Posted on 01/15/2015 12:43:27 PM PST by Kaslin
Social media is agog over George Clooney's tribute to his wife, Amal, at last weekend's Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood. Women, especially, are swooning in their tweets and Facebook postings.
Said Clooney, "Listen, it's humbling to find somebody to love, especially when you've been waiting your whole life, especially when your whole life is 53 years ... Amal, whatever alchemy brought us together, I couldn't be more proud to be your husband."
I admit the tribute was sweet and his wife is drop-dead gorgeous, but Clooney, twice named "The Sexiest Man Alive" by People magazine and known for his numerous relationships with women, has only been married four months. Maybe in Hollywood four months is considered a long-term relationship, but let's see if they make it to their 49th anniversary, as my wife and I did today.
What produced such a mushy reaction from women to Clooney's remarks? I think part of it is that in our modern "relationship" era where people have "partners" not spouses, it is a rare thing to see a famous man publicly expressing love for his wife. As Phil Collins put it in a song, "Doesn't anybody stay together anymore; I wonder why, doesn't anybody stay together anymore?"
I think the answer to "why" is that our culture has redefined "love." In 1984, when Tina Turner sang "What's Love Got to Do with It," that song might have been the anthem for a generation.
What is "love"? If it isn't more than feelings, a superficial sugar rush that occurs when one is near someone special, what happens when the feelings subside? No marriage can be sustained at the level of teenage romance (cue the late Ricky Nelson): "A teenager's romance is fickle or true; a teenager's romance is red hot or blue; you're either in misery or high on a crest; a teenager's romance is like all the rest."
Uh, not exactly Ricky.
Some years ago I introduced my wife to a colleague at a Christmas party this way: "I want you to meet my first wife." Later he sought me out and asked with a serious expression, "Why did you bring your first wife to the party?" I replied, "It's the only one I've had." He looked at me surprised, as if I were a dinosaur at the Museum of Natural History.
Maybe I am, but it has worked for us. Has it always been perfect? Of course not. No marriage is and anyone who says so isn't telling the truth. When two imperfect people marry you double the imperfections. Someone recently asked me how we have managed to stay married. I answered, "forgiveness." If you admit you are far from a model man and husband and look for the good in the other person you will find it. Fault doesn't require a long search. It begins in the mirror.
So, happy anniversary, Charlotte Ray. I don't look like George Clooney, but I'm grateful you find me appealing. Besides, in a very short time, George and Amal won't look like they do today. I hope they stay married. I know we will. As the old Perry Como song goes:
"Till the end of time
Long as stars are in the blue
Long as there's a spring of birds
To sing I'll go on loving you."
Forty-nine years of marriage is quite an achievement. May God continue to enrich your marriage with joy and harmony. My husband and I will be married 23 years this coming May. We have had some really horrible years but as time goes by it gets sweeter and our friendship deepens. It’s a shame that a lot of people will never get to that point because in some of the bad (or boring) years they get divorced.
When Clooney was done giving his speech, I looked at my wife and said: “Boy, it is hard to hate him. He really seems like a good guy.”
My wife(a conservative) said: “Why do you think all the women love him so much.”
About ten years ago, Hollywood critics and reporters just woke up one day, and all agreed that George Clooney was the Cary Grant or Robert Redford of modern times. It’s all been decided by a consensus, just like man-made Global Warming.
George presents himself as a slightly more mature, urbane version of Ben Afleck. Both are favored because they act in or produce politically correct movies and themes. The quality of acting tends to vary as per movie, sometimes as per scene.
Intends to run for President sooner rather than later.
He’s been picked to play 0bama in a film.
“He really seems like a good guy.”
Yes, I don’t think Clooney is a bad guy. I jus think that he’s just an idiot, who doesn’t know any better, so other people use him to further their goals.
For the same reason hundreds of thousands listen to Joel Osteen.
Probably just the fact that it was the least stupid thing George has said in many years.
He is a very good looking man but I suspect he is less than meets the eye. He has picked some “noble causes” sort of, but I doubt he is all that bright. He could have had - and did - any woman ever. I believe the problem with his women is that some of them tried to block his view in the bathroom mirror. He chose a woman who is so supremely confident in her world stature - she isn’t unattractive but her confidence is the strongest thing about her - that she won’t be after him for much. He probably has to please HER rather than the tiresome women always trying to knock themselves up (I suspect he probably had a vasectomy, which doesn’t even need to be reversed if now he chooses children - it is simpler to just aspirate some boys and inseminate his wife) or get him to marry them etc.
I have no love for the liberal phony.
I would compare this to the situation that presented when Kim Basinger was sued for breach of contract regarding her refusal to appear in the film “Boxing Helena”. She got on the stand and it was as if she first said “ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille” - her testimony was full of Hollywood grade acting. The Jury had to be saying - what is this that we are observing? [She came out on the short end of $9.5M judgment.]
I would tend to think that jurors dismiss a great deal of testimony from professional actors.
Likewise, when George Clooney makes these kind of remarks, in that setting, I would just expect the audience to see pandering. But you never know. With today’s population mainlining a steady diet of People Magazine and other celebrity culture, maybe they buy it. Oy!
Yep.
I don’t get it. He’s weird.
I have friend married only once with a child 13 yrs younger than their next young child. He jokes that he saved himself a fortune by prudently starting a second family with his first wife.
Good post. Hollywood likes attractive guys who have convinced Hollywood that they don't take themselves seriously (but actually do take themselves very, very, very seriously): Redford, Beatty, Clooney, Affleck.
Hollywood likes to have the wool pulled over their eyes. They like to create heroes out of people who aren't really very heroic or likeable.
They love to wonder when, oh when, Beatty or Clooney will finally settle down, and convince themselves that it will last (everybody loves a love story, I guess).
Hollywood gets more satisfaction out of loving somebody fundamentally unlikeable like Robert Redford, rather than his apparently more likeable pal, Paul Newman.
I don't hate Clooney. I just don't feel the love. And with all the hooplah, you'd think Clooney had never been married before.
George and his father, Nick are charming men.
Dad became a popular anchorman on television in Cincinnati and even tried to anchor in LA for a few years.
Both crusading liberals of the old 1960’s school.
I give the marriage less than 5 year IMHO she is already bored to tears with the dude
I mentioned on one blog she’s making the biggest mistake of her life if she marries him. She’s used to better types of men, but apparently didn’t appreciate these better types of men at all.
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