George Clooney and Matt Damon used the premiere of the lighthearted casino heist film “Ocean’s Thirteen” to talk about atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region.
They and fellow cast members Ellen Barkin, Bernie Mac, along with producer Jerry Weintraub greeted screaming fans on the red carpet but devoted a large part of their time talking with reporters about what the U.S. has called genocide.
Don Cheadle was there too, proud to be shining the spotlight on the Darfur conflict with a best-selling book that has become the actor's crowning achievement.
Ticket sales from the gala went to Not On Our Watch, an organization started by Clooney and others working the movie that is helping the International Rescue Committee raise funds for
hundreds of thousands of people uprooted by the Darfur conflict.
Not Our Watch has raised at least $9 million since its May 24 fundraising debut at the Cannes Film Festival in France, with Vanity Fair magazine helping to sponsor fundraising premieres in Chicago and Las Vegas.
Clooney and his father Nick Clooney, a writer and activist, had been looking for ways to bring attention to Darfur. “We can hold rallies and fundraisers and everyone think it’s fixed,” Clooney said. “It’s not fixed.”
The money will go to aid projects that include setting up health care services at six clinics in Darfur, creating learning shelters for children and training local leaders on human rights.
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