Actor George Clooney has penned a letter to the media requesting that they stop posting photos of celebrities' children online. Clooney's career as an actor and filmmaker in Hollywood has resulted in him being a focal point of interest to the media. The A-list actor has appeared in numerous films and TV shows including The Ides of March, Tomorrowland, ER, and Batman & Robin. He recently directed the upcoming film, The Tender Bar, and was praised by Ben Affleck as the best director he has ever worked with.
However, while Clooney has accepted that his career and success often put him in the public eye, his family did not choose that lifestyle. Clooney is married to Amal Clooney, with whom he shares two children, Alexander and Ella. Mrs. Clooney is not a part of the acting industry and instead has established an impressive career for herself as a barrister who specializes in international law and human rights. Clooney and his wife have maintained a high level of privacy in avoiding social media and refraining from posting pictures of their children. However, the media has still managed to obtain and publish photos of the children without Clooney's permission, and he is now speaking out about it.
As reported by THR, Clooney penned an open letter to Daily Mail and other tabloids, calling for them to stop posting photos of celebrities' children. Clooney noted the fact that photos of Billie Lourd's 1-year old baby had been posted and subsequently taken down by the publication. He took that as an opportunity to request them to refrain posting photos of his own children. The reason for this is that his wife's work in law has her putting terrorist groups on trial. This requires them to put extra effort into protecting their family. Having their children's faces in the media endangers them and could make them potential targets. Check out his statement below:
An open letter to the Daily Mail and other publications.
Having just seen photos of Billie Lourd’s 1 year-old baby in your publication, and the fact that you subsequently took those pictures down, we would request that you refrain from putting our children’s faces in your publication. I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment.
The nature of my wife’s work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe. We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover.
We have never sold a picture of our kids, we are not on social media and never post pictures because to do so would put their lives in jeopardy. Not paranoid jeopardy but real-world issues, with real-world consequences.
We hope that you would agree that the need to sell advertisement isn’t greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted.
Clooney and his wife are far from the only celebrity parents who adamantly protect their children's privacy. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have also refrained from sharing photos of their three young daughters and have confronted the media for attempting to do so without their permission. Now, Clooney's letter is explaining why it is so important that the media respects these parents' decisions. When the media intrudes and publishes photos without permission they could very well be putting a child's life in danger. While Clooney's situation is very serious due to his wife's line of work, the truth is that any celebrity's child could be endangered by being plastered on tabloids. This makes them easily recognizable and a wealthy target for potential stalkers, estranged family members, or kidnappers.
Clooney's letter was concise and professional and will hopefully urge the media to think twice before they post a celebrity's child's photo. The parents aren't doing this out of mere paranoia, but out of a real necessity to protect their children in a world where terrorist and other criminals do exist and pose a viable threat. The posting of children on social media in general has raised serious discussions about the dangers of making children potential targets. Fortunately, most parents have a choice about whether to share their children's photos on social media and can effectively utilize privacy settings. Celebrity parents, unfortunately, don't have that luxury if the media ignores their requests. While Clooney might be Batman onscreen, offscreen he is just a regular caring father who wants the media to help him keep his family safe.
Source: THR