Later this month, he will leave Lake Como for the Venice Film Festival, where his comedy -- the Coen brothers' movie "Burn After Reading," also starring Brad Pitt -- will premiere. While Clooney is there, he'll hold a fundraiser for Darfur, his key cause.
And then it's off to Geneva.
Meanwhile, John McCain -- campaigning in Ohio and elsewhere -- continued this week to make an issue of Obama's "celebrity" status, following up his Paris Hilton/Britney Spears ad with yet another swipe at his opponent's glittery popularity.
Hilton, not one to shy from attention, decided to enter the debate. She released a video of her own in which -- donning a bathing suit -- she discusses her energy plan for America and calls McCain "the wrinkly, white-haired" dude.
McCain seemed to take it as a compliment. The senator's spokesman, Tucker Bounds, said: "Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan."
--
Clinton returns to shake hands
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be swinging through Los Angeles today to thank supporters -- and maybe suggest that they help with her lingering campaign debt.
Democratic fundraiser Sim Farar and wife Debra are set to host the New York senator at their Pacific Palisades estate in the evening. Among those expected to attend is entrepreneur Alex Avant, just back from a tour of Africa with former President Bill Clinton, which included an emotional stop in Rwanda. (In his memoirs, Clinton called his failure to halt the genocide there as his biggest regret.)
Avant -- whose sister, Nicole Avant, is one of Obama's major fundraisers and whose father, former Motown head Clarence Avant, is a longtime friend of the Clintons -- called the experience "humbling" and "moving."
"We saw thousands of thousands of kids throughout the trip," Avant said. "For the rest of my life, I will see their eyes in my soul."
(Also on the journey were Ted Danson and wife Mary Steenburgen.)
One of the questions that still lingers around Hillary Clinton's Hollywood core is whether any of its members may opt to support McCain instead of Obama.
This week, Republican campaign operatives speculated that Power Rangers mogul Haim Saban was thinking about joining the McCain camp.
Saban, who is also vacationing abroad, although with a functioning BlackBerry, isn't commenting.
But friends and associates think it's unlikely that Saban will ditch the Democratic party. (After all, he is one of its top contributors.)
Perhaps he, Clooney and Obama can talk the whole thing over -- once they get their BlackBerrys working at the same time.
--
tina.daunt@latimes.com