{"id":625963,"date":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625963\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:50:08","slug":"george-clooney-explains-the-albies-justice-focus-oceans-14-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/625963\/","title":{"rendered":"George Clooney Explains The Albies Justice Focus, ‘Ocean’s 14’ Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe BFI London Film Festival<\/a> isn\u2019t the only big event attracting big and famous names to the British capital this week. Case in point: The Albies, the fifth annual awards ceremony organized by The Clooney Foundation for Justice, held Friday evening at London\u2019s Museum of Natural History. Amal and George Clooney<\/a>, in their roles as co-founders of The Clooney Foundation for Justice, Brad Pitt, Laura Dern, Emma Thompson, Felicity Jones, Joel Edgerton, Josh Hartnett, Rivals star Alex Hassell<\/a>, Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace, Bianca Jagger, Emily Ratajkowski, Hannah Waddingham and many more brought star power to the event. And everyone was dressed to the nines.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were joined by representatives of sponsors, such as Brad Smith, vice chair and president at Microsoft, and makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury, as well as talk show host Graham Norton, actors Isla Fisher, Ncuti Gatwa, Marisa Abela, Katherine Waterston, Richard Kind, Myha\u2019la and Hugh Bonneville, musicians Vic Mensa and Jackson Browne, as well as Melinda French Gates.<\/p>\n

\n\tClooney told THR about why justice deserves a spotlight: \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s in short supply, doesn\u2019t it? It\u2019s hard when you look around, and you see such large-scale pieces of injustice, and we, at times, start to think of it as the new normal. And it\u2019s good to be here with people who remind us that there\u2019s nothing normal about people not being treated fairly. There\u2019s nothing normal about people not having their rights. And these are people that we\u2019re honoring tonight who put their lives on the line to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe honorees\u2019 names may not be household names, the star acknowledged. \u201cYou\u2019ll recognize the names of the people who are introducing them,\u201d he offered. \u201cAnd each one of those people that you recognize would be thrilled to have that light shining less on them and more on the people doing things to make the world better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tClooney also shared a brief update on Ocean\u2019s 14 with THR. \u201cI think we\u2019ll shoot a lot in London, a lot in the U.K., some in France,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we start in about 11 months. It\u2019s a ways off, but the older we get, the funnier it is. We start falling down a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWaddingham told THR about The Albies: \u201cIt\u2019s the most important night of the year in terms of the people who have a fortunate platform to give something back, and George and Amal do that in spades. The biggest point for me in terms of justice for others is those of us who find ourselves in a fortunate position helping those who face the injustices of the world, and they cannot fight for themselves.\u201d She added: \u201cGeorge and Amal find them and fight for them. The stories that you hear in there are really breathtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCould her fans see her co-starring in a film or series with Clooney any time soon? \u201cOh, I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said before adding with a nod in the direction of Clooney. \u201cAsk him!\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Albie honorees are Kyrgyz journalists Bolot Temirov and Makhabat Tazhibek Kyzy, Malawian girls\u2019 rights advocate and shelter founder Vanessa Mwangala, U.S. wartime photojournalist Lynsey Addario, as well as Congolese human rights organization Justice Plus and Microsoft\u2019s Smith in his role of human rights advocate. <\/p>\n

The annual Albies ceremony looks to shine an international<\/a> spotlight on \u201ccourageous individuals and organizations who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of justice, often at great personal risk.\u201d The award is named after the legendary Justice Albie Sachs, \u201ca hero of the anti-apartheid movement who survived imprisonment, exile and an assassination attempt in the fight for equality in South Africa,\u201d the organization says. \u201cInspired by his legacy, George and Amal Clooney<\/a> created the Albies to ensure that the people doing the hardest work to promote justice \u2013 often far from the spotlight \u2013 are seen, heard and protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFisher lauded the couple that brought a big crowd together on Friday. \u201cWhat George and Amal do is just unbelievable. They are using their platform to stand up for what they believe in, which is just a very courageous and critical thing, particularly right now,\u201d she told THR. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just about raising awareness. They actually make people accountable, and that\u2019s the really important piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of his performance at Friday\u2019s event, Mensa told THR: \u201cI\u2019m excited to perform tonight and grateful to George Clooney and Amal for bringing me out. I am in admiration of the sacrifices that they have made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd he shared insight about his performance: \u201cI\u2019m performing a song called \u2018We Could Be Free\u2019 that I did at the March for Our Lives [in 2018 for gun control] that they also organized.\u201d Concluded Mensa: \u201cAlthough some of the specific details that I mention in the song have shifted and the focus may be elsewhere in the world, the sentiment is exactly the same. Many of the challenges that humanity faces have always been [around].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BFI London Film Festival isn\u2019t the only big event attracting big and famous names to the British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[19204,430,156,15183,1019,111,139,69,54184],"class_list":["post-625963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-amal-clooney","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-george-clooney","tag-international","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oceans-14"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}