Platell's People: Why did Amal get an honour? Because she is married to George Clooney 

What a difference just three years has made to the career of human rights barrister Amal Alamuddin

What a difference just three years has made to the career of human rights barrister Amal Alamuddin

What a difference just three years has made to the career of human rights barrister Amal Alamuddin. 

Before she met George Clooney she was a pretty and clever lawyer largely unknown outside legal circles.

Then in 2014 she married her Hollywood star in a four-day, £3.5 million Venice extravaganza, showing off more costume changes than a catwalk model, with pictures plastered all over the globe.

Now we are suddenly supposed to regard her as one of the most influential women in the world.

Amal Clooney, as she styles herself (so much for feminism!), was a guest this week at a Women of Impact dinner in Davos, hosted by the publisher and New York-based media luvvie Tina Brown.

Mrs Clooney, who appeared with George, was honoured at the dinner for her human rights work. 

Personally, I would have thought that was what she’s paid to do — although, to be fair, she does carry out some pro bono work for which she waives her usual £500-an-hour fee.

Also honoured at the dinner was Amal’s Nobel Peace Prize-nominated client Nadia Murad, now a U.N. goodwill ambassador. 

Nadia has been courageously outspoken about the persecution of the Yazidi people from northern Iraq. 

She was imprisoned by Isis after the terror group executed her mother and brothers and is a worthy recipient of any honour.

HYPOCRISY, NICOLE 

Nicole Kidman probably thought she was in for an easy ride when she agreed to do an interview for Radio 4’s Women’s Hour to promote her new film Lion, about an adopted child seeking his biological parents.

She didn’t count on that lioness Jenni Murray, who asked her how well she was getting on with the two children she adopted with Tom Cruise, as Nicole has hardly been seen with them in years. The actress immediately got on her high horse and indignantly insisted on her children’s privacy.

And this is the woman who has given endless interviews explaining how it was personal experience with adoption that made her take the part in Lion.

If nothing else, she deserves an Oscar for hypocrisy.

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Yet competent though Amal might be and important as her work is, why on earth is she being feted in this way simply for doing her job? 

You can be sure it wouldn’t have happened had she not married Clooney.

At the event in Davos, Amal was wearing a £9,875 Chanel dress, enough to rebuild an entire Yazidi village.

But that’s small fry compared with the £34,000 of couture outfits she wore in just two weeks last September while working as a human rights lawyer fighting trafficking, Isis, sex slavery and weighing in on the refugee crisis.

I’m sure she spends as much time on her legal briefs as she does on planning her wardrobe (although if the rumour she is pregnant with twins is true, Amal will soon be forking out for very expensive maternity wear).

What really sticks in one’s craw is seeing a highly privileged lawyer honoured in this way on the back of her multi-millionaire husband while so many other great women can’t get a look-in because they don’t swan about like Amal in celebrity circles.

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TV ads for the price comparison website MoneySuperMarket have been rated first, second and fourth most offensive ads last year. 

Since they feature repulsively fat men in hot pants twerking while tottering around in stilettos, I’m only surprised they didn’t sweep the board. 

 

I won’t shed a tear as Martin McGuinness, 67, leaves politics due to ill health. He was allegedly second in command of the IRA when they blew up Lord Mountbatten on his boat, killing his grandson Nicholas, 14, and local lad Paul Maxwell, 15. What would those two boys have given to live a life half as long as his?

 

Kate's big hair day 

What has happened to the Duchess of Cambridge’s hair! She turned up at a charity for mental health with an eyecatching new look.

Did she oversleep in her Carmen-heated rollers? Were they extensions? She looked more Katie Price than the Katie we adore. 

And doesn’t she realise that all her mass of bouncy locks does is draw attention to the fact that William has inherited the Windsor hair gene? 

The bigger her hair becomes, the balder he gets.

