Autumn wedding in London for Clooney and Alamuddin
May 01, 2014 10:21 AM (Last updated: May 01, 2014 10:47 AM)
| The Daily Star |
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| Lawyer Amal Alamuddin is pictured during a press conference in London on November 5, 2012. The British law firm that employs George Clooney’s girlfriend Amal Alamuddin confirmed on Monday April 28, 2014, that the couple were engaged and offered its congratulations. AFP PHOTO/JUSTIN TALLIS |
BEIRUT: George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin are planning to wed in a London venue this September, sources close to the couple told The Daily Star.
The Lebanese-British Alamuddin has become a source of pride and fascination in her home country after news broke of her engagement to notorious bachelor Clooney. The Lebanese media has been whipped into a frenzy, with news crews and reporters descending on Alamuddin’s ancestoral Chouf village of Baakline.
Alamuddin has also become a source of many self-depricating jokes among Lebanese at home and abroad. Blogger Amer Zahr wrote an open letter to Clooney about marrying an Arab woman that went viral on social media, warning the movie star to “strap in for the ride.”
“Oh, and we have to talk about the wedding. You may have hoped for a small, tactful affair. I wouldn’t be too optimistic,” Zahr advised.
The satirical website the Pan-Arabia Enquirer ran a standalone picture suggesting Clooney had ditched his Nespresso sponsorship for Najjar, a popular Lebanese brand of Arabic coffee.
Mackenzie Dawson wrote her own open letter to Alamuddin in the New York Post, calling her engagement to Clooney a “vicarious triumph” for career-oriented single women.
Alamuddin is a high-profile lawyer whose clients have including Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, former Libyan intelligence chief Abdallah Al Senussi, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the king of Bahrain. She also worked for the prosecution of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, about which she co-edited a book.
Alamuddin’s father, Ramzi Alamuddin, is a retired business professor at the American University of Beirut. Her mother, Bariaa Miknass, is a veteran journalst at Al Hayat and a former contributor to The Daily Star.