Lawyer representing Armenia, Amal Clooney.
Photo / Getty
Lawyer representing Armenia, Amal Clooney.
Photo / Getty
The Great Kate Wait is over. Like her mother before her, HRH Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana will be obsessed over. Actual royalty has taken many column inches away from Hollywood royalty in recent years, but one woman bucks the trend and has elevated to regal status. Without the use of selfies.
In September last year, Amal Alamuddin became not just Mrs Amal Clooney, but one of the most famous women in the world - despite the fact few of us have ever heard her speak. But it's Amal's personal life that intrigues us all, for we really know so little about her.
Those unaware of Amal's background wonder why the world is so obsessed with her. She doesn't sing, dance, or act. She doesn't have an E! show. There are no sex tapes of her rolling around the interwebs. So why should we care about Amal Clooney?
Amal has credentials
Amal is one of the most formidable human rights barristers in the world. She has worked on some of the highest profile cases of international law in recent years - notably, she was Julian Assange's lawyer in his fight against extradition, and this year she began working on recognition for the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
Amal has taken the concept of celebrity off the silver screen and into the pages of legal textbooks. She shows the young and impressionable it's not just cool to be qualified; it's far more rewarding than being famous for nothing.
Amal puts the trophy wife cliché to shame
Few people expected George Clooney - once known as the world's eternal bachelor - to marry at all, not least to a woman with enough intelligence to fill an entire library. The Oxford-educated Amal has once clerked under some of the most prolific judges in the world, has advised United Nations Special Envoy Kofi Annan, and has fought for repatriation of the Elgin Marbles for the Greek government. She also speaks three languages (English, French, and Arabic).
Rather than conforming to the trophy wife cliché of "pretty and stupid", Amal commands a new form of celebrity stature: she's far smarter than her own husband. The "pretty" part is just a bonus.
Amal is a style icon
From Elle to Vogue, almost every women's fashion magazine has covered Amal's journey from unknown corporate lawyer to signature-styled fashionista. She is the subject of the blog Amal Clooney Style and New York Magazine's Amal Clooney Lookbook. She can wear a cropped Chanel jacket with ease in Athens, sports Oscar de la Renta at Heathrow like she has her own runway, and fends off the Italian heat in Venice in an ultra wide-legged Stella McCartney one piece and sunhat.
From left: Amal Clooney wearing Chanel and Stella McCartney. Photos / Getty Images
But, Amal's iconic looks don't get in the way of her work. When asked by a reporter what she would be wearing for a court appearance earlier this year, she joked, "Ede and Ravenscroft", a reference to a 300-year-old English legal robe making company.
Amal's career is her priority
Amal and George command the kind of attention we haven't seen since Brad and Angelina first stepped out together. If Amal wanted to, she would be working four days a year as a new face of Givenchy, and spend the other 361 getting free beauty treatments and working out.
Despite her newfound fame, Amal hasn't dialled-down her career as a lawyer. Instead, she has taken it to the next level: she has just become a law lecturer at New York's Columbia University Human Rights Institute (naturally, Columbia students have been given strict orders not to discuss Mrs Clooney, or anything about her class).
Amal values privacy
Amal has learned - likely from defending Julian Assange - that privacy is a commodity, and it's up to each individual to protect themselves in the modern world. Rather than Tweeting up a storm about controversial issues or Instagramming her daily outfits, Amal is completely absent from all social networks.
She and her husband also phone each other, rather than put their conversations over the hackable wires of text and e-mail, and when they do use e-mail, they do so from pseudonym accounts.
Amal's life is orchestrated quietly
In a way we only really see today with political figures and members of the Royal Family, Amal's life appears to be diarised to the hills, with every outing a quiet, choreographed, execution of grace and formality.
Amal makes no hubbub or fuss. No motorcade or massive security presence; no pre-warning the paparazzi so she can get maximum column inches. She enters and exits every dinner, meeting, and public event without any more emotion than a smile.
Amal is what the world needs
Amal Clooney is the kind of celebrity we need. In our scandal-hungry, selfie-obsessed, dirt-digging world, she adds style, intellect, and humanity into a public sphere dominated by selfish extravagance and shameless self-promotion.
Amal is no reality-show girl. She doesn't even reply to media requests for interviews. She clearly has no interest in controversial socialite antics. Without ever doing Ellen, a tell-all to Hello!, or posting so much as an intimate moment on Instagram, she has become one of the most illustrious women in the world. And she didn't even marry a real prince to get there.