What has happened to the Duchess of Cambridge’s hair! She turned up at a charity for mental health with an eyecatching new look

What has happened to the Duchess of Cambridge’s hair! She turned up at a charity for mental health with an eyecatching new look

 

WESTMINSTER WARS 

  • Whoever said Brexit has had no impact? A new beauty trend for 2017 reveals that Brits are opting for strong, thicker eyebrows in order to look and feel ‘more in control’ in these uncertain socio-economic times. So you can go for Soft Brexit Brows (think the Hadid sisters) or Hard Brexit Brows (Cara Delevingne) — either way it’s still a Brexit to brow-beat the Remoaners.
  • New boss of the equalities watchdog, David Isaac, told MPs hate crime in the UK would soar when Article 50 is triggered. Only if bigots like him keep predicting such hatred and labelling those who voted for Brexit as horrible racists.
  • Fashionistas questioned Theresa May’s choice of an aged Vivienne Westwood tartan trouser suit for her speech on Brexit. The message was surely to Nicola Sturgeon who, when the PM stopped speaking, threatened another referendum for Scotland. ‘I wear the trews,’ the PM was telling that overstuffed little haggis.
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A risky move for Assange 

Julian Assange hints he’s ready to leave his sanctuary in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy and face extradition to the U.S. after Obama cut short the 35-year prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence expert jailed for releasing 700,000 classified military douments to Assange’s WikiLeaks. 

In a new Ladybird book, Prince Charles has written a warning about global warming

In a new Ladybird book, Prince Charles has written a warning about global warming

Since WikiLeaks has helped terrorists wage war on Western interests around the globe, and Trump yesterday vowed to wipe out radical Islamic terrorists, I’m not sure he’d find the new President very biddable. 

In a new Ladybird book, Prince Charles has written a warning about global warming. 

He describes climate change as ‘the wolf at the door’ and wants world leaders to take immediate action. Perhaps he could start by cancelling all his own private helicopter and plane journeys? 

And dare I suggest that Camilla’s use of hairspray over the decades constitutes the single most concentrated attack on the ozone layer the world has seen?

Who will save the next Poppy?

Poppy Widdison died aged four. Her mother and her partner are drug addicts and yesterday a judge declared she had died after being assaulted by her mother, Michala Pyke, or her boyfriend after months of cruelty.

Social services decided Poppy was best left with her parents even though she had severe drug withdrawal symptoms at birth.

The child was regularly given heroin, morphine and ketamine at home, often to keep her quiet.

The couple were jailed this week, yet not one social worker has lost their job and Poppy is described as a tragic child who simply ‘slipped through the cracks’. 

Now Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield says child protection services will be investigated. But after Victoria Climbie’s death in 2000, Baby P’s in 2007, Khyra Ishaq’s in 2008 and Daniel Pelka’s in 2012, we had inquiry after inquiry. 

Yet still social services let children ‘slip through the cracks’.

Poppy Widdison died aged four.  Social services decided she was best left with her parents even though she had severe drug withdrawal symptoms at birth

Poppy Widdison died aged four. Social services decided she was best left with her parents even though she had severe drug withdrawal symptoms at birth

STARS AND STRIFE 

+ Trump’s wife Melania, the former lingerie model, clearly chose Marilyn Monroe and the dress she wore when singing Happy Birthday to JFK as the inspiration for her own skin-tight golden gown, worn to accompany Trump to the pre-inauguration dinner in his last outing as president-elect. At least Melania wore underwear.

Trump’s wife Melania clearly chose Marilyn Monroe and the dress she wore when singing Happy Birthday to JFK as the inspiration for her own skin-tight golden gown
At least Melania wore underwear

Trump’s wife Melania clearly chose Marilyn Monroe and the dress she wore when singing Happy Birthday to JFK as the inspiration for her own skin-tight golden gown

+ Creators of the Madame Tussauds waxwork of Donald Trump reveal they had to resort to using yak hair to recreate his signature bouffant. Indeed, the same yak hair used to make Star Wars’ Chewbacca.

+ I’m starting to worry about Jamie Oliver, who is defending Michelle Obama’s organic veggie garden at the White House. There are fears Trump will uproot it, so Jamie pleadingly called it a ‘symbolic visual’, whatever that means. ‘If you cut down that garden you are cutting down hope,’ he added. Better stick to the lasagne, lad!

+ No fewer than 30,000 security officers were employed yesterday for Trump’s inauguration. Were they there to protect him from all the women who, on his journey to the White House, said he had sexually assaulted them?

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