George Clooney Research Articles

Reinventing foreign aid

The urgency of reducing poverty in the developing world has been the subject of a public campaign by such unlikely policy experts as George Clooney, Alicia Keyes, Elton John, Angelina Jolie, and Bono. And yet accompanying the call for more foreign aid is an almost universal discontent with the effectiveness of the existing aid system. In Reinventing Foreign Aid, development expert William Easterly has gathered top scholars in the field to discuss how to improve foreign aid. These authors, Easterly points out, are not claiming that their ideas will (to invoke a current slogan) Make Poverty History. Rather, they take on specific problems and propose some hard-headed solutions. Easterly himself, in an expansive and impassioned introductory chapter, makes a case for the searchers -- who explore solutions by trial and error and learn from feedback -- over the planners -- who throw an endless supply of resources at a big goal -- as the most likely to reduce poverty. Other writers look at scientific evaluation of aid projects (including randomized trials) and describe projects found to be cost-effective, including vaccine delivery and HIV education; consider how to deal with the government of the recipient state (work through it or bypass a possibly dysfunctional government?); examine the roles of the International Monetary Fund (a de-facto aid provider) and the World Bank; and analyze some new and innovative proposals for distributing aid. Contributors Abhijit Banerjee, Nancy Birdsall, Craig Burnside, Esther Duflo, Domenico Fanizza, William Easterly, Ruimin He, Kurt Hoffman, Stephen Knack, Michael Kremer, Mari Kuraishi, Ruth Levine, Bertin Martens, John McMillan, Edward Miguel, Jonathan Morduch, Todd Moss, Gunilla Pettersson, Lant Pritchett, Steven Radelet, Aminur Rahman, Ritva Reinikka, Jakob Svensson, Nicolas van de Walle, James Vreeland, Dennis Whittle, Michael Woolcock.

The Downside of Celebrity Diplomacy: The Neglected Complexity of Development

Celebrities have become important participants in the debate on the future of development. The Irish rock star Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, is not only the front man of the band U2 but has also become the champion of an antipoverty movement with worldwide impact. Bono is supported by US economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has become a global spokesperson for poverty reduction, especially in Africa. Surprisingly, the recipes being suggested by Bono and Sachs are breath-takingly one-dimensional and akin to the sweeping propositions of the 1960s: give aid to Africa, waive debt, and provide education, and the continent will develop. While these remedies may look seductive, unfortunately the reality is far more complex and demands attention to the specific circumstance of each individual country or subregion. Grand ideas for development are a dangerous recipe and may in fact worsen the situation of the poor. In this article we address three issues related to the role of celebrities in international relations. First, we chart the rise of prominent celebrity activists in international affairs, in particular their impact on development policies of the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Second, we examine the competence of celebrities to handle development issues and suggest a more nuanced and less paternalistic approach. Third, we consider the legitimacy of celebrity activists and whether these nonelected individuals are well positioned to berate democratically elected governments. Celebrities in Politics At the beginning of the twenty-first century, development policy is heavily influenced, in the words of Paul Collier, by development biz and development buzz. (1) Development biz encompasses the aid bureaucracies, aid agencies, and development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), all of whom make a living out of development. Development buzz, for its part, comes from rock stars, celebrities, and NGOs. Development buzz has been a door opener for Bono and other celebrities in recent years. In 1999, Bono had an audience with Pope John Paul II. Six years later, Time magazine named Bono, together with Melinda and Bill Gates, as Persons of the Year. Bono has attended the World Economic Forum in Davos as well as several summits of the Group of 8 (G8). He and fellow activist Bob Geldof gained particular prominence at the Gleneagles G8 summit of 2005 and the Heiligendamm G8 summit of 2007. At Gleneagles, Bono had one-on-one meetings with George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schroder, and Paul Martin and also met Jacques Chirac after the summit. (2) At Heiligendamm, Bono again claimed center stage, holding meetings with various leading politicians. His supporters even set up camp in Berlin months before the event. The attention celebrity diplomats received surrounding Heiligendamm was overwhelming. For example, for its May 2007 edition, Vanity Fair had a German singer, Herbert Gronemeyer, as its guest editor, and dozens of celebrities expressed their concern about poverty and hunger. Concurrently Bob Geldof was guest editor of an issue of the German tabloid Bild-Zeitung that laced pleas for greater development assistance with pictures of dying children and people afflicted with AIDS. (3) Efficient public relations work has made celebrities core players who had better be consulted. Politicians today can hardly avoid meetings with Bono. When Stephen Harper, Canadian prime minister, said he was too busy for a meeting with Bono during the Heiligendamm summit, the rock star did not take no for an answer. He growled that Harper had blocked progress on aid for Africa, and the intimidated prime minister promised to find time for a meeting. (4) Celebrity diplomacy extends well beyond G8 meetings and development issues, of course. George Clooney pronounces on Darfur. Robert Red-ford pronounces on Iraq. Not everyone is impressed. …

