So here’s what’s been coming up a lot in my inbox about Amal Alamuddin after the weekend wedding Spectacular! Spectacular!
1.She loves the attention, therefore she must be a famewhore
2.If she’s a famewhore, she can’t do her job.
3.When is she doing her job?
Amal Alamuddin’s credentials speak for themselves. She speaks several different languages. She’s the UN’s go-to on a number of pressing human rights issues. She’s widely regarded in her field.
So…why would you doubt her ability to do her job just because she was planning a wedding? You don’t think that a woman with her education and experience could write her papers and consult with her clients and pick some dresses and hang out with her fiancé now husband at the time? Isn’t that… insulting?
George Clooney once said that fame arrests at the age it arrives. If you’re 16 when you get famous, you’ll stay 16 forever. He also once told Ben Mulroney on etalk that if he’d broken out when he was in his teens, he’d probably be shooting crack into his eyes, that’s how f-cked up it would be. And the point is that when he actually became a celebrity, he was well into his 30s, equipped with many of the skills he’d need to navigate that reality.
The same could apply now to his wife. She’s 36 years old. She’s a fully formed person. She’s mature, she’d confident, she’s informed.
She knows herself.
And I think we saw that on the water in Venice this weekend. We saw a woman getting married, knowing that she had the world’s attention, and not letting it mess with her head. She waved, she smiled, she didn’t wig out, she didn’t cry, she was excited, she was poised, she was graceful, she was gracious.
What is the problem?
PEOPLE has released some of the wedding details in their online report and what I find interesting were the comments from their parents. This is what Nick Clooney said at the event:
"George and Amal present us with ... belief that in this place and at this moment, love is alive and well."
And this is the quote that they chose to share from Amal’s mother:
“George, we love you truly, deeply and sincerely. We enjoy your charm, your wit, intelligent conversation and generosity. You are simply perfect."
It was like…she was telling him he was good enough for Amal. Like they, the Alamuddins, are the ones who have to be earned. Because their daughter is the actual star in this relationship.
She is a star.
And that’s where we bring it back to the idea of her being a famewhore. Sure. I don’t disagree with you there. Not because I think she’s Mrs Timberlake but because Amal Alamuddin is a barrister. In the movies, they take some creative licence in courtroom depictions, fine, but come on, isn’t a barrister somewhat of a performer? Isn’t a barrister the person with the spotlight on that particular stage delivering a set of lines?
Amal’s lines are exponentially more important than the lines that are delivered from an actor, but here’s a woman who understands the power of a well-executed argument, the consequence of a poorly stated position, someone who very much appreciates the impact of an inspiring monologue – in her case, actual lives hang in the balance. She has to know her sh-t backwards and forwards, she has to have that research picked apart and put back together.
But she also HAS TO SELL IT.
That’s what great lawyers do. They sell. Just like great actors.
So, maybe that comfort that you’re seeing from her in being the centre of attention isn’t so much a hunger for celebrity than it is another example of how she’s just really good at her job.
