--- title: Amal Alamuddin Clooney and the Rise of the Trophy Husband description: When George drags his human rights lawyer wife to the Golden Globes, we realize how petty these awards truly are canonical: https://time.com/3664264/amal-alamuddin-george-clooney-trophy-husband/ author: Brian Moylan article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-12T19:00:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:42.903Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Amal Alamuddin Clooney and the Rise of the Trophy Husband og:description: When George drags his human rights lawyer wife to the Golden Globes, we realize how petty these awards truly are og:url: https://time.com/3664264/amal-alamuddin-george-clooney-trophy-husband/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf63b4d850177e4a/6987795c0b72e3849f6dd11f/amal-clooney.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Amal Alamuddin Clooney and the Rise of the Trophy Husband twitter:description: When George drags his human rights lawyer wife to the Golden Globes, we realize how petty these awards truly are twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf63b4d850177e4a/6987795c0b72e3849f6dd11f/amal-clooney.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Amal Alamuddin Clooney and the Rise of the Trophy Husband by [Brian Moylan](https://time.com/author/brian-moylan/) ## Brian Moylan Jan 12, 2015 7:00 PM UTC  George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin Clooney attend the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin Clooney attend the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif.Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images by [Brian Moylan](https://time.com/author/brian-moylan/) ## Brian Moylan Jan 12, 2015 7:00 PM UTC It started when she arrived on the red carpet, the star of the Golden Globes show, the woman who came across as the big winner at last night’s ceremony. The funny thing is, she wasn’t nominated for anything. She has never even been in a movie or TV show or even a high school musical. But the _Guardian_ [got it exactly right](https://twitter.com/GuardianUS/status/554438218733846528) when it said, “Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her husband have arrived.” It’s not an overstatement to say everyone fell in love Sunday night with Amal Alamuddin Clooney, the woman who finally nabbed confirmed bachelor George Clooney. I can’t say it better than Amy Poehler and Tina Fey (can anyone say anything better than these two?), who joked, “Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria and was selected for a three-person U.N. commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip. So tonight her _husband_ is getting a lifetime-achievement award.” **MORE** [Watch George Clooney Pay Tribute to Wife Amal in Golden Globes Speech](http://time.com/3663290/golden-globes-2015-george-clooney-amal-thanks-speech/) On the red carpet, when asked what she was wearing, Amal didn’t discuss the designer who made her dress (it was Dior), perpetuating the marketing scam in which celebrities, the richest people around, are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by billionaire designers to get attention for their gowns. No, she pointed out that there was a “Je Suis Charlie” button on her purse to show solidarity with the men and women of _Charlie Hebdo_ who were killed by terrorists for exercising their right to free speech. She couldn’t care less about the garment industry; there are real-world issues that she wants to give attention to. She wasn’t the only celebrity to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Paris, but she was one of the few wearing gloves on the red carpet, a choice many of the professional fashion advisers thought was tacky. But Amal does not care. Those gloves said, “O.K., fine, I will play along and get dressed up in formal wear for this event, but I think these gloves are cute and I’m wearing them, and I don’t care how many episodes of _Fashion Police_ I’m on because I don’t even own a television set, so there.” ### Golden Globes 2015: Red Carpet Photos  Jessica Chastain arrives to the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015. Christopher Polk—NBC/Getty Images  Anna Kendrick attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Salma Hayek Pinault attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Jessica Chastain attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Emily Blunt arrives to the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kevork Djansezian—NBC/Getty Images  George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin Clooney attend the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Amy Adams attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Eddie Redmayne attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Julianne Moore attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jeff Vespa—WireImage/Getty Images  Tina Fey attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Amy Poehler attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Kevin Spacey attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Emma Stone attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Lorde attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Jeffrey Tambor attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jeff Vespa—Getty Images  Quvenzhane Wallis attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Lena Dunham arrives to the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kevork Djansezian—NBC/Getty Images  Adrian Grenier arrives to the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Christopher Polk—NBC/Getty Images  Julia Louis-Dreyfus arrives to the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kevork Djansezian—NBC/Getty Images  Allison Williams attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Keira Knightley arrives to the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kevork Djansezian—NBC/Getty Images  Patti Smith attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  James Corden attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Bill Hader attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Diane Kruger attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Chrissy Teigen and John Legend