Review: Surrender is not an Option

SURRENDER IS NOT AN OPTION Defending America at United Nations and Abroad John Bolton New York: Threshold Editions, 2007. 496pp, US $27.00 cloth (ISBN 1416552847)Before we get onto what this reviewer thinks of John Bolton's memoir, it is worth pondering what Bolton would think of this reviewer. He might not be too positive, as represent a lot of things former American ambassador to United Nations doesn't like. Firstly, I'm British, and he's wary of intellectually snobbish Brits (210). I'm even the son of a British diplomat, an epithet he applies with particular disdain to one minor opponent (201). There are ideological as well as genealogical issues: am a qualified believer in international potential of European Union, which must make me one of EUroids (204), whose advocacy of international norms and multilateralism profoundly threatens to diminish American autonomy and self-government, notions that to spell 'sovereignty' (429). Worst of all, think that UN also has real value (if you require page references, you're missing point-we're talking about John Bolton).Unsurprisingly, Surrender is Not an Option is not aimed at likes of me. Bolton states that his audience is to be found in Middle America. He is concerned that many of his fellow nationals are too easily beguiled by multilateral institutions, and specifically UN. For them, the United Nations to this day remains UN of UNICEF trick-or-treating on Halloween, and of famine-relief efforts in natural disasters, or combating diseases in developing countries (197). A prominent critic of UN since 1980s and an unremittingly controversial ambassador in New York from mid-2005 to December 2006, author now sets out to disillusion who still think glowingly of UN as they had imagined it on Halloweens long ago (198). His volume may be a first in international relations literature-a book explicitly intended to sour childhood memories.To achieve this goal, he takes through his tenure at UN in extraordinary detail. Surrender is Not an Option is not entirely given over to Mr. Bolton's time in New York: first 40-odd pages canter through majority of his career, culminating in his involvement in 2000 Florida recount (although he says virtually nothing of that episode). There follows a longer description of his period as T, assistant secretary of state for arms control during George W. Bush's first administration that included American withdrawal from anti-ballistic missile treaty and a range of other agreements. It is in this part of book that we encounter author's preferred form of prose-highly involved descriptions of diplomatic negotiations enlivened by breaking of confidences, ad hominem attacks on most other participants, and a lot of jokes. This is style he maintains through main part of book, a prolonged account of his time at UN, which is followed by a much slighter set of thoughts on future challenges.Curiously, most interesting element of entire project may be jokes. We already know quite a lot about humour of Bush administration-Bob Woodward has revealed, for example, that president finds flatulence funny. Bolton, is more interested in verbal repartee, and from time to time he is genuinely witty. Describing a visit by George Clooney to New York to discuss Darfur before security council, he notes that actor was swarmed by female staffers, providing humility lessons, and therefore character-building, for rest of us (356). However, he is best at skewering those he dislikes with one-liners-and he knows it-returning to some victims repeatedly. Taken individually, his put-downs can be brutally effective (watching his British counterpart negotiate, he notes, I often wondered how Britain had acquired an empire, although he proved why they had lost America) but cumulative effect does get tedious (227). …

Istanbul 2007

ISTANBUL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Istanbul International Film Festival (31 March-15 April 2007) celebrated its 26th birthday this spring with more than 200 films from around the world. This year, for the first time in its history, the festival opened with a film by a Turkish director, Ferzan Özpetek although the Italian production Saturn Opposite about depressed 40-year olds nostalgic about their youth, featuring some of the well-known actors of Italy could hardly be considered a Turkish film. The closing film was the US production, The Good German by Steven Soderbergh featuring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. The films that compete for the Golden Tulip award are chosen for their relation to art and the artist or are adaptations from literary works. The fact that Istanbul takes place shortly before Cannes makes it rather difficult to find quality films for the International Competition, which had not been previously screened elsewhere....

