Clooney, Alamuddin Set Sept. 20 Marriage Date
Actor George Clooney and Lebanese human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin will be married Sept. 20.
A public notice now posted at the Chelsea Town Hall in London has announced the marriage of “Amal Ramzi Alamuddin,” 37, to “George Timothy Clooney,” 53, according to a photograph of the official document, which began circulating the Internet early Thursday. By law, a couple’s impending wedding must be displayed at the register for 16 days.
The document also confirms rumors that the Clooney and Alamuddin would be married in Italy, where Alamuddin recently held her bridal shower and where Clooney has a home on Lake Como.
Other recent news of the nuptial details has revolved around the wedding attire. Giorgio Armani will dress Clooney, a longtime client of the Italian designer, and his groomsmen, according to an article published this week by Women’s Wear Daily. The designer of the bride’s much-anticipated dress is still unknown.
Alamuddin, a Druze whose ancestors hail from Baaqlin, works with the Office of the Prosecutor for the Special Tribunal of Lebanon, an international court trying suspects in the 2005 assassination of former President Rafik Hariri. Just last week, she launched a book with the American University of Beirut detailing the procedural dimensions of the court.
The lawyer has become a source of local interest and pride, not for her successful career in law, of course, but since news broke of her engagement to one of Hollywood’s eternal bachelors. These days, visitors to Baaqlin and its surrounding villages are likely to be welcomed with mentions of Alamuddin and her star-fiancé’s connection to the region.
Hopes that the couple will also celebrate in Lebanon, however, remain only that, even for the country’s political elite. Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, for example, was quoted earlier this summer welcoming the soon-to-be newlyweds to the country.
“Tell me when George Clooney will be coming to Lebanon so I can greet him in Mukhtara,” he wrote, referring to his ancestral home in the Chouf mountains. “I will bring a delegation of Druze sheikhs.”
Since their engagement was announced in April, Clooney and Alamuddin’s union has been a source of international fascination, so much so that publications have angered the couple in their rush to document every turn of events.
In July, U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail published a story picked up across news website claiming Alamuddin’s mother, Baria Alamuddin, a Lebanese journalist also working in London, was opposed to the marriage on religious grounds. The article, a complete fabrication it turned out, prompted Clooney to write a letter to top-selling American newspaper USA Today scolding the Daily Mail for printing lies.
“The irresponsibility, in this day and age, to exploit religious differences where none exist, is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous. We have family members all over the world, and the idea that someone would inflame any part of that world for the sole reason of selling papers should be criminal,” Clooney wrote.
Though the Mail’s editor issues a public apology and explanation, Clooney called it a “cover-up” worse than the original offense. With the wedding officially registered, the couple is hopefully looking to happier days ahead.
Daily Star