In terms of Hollywood-related shocks, the news was the equivalent of Woody Allen directing a “Star Wars” movie or Lindsay Lohan getting an actual paying acting gig — an event so completely unexpected, it upends everything we think we know about the universe.
The surprise announcement must have been soul-crushing for the planet’s single ladies — six of whom have never dated the actor — and it left many of us scratching our heads when we found out whom he was marrying.
The one who finally managed to tame the avowed bachelor turns out to be Amal Alamuddin, the actor’s main squeeze since October. But besides the fact that she is beautiful — a lawyer and beautiful (she’s good-looking enough that it’s worth saying twice) — what do we know about her?
As it turns out, not much. But expect that to change soon, as paparazzi begin hiding in her laundry hamper.
One thing we do know for sure is that Alamuddin, 36, appears to be more accomplished and independent than many of Clooney’s former flames. She is not some waitress he picked up in Vegas or a wannabe actress. Alamuddin was already a well-known human rights lawyer before she hooked up with Clooney, 52.
One of four siblings, she is of Lebanese descent, lives in London and works for legal firm Doughty Street Chambers. Her most high-profile client is Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder. Alamuddin is defending him in his extradition case with Sweden.
“She is a fabulously bright woman, she’s independent and has a Rolls-Royce mind,” a colleague told the Evening Standard.
Alamuddin has apparently always been driven and interested in politics. She was born in Beirut, but she and her family fled the war-torn city when she was a child. They settled in Buckinghamshire, England.
Her mother, Baria, is a foreign affairs editor at Al Hayat, a Lebanese newspaper. Baria’s also a frequent talking head on TV and has interviewed Bill Clinton, Fidel Castro and Tony Blair.
Amal’s beauty clearly comes from her mother. Baria was considered so stunning that she was likened to Elizabeth Taylor. The famous Lebanese poet Said Akl was so struck by her beauty that he wrote verses in her honor.
Mom clearly approves of her daughter’s choice in men. On her Facebook page, she “liked” an article breaking the news that her daughter and Clooney were on a romantic vacation together.
Amal’s father, Ramzi, returned to Lebanon in 1991 and is now retired from a career as a business professor at the American University in Beirut.
Alamuddin attended St. Hugh’s College in Oxford in the late ’90s, and was clearly passionate about human rights, even at a young age. A source tells The Post that the future lawyer chose the specific college at Oxford because Burmese political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi went there in the 1960s.
“Her nickname at Oxford was ‘Just Cause,’ because her favorite topic of conversation was her various political interests,” the college friend tells The Post. “Even as a student, she was passionate about human rights. She used to get in fierce arguments with other students about the need for the UK to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, which was a political hot potato at the time.”
Socially, Alamuddin hardly seemed like someone who would one day live a fabulous jet-set lifestyle with George Clooney.
“She didn’t go out all that much,” the friend says. “[Her social life] was linked to the societies she belonged to.”
One particular night, Alamuddin passed up the chance to see “Notting Hill” with a group of friends in order to stay home and study, the friend says.
All that hard work paid off. Alamuddin was later accepted to NYU School of Law. Upon graduation in the early aughts, she won the award for best student in the entertainment law field. She also clerked for Sonia Sotomayor when the future Supreme Court justice was a judge at the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which covers New York.
After graduation, Alamuddin joined downtown firm Sullivan & Cromwell, where she worked for three years before moving to London.
In her current position, she has also represented former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko before the European Court of Human Rights and headed a UN commission investigating the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
In London, the college friend says, her favorite restaurant is Lebanese eatery Layalina in the posh (also very Arabic) Knightsbridge section. Her social circles tend to involve other lawyers, including Doughty Street Chambers founder Geoffrey Robertson and Jason McCue, a human-rights barrister who is married to Mariella Frostrup, a former party girl and current radio host who was linked to Clooney years ago. Fun foursome.
The friend tattles that Alamuddin has become more withdrawn and less sociable since she began dating Clooney.
“She seems to have had a friendship cull,” the source says. “There are plenty of London friends she hasn’t seen in ages.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, Clooney has always dated women who were much less well-known than he and eager to give up everything to be with him. As one high-powered publicist told Page Six Magazine in 2011, “These women he dates are entering his life — he’s not entering theirs.”
Almost all of the hunk’s previous relationships have ended because Clooney has been reluctant to settle down. “Don’t mention marriage or commitment or babies to George,” his ex Kimberly Russell told the Sunday Mirror.
Just last September, Clooney told Esquire he had no “aspirations” to be married. But then in October he was photographed leaving London restaurant Berners Tavern with Alamuddin.
In February, he took her to a private screening of his movie “Monuments Men” at the White House. It must have been really serious by then because Clooney’s parents, Nick and Nina, were also in attendance. Not that you’d know it from Clooney’s camp. At the time, his publicist — who has always claimed he never commented on his client’s public life — issued a statement saying there was nothing to the relationship.
“George wants Amal to be able to prosecute cases without being hassled because she had one dinner with George and four others,” the publicist said.
Last weekend in Miami, she and Clooney were out with his friends Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, and Alamuddin was sporting a big rock on her finger. People began buzzing, and soon her law firm issued a congratulatory announcement on the engagement. The world was stunned. Its greatest ladies’ man was now off the market.
Maybe this was what he needed all along and never knew it — someone who was his equal (or superior) in intellect, drive and professional accomplishments.
Then again, maybe this is just one of George’s famous practical jokes. Gotcha.
— Additional reporting by Tom Teodorczuk