Goerge Clooney: Do-Gooder

People love to mock celebrities who get involved with charities or politics. Personally, I'd much rather see a celeb use their fame for a purpsoe they deem important, whether or not I agree with them. I think Michael J. Fox AND Patricia Heaton of "Everybody Loves Raymond" deserve kudos for getting involved in the issue of stem cell research, even if I know Heaton is wrong. And now Roger Friedman of FoxNews.com reports that George Clooney and Don Cheadle are attempting some sort of diplomatic mission to China about Darfur, hoping to pressure them into taking a proactive stance on the genocide rather than just buying oil and supplying people with weapons. The hoped-for leverage: their image in the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. This sounds like a remarkably complex manuever for Clooney and even seems to perhaps tread too close to foreign policy affairs, but who am I to say he shouldn't do whatever he can to stop genocide when the Bush administration clearly doesn't care and has refused to act in any substantial way for years now? Mock all you want, but if he was just partying away the same critics would dismiss that as typical Hollywood self-indulgence.