Waiting for George

Dear Blog Readers,

I am on a train headed from Rome to Venice where I will be spending the next five days with the AP television team covering the George Clooney wedding extravaganza.   As we all know, the world is going to hell in a hand basket.  Members of the Islamic State are decapitating journalists, the US is responding with tomahawk missiles, the world is getting warmer by the day (our beloved Maine loons may even go extinct soon), President Putin of Russia keeps staking out more claim to Ukraine, the Europeans economies are stuck in the mud, President Obama has gone completely grey, and Kate Middleton has terrible morning sickness—it is enough to make one want to stay in bed all day.

So, when handsome Hollywood star George Clooney announced a few weeks ago in Florence that he is planning to wed his gorgeous girlfriend, Amal Alamuddin, in Venice at the end of the month, our Entertainment and News departments decided we had better cover. The world needs something beside doom and death to think about.

So for the past few days I’ve been reading all the gossip columns and magazines that you find at the hair-dressers, I’ve been hounding my one friend in Venice and I have come together with an idea of what is going to happen.  It could all be wrong of course.  This isn’t AP reporting, it is just my blog preview.

First, who is George marrying?  Her name is Amal Alamuddin and she is a 36-year-old, Oxford educated human rights lawyer of Lebanese Druse descent.  She first made headlines for working as a lawyer for Wikileaks leader Julian Assange.  She is tall, slim; elegant with long dark hair and eyes—a far cry from the curvaceous, beautiful, more frivolous lightweights Clooney has hooked up with in the past.   She is intelligent, speaks Arabic, French and English, is glamorous and apparently rich. (Word has it her family is insisting on paying for the wedding).

When I immediately offered to handle our TV coverage of George Clooney’s wedding this weekend in Venice, AP Television’s Europe Editor Susie Blann said, “oh, there you go again, stalking George, when will you give up on him!”  Susie and I were working together covering the 2009 G8 summit in Aquila when we got word that George Clooney was arriving in a helicopter in a village destroyed by the earthquake.  I rushed off with a cameraman and photographer and managed to get an interview.  I was so happy about my photo with George that I sent it to half the world.  If you want to see the photo of me interviewing George in Aquila, check out this blog post “Door-stepping the High and Mighty.”  So it’s back to stalking George Porgy.

Word has it that Clooney has taken over two hotels in Venice.  The bride, Amal, and her entourage will be saying at the 7-star (I didn’t know any hotel had seven stars) Hotel Aman, otherwise known as the Palazzo Papadopoli owned by Count Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga (can you imagine going to elementary school with that name?) on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge.  George has apparently taken over the rather shabbier (only 5 stars) Hotel Cipriani on the Giudecca Island. He has allegedly booked his regular apartment there and the rest of the hotel for the guests.

Now the rumors are flying about who the guests to the exclusive event are going to be.  Various reports say the number is around 120 and among them Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Sandra Bullock, Cindy Crawford, Randy Gerber, Emily Blunt, Tilda Swinton, and Grant Heslow.  Amal’s sister Tala will be maid-of-honor.  Both Andrea Bocelli and Lana Del Rey are rumored to be performing at some point during the weekend’s events.

The guests should arrive tomorrow (we will be staking out the airport for all the private planes expected to be flying in), and George and Amal should be coming up from his Villa Oleandra on Lake Como.   They will be holding a casual dinner tomorrow night at the Hotel Cipriani.

Then on Saturday, there is the first of the two wedding ceremonies, to be held around 11am at the Aman Hotel.  We are anticipating that there will be a long line of water taxis escorting the guests down the Grand Canal from the Cipriani Hotel to the Aman Hotel for this event, and I plan to have several cameramen trying to get that shot.   The water taxi driver who we are hiring has already warned me that we can forget about getting around in the Grand Canal on Saturday—it will be a zoo.  I interviewed a waiter today named Antonio Solperto who works at the Saraceno restaurant near the Rialto Bridge.  He told me, “I am very happy that George Clooney is coming to celebrate his wedding here in Venice. He is a person of prestige.”

Other Venetians were equally enthusiastic, I found Roberto Gatto enjoying a drink with a friend at an outdoor cafe near the Hotel Cipriani, he explained to me why he thought Clooney wanted to get married in Venice, “Because it is the most beautiful city in the world, and the most romantic, it is the perfect place for a wedding.  Venice is a myth for anyone who wants to fulfill their desires.”

Now here is where it all gets a bit confusing.  There will still be another ceremony – a civil ceremony apparently at the Venice City Hall, presided over by Rome’s former Mayor, cinema buff and big friend of Clooney’s, Walter Veltroni.  This is the one element we can confirm.  Veltroni had to submit papers to be able to preside over this ceremony in Venice.

Today the Venice city hall ordered an area around the Palazzo Cavalli (part of the Venice City Hall where marriages are celebrated) to be closed on Monday from 12 noon until 2pm due to the Clooney wedding.

Apparently the city was worried about fans, journalists and paparazzi overwhelming the place.  The local newspaper also reported that at 7am yesterday a fill-in bride was participating in dress-rehearsals crossing the canal from the Aman Hotel and stepping off of a boat on the city hall side.

In between all these ceremonies, parties are expected on Saturday and Sunday nights – but we are not sure exactly where, probably the Cipriani.   Let’s just say we will be standing around on Venetian bridges, wading into canals and perching on rooftops trying to do the paparazzi thing and get a glimpse of the glamour.

While I am tossing around rumors, let me mention a few more – the bride is expected to wear either an Oscar De La Renta dress, or an Alexander Mcqueen dress, or maybe a dress by designer Sarah Burton – perhaps with all that is going on, all three.  George is reportedly going to be wearing an Armani suit.

Now many people have been asking me about why George—at age 53, who swore he would remain single forever, is now tying the know.  After all, he is the man who bet actress Michelle Pfieffer $100,000 that he would never marry again. (He was briefly married to actress Talia Balsam)

Again, I have nothing solid here, but rumors have it that George is planning on entering politics and has found himself an ideal political spouse. (I am not thinking in the “House of Cards” sense).  It is interesting to think that George would want to get his hands dirty in the world of politics.  With all his success as an actor and director, he is free to lead a life of luxury while dipping into the social projects that interest him, such a South Sudan.  But power is seductive and maybe he wants to try his hand.  But what position would he be interested in?  I think his family is from Kentucky, but does he have a residence there, or is he based in California?  Does he want to follow in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger and become governor of California?  Or how about Senator from California, or Kentucky, using that seat as a launching pad, just as Hillary used her Senate seat in New York.  Speaking of Hillary, how about running as Hillary’s Vice Presidential candidate.  Now that would make a hot ticket!!

Well, blog readers, that is enough gossiping and rumormongering for now.  My train will arrive shortly in Venice and hopefully there I will be able to gather some more concrete information.

More updates coming soon…