attend the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Kate Mara attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jeff Vespa—WireImage/Getty Images  Lana Del Rey attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Kit Harington arrives at the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kevork Djansezian—NBC/Getty Images  Giuliana Rancic attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jeff Vespa—WireImage/Getty Images  Pedro Pascal attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Conchita Wurst attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Kelly Osbourne attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Naomi Watts attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Kevork Djansezian—NBC/Getty Images  Gina Rodriguez attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Katherine Heigl attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images  Uzo Aduba attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  Felicity Jones attends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Reese Witherspoon ttends the 72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 11, 2015 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jason Merritt—Getty Images When George finally had his big moment, he tried to make it not about himself but about his wife and the _Charlie Hebdo_ attacks. “Amal, whatever alchemy brought us together, I couldn’t be prouder to be your husband,” he said, before reminding people about what was going on in France. Clooney’s speech tried to take away the importance of his movie roles (remember _Leatherheads_, anyone?), and instead focused on what is important—and that is Amal. Even George defines himself not as a movie star but as a man who is married to an amazing woman. He could have settled for Stacy Keibler or Renée Zellweger, but instead he married an Oxford graduate who could probably beat Hillary Clinton for President, if only she were American. **MORE** [Review: From Cosby to _Charlie_, This Golden Globes Had Something to Say](http://www.time.com/3663547/golden-globes-2015-review-fey-poehler-cosby-charlie-hebdo/) Husbands were getting ignored all over the place Sunday night. Channing Tatum, currently one of the biggest box-office draws in Tinseltown, was on “train patrol” for his wife, the much-lesser-known Jenna Dewan Tatum, fanning out her long dress for the wide shots on the red carpet. When Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber walked down the red carpet, he was generally ignored next to his wife, even though they were both nominated. That’s what being on television will do to you, Liev. Reese Witherspoon’s power-agent husband was with her at her table inside the event, but Cheryl Strayed, the woman she played in _Wild_, was the one who walked beside her when they stood next to Ryan Seacrest. Maybe Reese’s man just didn’t want any part of the spectacle. When the camera would cut to her at any time during the evening, it was like she was considering all the things she would rather be doing with her time, like fighting for civil rights and making the world a better place. For her part, Amal looked like she was barely tolerating being there, like a wife dragged to her husband’s boring work dinner. And that’s all this was with her in attendance: someone else’s professional convention. In fact, having Amal at the ceremony certainly threw the whole thing into perspective and threatened to undermine the legitimacy of the proceedings. We’re being duped into thinking that very rich people who are given every advantage in life, getting more accolades and awards, is somehow news. That it is something that should be covered rapturously by every news outlet in the world, with even more slide shows and reviews than the protests in Paris or Ferguson or wherever they’re happening these days. **MORE** [Golden Globes 2015: See All the Winners](http://www.time.com/3663086/golden-globes-2015-winners-list/) When George drags Amal to the Golden Globes, we realize how petty these awards truly are, just more of Hollywood breaking its arm patting itself on the back and duping us into buying more movie tickets, watching more shows, consuming more commercials, feeding the consumerist beast that Amal Clooney is trying to fight back into a cage every damn day. We always thought that she was the woman who finally snared George Clooney, but it’s the other way around. And we’re all better off for it. _Moylan is a writer and pop-culture junkie who lives in New York City. His work has appeared in Gawker, Vice,_ New York _magazine and a few other safe-for-work publications._ _Read next:_ [_Great Storytelling Was the Real Winner at the Golden Globes_](http://time.com/3663474/golden-globe-awards-2015-movies-analysis/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3664264/amal-alamuddin-george-clooney-trophy-husband/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3664264/amal-alamuddin-george-clooney-trophy-husband/"},"headline":"Amal Alamuddin Clooney and the Rise of the Trophy Husband","datePublished":"2015-01-12T19:00:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:42:42.903Z","description":"When George drags his human rights lawyer wife to the Golden Globes, we realize how petty these awards truly are","url":"https://time.com/3664264/amal-alamuddin-george-clooney-trophy-husband/","keywords":["Media","Living","women","celebrities","golden globes","Human Rights","George Clooney","entertainment","amal alamuddin","Culture","Amal Clooney","Charlie Hebdo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf63b4d850177e4a/6987795c0b72e3849f6dd11f/amal-clooney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Moylan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/brian-moylan/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf63b4d850177e4a/6987795c0b72e3849f6dd11f/amal-clooney.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals","caption":"72nd Annual Golden Globe Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Steve Granitz—WireImage/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/media/","name":"Media"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3664264/amal-alamuddin-george-clooney-trophy-husband/","name":"Amal Alamuddin Clooney and the Rise of the Trophy Husband"}}]}] ```