoming America’s first black President depends heavily on winning over conservative voters and it would be suicidal for him to be perceived as a tool of a Hollywood Leftie, which is how they regard George.

‘But they text and email each other almost every day and speak on the phone at least a couple of times a week, often more.’

The Ocean’s Eleven star is among many Hollywood figures to have endorsed Obama, including Barbra Streisand, Scarlett Johansson, Warren Beatty and Steven Spielberg.

One of Clooney’s trusted acquaintances said: ‘George is a master at crafting his own image and he is helping Obama to hone his image both domestically and abroad.

‘He told me he feels Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime leader. He is doing everything he can behind the scenes to bolster support in Hollywood, not just with other celebrities but with the money men at the studios.’

The acquaintance added: ‘He has tried to keep the true extent of their involvement out of the Press because he is frightened of alienating voters.’

Clooney himself has admitted in an interview: ‘I’ve had the conversation with him saying, “Look, I’ll give you whatever support you need, including staying completely away from you.”’

The star has never tried to hide his liberal views and last week announced he is making a £15million film about the lawyer who defended Osama Bin Laden’s former driver, Salim Hamdan, on terror charges.

Clooney’s spokesman Stan Rosen-feld said last night: ‘I know they have spoken. I view it as a private conversation.’ Obama’s Press office did not comment.

Meanwhile, What PROMISES to be a guaranteed box office blockbuster …George Clooney plans to film story of Bin Laden’s driver

by Paul Harris - (Guardian UK)George Clooney, already one of Hollywood’s leading liberal voices, has embarked on what may be one of his most controversial projects: the story of Osama bin Laden’s driver.

Clooney’s production company, Smokehouse, has bought the rights to a book about Salim Hamdan, an inmate at Guantánamo Bay who last week was sentenced to jail for his role in helping the al-Qaeda leader. The book, The Challenge, is by journalist Jonathan Mahler and tells the story of Hamdan’s capture and trial, defended by a US navy lawyer, Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift. It has had a big critical success.

Last week Yemen-born Hamdan, who has already spent seven years in US custody, received a surprisingly light sentence of just five and a half years for being bin Laden’s driver in Afghanistan. Prosecutors had billed the case as a key plank in the ‘War on Terror’, designed to show that terrorists could be dealt with by Guantánamo. They had described Hamdan as a member of bin Laden’s inner circle who had knowledge of his terrorist plans.

Defence lawyers, however, portrayed him as a simple man who had taken a high-paying job in order to feed his family. A military jury seemed to agree with that assessment, clearing him of terrorist conspiracy charges, but finding him guilty of providing support to a terrorist.

The case became a cause célèbre on both sides of America’s political divide. Supporters saw it as a chance to show Guantánamo was effectively and fairly dealing with terrorists. Critics, meanwhile, saw it as an abusive system that was using low-level prisoners as scapegoats.

Clooney is believed to be interested in playing the role of lawyer Swift and the case certainly has all the drama and tension of any fictional legal thriller. Aside from the terrorism and exotic locations, The Challenge describes Swift’s battle as a classic case of a crusading ‘little guy’ winning against the odds. When he was first assigned Hamdan’s case Swift was a relatively inexperienced, young military lawyer. Few expected him to mount much of a defence. But he led a team that took Hamdan’s case to the Supreme Court and won. However, his work was not without cost, as he pushed the case so hard it cost him his marriage and saw him passed over for promotion.

But Swift did not stop. Last week, during Hamdan’s sentencing, he appealed to the court to let him go back to his family in Yemen: something now seen as a possibility given the length of time he has served. ‘The best chance for him to rehabilitate is to reunite with that family. He won’t put them at risk again,’ Swift said. In an ending that seems written for a movie, the military judge in the trial, Captain Keith Allred, even said in court that he hoped Hamdan would see his family soon.