The Strange Career of Annie Lee Moss: Rethinking Race, Gender, and McCarthyism

Annie Lee Moss is hardly a household name. She had her fifteen minutes (or so) of fame in March 1954, when Edward R. Murrow dedicated an episode of his television news show, See It Now, to her appearance before Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Permanent Sub committee on Investigations. McCarthy had charged that Moss, an African American civilian Pentagon employee who allegedly had access to top-secret coded messages, was a card-carrying member of the Communist party (cp). Murrow's broadcast went a long way toward discrediting those claims; ultimately, Moss remained an army clerk, labor ing in obscurity until her retirement in 1975, at age sixty-nine. When she reappeared in George Clooney's 2005 paean to Murrow, Good Night, and Good Luck, she had been long forgotten by all but a coterie of McCarthy scholars and right-wing apologists for McCarthyism.1 This seemingly unimportant federal employee had a rather strange career. Like many other Americans, she was caught up in the loyalty-security programs of the Harry S. Tru man and Dwight D. Eisenhower administrations, but the extent of official attention paid to her was unusual. She was subjected to at least three investigations, three job suspen sions, and several transfers for security purposes. J. Edgar Hoover believed she merited his close attention, and the secretary of defense once personally intervened on her behalf. She also appeared before both the House Committee on Un-American Activities (huac) and McCarthy's subcommittee. Even more strange is the enduring career of Annie Lee Moss as a symbol of Cold War politics. Long before George Clooney brought her again to the national stage, historians and pundits had offered her as a sign of McCarthy's evil or of his vindication. The debate over Moss has centered on whether or not McCarthy was correct. Was this humble Negress actually a Communist? And if she was, does that justify the Cold War?era red scare and the senator's part in it? For liberal commentators from Mur row to Clooney, Moss was a little woman who was incomprehensible as a Communist;

Pudovkin and the Censors: Juan Antonio Bardem's Muerte de un ciclista

In the light of Juan Antonio Bardem's appeal for Spanish directors to avail themselves of digital technology to reconstruct a censored Spanish twentieth-century past, this article considers the influence on Bardem of Vsevolod Pudovkin and suggests that, although digital technology allows for an apparently seamless cinematic reconstruction of the past, along the lines of George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck (2005), the Soviet-style disruption used by Bardem in Muerte de un ciclista may appeal just as effectively to the human psyche. It argues that this appeal lies with Pudovkin's point that 'editing is not merely a method of the junction of separate scenes or pieces, but is a method that controls the "psychological guidance" of the spectator'. So that for contemporary viewers and film-makers Muerte de un ciclista offers a reminder that dialogue, editing and mise-en-scène can manipulate viewer response with disruptive mechanisms that echo those of the unconscious and that have no need for the innovations of the digital age.

Good Night, and Good Luck

In Good Night, and Good Luck, director George Clooney and screenwriter Grant Heslov employ the 1954 confrontation between cbs newsman Edward R. Murrow (played in stoic fashion by veteran character actor David Strathairn) and Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy to comment on contemporary politics in the age of terror. The liberal Clooney contrasts the timidity of a corporate media that failed to challenge the George W. Bush administration's assumptions regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq with the courage Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly (George Clooney) displayed. The film evokes the mood of the 1950s through ubiquitous swirling cigarette smoke, claustrophobic newsrooms (there are no exterior scenes in the film), stark black-and-white cinematography, which allows the filmmakers to show historical footage of McCarthy, and a classic jazz soundtrack featuring Dianne Reeves as a performer in the style of Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald. The ambiguity and paradox of the era are also apparent in the film's conclusion. Murrow plays a key role in bringing McCarthy down, yet the reporter's role at the network is reduced by board chair William Paley (Frank Langella), who is concerned about the impact of political controversy on corporate sponsorship. This astute film eschews the simplicity of the liberal hero slaying the reactionary dragon.

