George Clooney enjoys Italian date nights as rank-and-file actors strike

As actors and writers continue to strike, demanding a fair share of the billions that film and TV studios rake in every year, George Clooney is among the A-list “megastars” who have thus far stayed away from the picket lines for a possible mix of reasons that are being discussed and debated in Hollywood.

Clooney voiced early support for the strike by SAG-AFTRA, issuing a strongly worded statement the day after the 160,000-member actors union voted on July 13 to stop work on film and TV productions. “This is an inflection point in our industry,” Clooney said. “For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors, that journey starts now.”

But over the past week, Clooney hasn’t looked like a worker whose union is on strike. Clooney, who is worth an estimated $500 million, has been seen in Italy, enjoying elegant dinner dates with his attorney wife Amal Clooney at restaurants in Lake Como, where he owns an 18th-century vacation villa, Page Six reported. 

Amal Clooney Sparkles in Silver During Date Night with Husband George Clooney on Lake Como https://t.co/l7S15ysIZF

— People (@people) July 28, 2023

Meanwhile, Brad Pitt found time to enjoy the men’s final at Wimbledon on July 16, along with members of the British royal family and other celebrities. The appearance by Pitt at the high-profile tennis match left one leading Hollywood publicist dismayed, according to a report by Variety that was published Monday. If Pitt didn’t want to join the front lines, the publicist suggested that he could still “throw on a SAG-AFTRA shirt” at places on where he knows he will be photographed to show his support.

The reluctance of some top-tier stars to walk the picket lines has rankled some SAG-AFTRA members, according to the Variety report. There’s been a “palpable” lack of headliners, one prominent SAG-AFTRA member said. “If our stars were all out there in force advocating for us, we’d know it,” the person added.

On the first day of the strike, one protester straddled a median at the gate of Netflix headquarters, holding a sign that read, “Where the (expletive) is Ben Affleck?” Thus far, Affleck hasn’t been seen at any of the protests, Variety reported.

Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Rami Malek all signed a June letter telling union leadership they were prepared to strike, but none have yet surfaced, Variety said. Like Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio also issued a statement expressing support for the strike, writing on Instagram story that he stood “in solidarity with my guild.” But like Clooney, DiCaprio also has yet to make a personal appearance.

Perhaps that’s because DiCaprio also has been busy on vacation in Europe. The “Titanic” star was photographed this week sunning himself on a luxury yacht that’s been sailing around the Mediterranean, with stops in St. Tropez and Sardinia, Hollywood Life reported. DiCaprio, with a net worth of around $300 million, also took some time away from yachting to join Mick Jagger for his 80th birthday party at a London nightclub on Wednesday night, Entertainment Tonight reported. 

Over the past week, some other award winners and nominees have made the effort to turn up in person at protests in Los Angeles and New York. Actors carrying signs or speaking out in support of the guild have included Collin Farrell, Brendan Fraser, Christine Baranski, Bryan Cranston, Christian Slater, Ellen Burstyn and Jessica Chastain, Indiewire reported. Other well-known SAG-AFTRA members appearing at the protests have included Lupita Nyong’o, Mark Ruffalo and “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson, Variety said.

But Variety reported that there’s been a notable absence of “mega-stars,” who presumably have the most “star power.” In addition to Clooney, Pitt, DiCaprio and Affleck, other stars in this category include Denzel Washington, Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts. One picketer told Variety that such stars have “deep influence” with the global media, with cameras following “them everywhere.”

But other SAG-AFTRA members said there could be complicated reasons for why these stars stay away from the protests.

“It’s not necessarily to our advantage for the people who are the most successful, wealthy and visible to be taking up space right now,” one SAG-AFTRA member. “We already have a perception problem where people say, ‘These are just a bunch of rich actors.’ Those stars don’t work for scale pay; they don’t need the protection of a better contract. If Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston show up, they look like they’re crying poor.”

One agent told Variety that these A-listers could do more for the cause in behind-the-scenes ways, for example by lobbying studio heads or by donating to relief funds for actors facing financial hardship by not working, as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis and her husband Christopher Guest have done.

But speaking of Witherspoon, another complication for some stars is that, with the rise of streaming, they also have become rich and powerful as producers, Variety said. That means their interests lie “on both sides of the fence,” a source said.

But another, less savory complication has to do with vanity, a top talent representative told Variety. This representative said they had been contacted by some famous clients who asked which protests to attend — and if they should book hair and makeup for potential media interviews, Variety said. This replied that these strikes were a “very serious matter, not a red carpet opportunity.”