Star to statesman

WITH five years’ involvement in Sudan, George Clooney has begun to define a new role for himself: 21st-century celebrity statesman.

It’s an ambitious avocation: Clooney has been leveraging his celebrity to make people care about something more important than celebrity.

South Sudan’s January referendum for independence was followed by uprisings that toppled North African and Arab dictatorships, with power moving from centralised political bureaucracies to popular engagement. In this new environment — fuelled by social networking — the famous can influence public debate more than elected officials and even nation-states.