George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin: Who's the prized catch?

He’s 52 years old, has been married before (from 1989 to 1993 to Talia Balsam), has a long list of exes from models to actresses to a cocktail waitress, and has claimed that he would never ever get married. She’s a human rights lawyer, speaks French, Arabic and English, has a degree from Oxford and New York University, has appeared for Julian Assange, is advising UN Special Envoy on Syria Kofi Annan and of course, lest we forget to add, she’s also stunning. The two are now engaged and guess who’s being called the prized catch? You’d think it would be the younger, better educated woman but as George Clooney proves it, the man is always the grand prize in any potential matrimonial alliance. According to tabloids and media houses, Clooney’s fiance Amal Alamduddin should consider herself lucky. Because, you know, she landed the man who’s claimed that  he sucks at marriage, which is every woman’s dream. Not! [caption id=“attachment_192324” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Oh George Clooney is engaged. Reuters[/caption] Or as Hadley Freeman in The Guardian points out sarcastically, “George Clooney’s unmarried life and recent engagement were reported in the media, because George Clooney is a man. Therefore, he is a sexy, debonair bachelor, a living breathing combination of Cary Grant, Brylcreem and handsomeness. He loves and leaves his women, that sexy cad, and the women are heartbroken. But he just waltzes on through life, evading the haggish hands of women hoping to nail him down, possibly literally. Ouch!” Ever since news of the engagement broke, the media has been talking incessantly about how she managed to ’tame him', pin him down, and how he’s finally met his match. For the media, it’s almost shocking that Clooney would want to get married. Obviously nobody says that he can finally have babies now; that talk is squarely reserved for Jennifer Aniston, who, as Freeman points out, got recently engaged to Justin Theorux as well. Then,of course there are new reports that she played ‘hard to get’ to get her claws on that elusive bachelor. Poor Georgie, beaten by that old let’s-play-to-hard-to-get trick. Compounding this retro theme as reports – based on unnamed sources –  that Amal had a clear strategy to win over the man. Telegraph’s Radhika Sanghani writes in a outraged piece, “the bad news comes from a ‘source’ who told one newspaper that Alamuddin, 36, didn’t just drift along in her relationship to Clooney until he surprised her with a ring; she had an actual strategy for getting it. It wasn’t just ‘be myself and hope for the best’ like mine – instead it’s the dating game’s age old, holy mantra: treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen.” Much of the elaborate expressions of regret over Clooney’s engagement, moreover, overlooks the fact that he is not exactly the kind of guy you can take home to mommy. He’s over 50, has had too many girlfriends, is seen as ‘a commitment phobe’. That’s not exactly the ideal boyfriend for any successful, good-looking 30 year-old daughter. As Charlotte Alter  in Time notes, “you could go to Lake Como a lot, but the drawbacks far outweigh the perks. Models would always be smirking at him, reporters would always be asking about the state of your marriage, tabloids would speculate doom every time he goes out alone. You’d probably have to be photographed next to your husband’s best friend’s wife, who happens to be Angelina Jolie. Your husband would wear fancier clothes than you.” Different standards for men and women aside, it’s high time  the tabloids stopped gushing over the upcoming marriage of a man, who given the baggage he comes with, doesn’t seem like a such a ‘prized catch’.