George Clooney calls on tabloid press to stop publishing photos of celebrity children
George Clooney has published an open letter calling on editors at tabloid newspapers to stop publishing photos of celebrities' children.
The request, obtained by Deadline, was addressed to "the Daily Mail and other publications" and issued late Thursday. Clooney stated that the motivation behind the letter was due to seeing photos of Billie Lourd's 14-month-old son in the tabloid, though the images were later removed.
"Having just seen photos of Billie Lourd's one-year-old baby in your publication, and the fact that you subsequently took those pictures down, we would request that you refrain from putting our children's faces in your publication," the 60-year-old actor began.
"I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment," he continued. "The nature of my wife's work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe."
Clooney ended by arguing that, as parents, they cannot protect their children "if any publication puts their faces on their cover".
The Oscar winner stated that he and his wife, Amal Clooney, have "never sold" photos of their children - four-year-old twins Ella and Alexander - and are not on social media, as doing so "would put their lives in jeopardy".
"Not paranoid jeopardy but real-world issues, with real-world consequences. We hope that you would agree that the need to sell advertisement isn't greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted. Thank you," he concluded.