Electric Cars For Enlightened Stars

This paper presents the Tesla roadster, created by a start-up, Tesla Motors. It is powered by lithium-ion batteries. It is a zero-carbon vehicle a new fashion accessory for actors like George Clooney

“See it Now” in Lurid Black and White: Good Night, and Good Luck, a film by Warner Independent Pictures, directed by George Clooney (2005)

“See it Now” in Lurid Black and White: <i>Good Night, and Good Luck</i>, a film by Warner Independent Pictures, directed by George Clooney (2005)

ER on DVD – The complete fourth seasonDVD 4-disc box setER on DVD – The Complete Fourth SeasonWarner Home Video950 minutes£49.99

Long-running medical drama ERwas in its heyday with this fourth series. The original cast is largely intact, including George Clooney turning out for his last season as heart-throb paediatrician Doug Ross.

There's nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard but they whom the truth would indite

The story is purely fiction of course and I would not like any of you to leave with the impression that this could really happen in a country that so values truth, openness and accountability. The plot surrounds a brutal murder in the fictional town of Kilmarnock in Scotland. The hero is a tall young and good looking ex-policeman Iain McKie, father of the heroine Shirley McKie, a police detective who has been accused of leaving her fingerprint at this murder scene. (Sources tell me that George Clooney is lined up to play the father in the film.) The 'heavies' operate within the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO), an organisation whose activities are shrouded in mystery. Their experts identified Shirley's print and for six years have refused to admit their mistake.

Will you miss me when I'm gone?: the Carter Family and their legacy in American music

The first major biography of the Carter family follows the musical pioneers who almost single-handedly established the sound and traditions that grew into folk, country, and bluegrass music--a style most recently popularized in the George Clooney hit movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? of photos.

Err, New Boundaries for Fiction?! ER's 'Live' Episode

Err, New Boundaries for Fiction?! ER's 'Live' Episode

Families and Time

and Time. Kerry Daly. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 1996. 200 pp. Softcover ISBN 08039-7341-1 $21.95. I'm writing this review during the semester break in December (what better get things done that you want to, but that don't really count for promotion or merit increase). During the break my wife and I went Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney's romantic comedy, One Fine Day. In the movie, two highly motivated and occupationally successful single parents try manage their careers, spend quality with their children, and start romance. I came out of the show exhausted from watching them and not really sure that in real life romances budded so naturally and quickly, children were so easily contented, and employment so effectively handled. As Kerry Daly notes, Families live in frenzied temporal climate (p. 37). Most of us never seem have enough and want find more for families, work, relationships, and leisure, but we tend see time, as Daly reminds us, like gravity; it is just something that is. Daly's goal in and Time is to allow percolate the surface . . . in order . . . understand the degree which it is pervasive in the experiential world of (p. 3). He endeavors develop theory about families and that focuses on the meanings, structures, and politics of family time (p. 3). To this end, Daly seeks demonstrate that time, instead of simply being taken-for-granted reality, is highly diverse, socially constructed concept. Daly begins by describing the various metaphors used in discussing time, starting with the traditional models of circular and linear time. He goes on discuss economic metaphors, dialectic metaphors, and acceleration metaphors used with time. Each chapter then explores how families experience these myriad forms of time. Daly extensively reviews the empirical literature as well as the theoretical and philosophical literature in each chapter. Chapters 24 look at the patterns of in family life, including the relationship between family and historical time, how is socially constructed, and the ideology of family time. Daly then examines the politics of family in Chapters 5-8. This includes discussions of the properties of that subject it control, the dynamics of control between families and the institutions and environments surrounding them, the gender dynamics of family time, and generational issues in the control of family time. Lastly, in Chapter 9, Daly presents his integrated theory of family with both practice and research implications. Daly views theory as meaning structure, a composite of ideas and explanations that provide insight into the dynamics, dimensions, and relationships of particular phenomenon (p. xv). Theory is an ever-changing dynamic rooted in who we are as scientists, in empirical evidence, and in the culture we are in and the experiences we have. Thus, his theory does not have boxes and arrows and levels of abstraction clearly articulated. As such, the theory is free go where it may and change as it needs to, but it is consequently difficult conceptualize as whole. …