The Clooney​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Effect

As the twins turn one and George and Amal Clooney’s careers reach ever more stratospheric levels of success, William Langley finds that the golden couple are redefining celebrity and establishing a new paradigm for modern marriage.

- William Langley

Almost four years after they emerged into an Italian sunset as man and wife, the golden glow of George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin continues to wash over the world. Stylish, impeccably mannered and bathed in deadly cool, the Clooneys have become not just a source of fascination, but an object lesson in modern celebrity togetherness.

Anthropologists and relationship experts credit them with creating “a new paradigm” of marriage with the potential to sweep away old stereotypes and subtly reshape the way men and women think of each other.

The treacherous wastes of Hollywood’s romantic landscape may be littered with couples who learned too late that fame, money and beauty take you only so far, but the Clooneys appear to be more besotted with each other than ever.

From royal weddings to showbiz galas to the sanctums of power, square-jawed George, 57, and his brilliant 40-year-old wife are the guests everybody wants. The Hollywood Reporter magazine describes them as “the most talked about A-list couple in history,” but, until now, very little of the talk has come from the Clooneys themselves. Behind the screens of weeping willows that surround their magnificent English country house on an island in the River Thames, the pair have largely devoted themselves to raising their year-old twins, Alexander and Ella, and becoming good citizens of the sleepy parish of Sonning.