What makes George Clooney get involved in charitable work? It's a simple matter of sharing the wealth.
"If you have a tremendous amount of heat from the spotlight, then you're able to shine a light in a different direction, and it's just deflecting," the Bob Hope Award winner said Sunday at the Emmy Awards. "My dad calls it a celebrity credit card that you try to cash in in other places."
It's not that Clooney knows anything special, for example, when it comes to something like earthquake recovery. "I said I wasn't a Haiti expert. I was a fund-raising expert more than anything."
Seems he's a bit of a basketball expert, however.
"My day today was, John Krasinski came over my house with a bunch of guys and we played basketball, and if you see him later, he's limping.
"And I just want to say, he's lost a step."
-- Amy Kaufman and Christie D'Zurilla
Photo: George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis are seen backstage after Clooney received the humanitarian award at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards on Aug. 29, 2010, in Los Angeles. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press