White House photo by Pete Souza
George Clooney headed for the White House on Tuesday for a meeting with Barack Obama to discuss the crisis in Sudan. The pair sat in a patio area outside of the Oval Office.
The actor briefed the president about his recent week-long tour of the Sudanese region. Armed with a notebook, Clooney was dressed in a dark business suit. Accompanying the Hollywood A-Lister was human rights activist John Prendergast, but it was reportedly George who provided the majority of the dialogue.
Clooney has been urging tough diplomacy by world leaders to prevent bloodshed, rather than waiting until it is too late – as occurred in Darfur and Rwanda.
He stressed to Obama the need for the U.S., the U.N. to keep pressure on President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in order to prevent further civil war and atrocities.
The actor’s agenda also included a meeting with Senator Dick Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and he appeared on the NBC Today Show. The television video segment with Ann Curry, available below, is subtitled ‘Clooney sounds alarm over man-made disaster’.
In his free time, the 49-year-old spends time with his girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis, 32, an Italian model and actress.
Today Show video below:
Ann Curry and George Clooney in South Sudan