Is there anyone in Hollywood more mysterious than George Clooney? He’s devastatingly handsome, apparently terrified of commitment, partial to potbelly pigs… and, of course, deeply concerned about global politics. In fact, the actor is so earnest in his ideals that he was arrested this morning in a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy in DC. As president of United to End Genocide, he and other supporters of the group appeared at the embassy to demand that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir stop blocking food and humanitarian aid from reaching his people. Addressing a crowd at the demonstration, Clooney said he wanted “the [Sudanese] government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them.”
Since the Sudanese Embassy is private property, the actor — along with several current and former congressmen, Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous, and Clooney’s 78-year-old father, Nick Clooney — was arrested for trespassing after defying several police warnings to leave the premises. But since there’s really no better way to draw attention to your cause than getting an A-list celebrity sent to the clink, it sounds like this show of defiance will be well worth the time spent behind bars. So say it with us, fans and activists: Free Clooney! [via MSNBC, TheWrap]