President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama can count many Hollywood stars among their supporters, and in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" the two discussed their relationship with actor George Clooney.
"George is a wonderful guy," said President Obama in the interview, scheduled to air Monday.
"He's cute, too," added the first lady.
The president said he got to know Clooney while still a senator in Illinois, thanks to the celebrity's humanitarian work in Darfur.
“He is a terrific advocate on behalf of the people of Darfur, and to the people of Sudan who've been brutalized for a long time,” said Obama. “And so when I was a senator, this was well before I was president, that was an issue that I was working together on a bipartisan basis, and George, who had traveled there, done documentaries there, and was very well-informed, came to testify in Congress. And so we got to know each other."
"He is a good man, and a good friend," he added.
Clooney in March testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the civil war in Sudan and urged lawmakers to push Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to allow food and humanitarian aid to refugees of the crisis. He was later arrested along with four members of Congress at a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.
Michelle Obama jokingly said it was a "conspiracy" that she has never been around the Oval Office when Clooney comes to visit the White House.
"Michelle is always frustrated because a lot of the events that George has been involved in, for some reason, she has something else going on," the president explained.
Obama also joked about the Hollywood star's effect on his White House staff.
"I will say that the couple of times he's come to the White House, I notice that the staff suddenly is circling around my office," he said.
"Everybody's there, everybody's around," the first lady added.
Clooney has been a prominent supporter of the president, hosting a May fundraiser for his reelection efforts that netted $15 million.
Asked by "Entertainment Tonight" host Nancy O'Dell about making the arrangements for such an event at a celebrity’s home, Obama would only describe Clooney as a "low-maintenance guy."
