What a difference just three years has made to the career of human rights barrister Amal Alamuddin.
Before she met George Clooney she was a pretty and clever lawyer largely unknown outside legal circles.
Then in 2014 she married her Hollywood star in a four-day, £3.5 million Venice extravaganza, showing off more costume changes than a catwalk model, with pictures plastered all over the globe.
Now we are suddenly supposed to regard her as one of the most influential women in the world.
Amal Clooney, as she styles herself (so much for feminism!), was a guest this week at a Women of Impact dinner in Davos, hosted by the publisher and New York-based media luvvie Tina Brown.
Mrs Clooney, who appeared with George, was honoured at the dinner for her human rights work.
Personally, I would have thought that was what she’s paid to do — although, to be fair, she does carry out some pro bono work for which she waives her usual £500-an-hour fee.
Also honoured at the dinner was Amal’s Nobel Peace Prize-nominated client Nadia Murad, now a U.N. goodwill ambassador.
Nadia has been courageously outspoken about the persecution of the Yazidi people from northern Iraq.
She was imprisoned by Isis after the terror group executed her mother and brothers and is a worthy recipient of any honour.
Yet competent though Amal might be and important as her work is, why on earth is she being feted in this way simply for doing her job?
You can be sure it wouldn’t have happened had she not married Clooney.
At the event in Davos, Amal was wearing a £9,875 Chanel dress, enough to rebuild an entire Yazidi village (in the photo below from Instagram).
But that’s small fry compared with the £34,000 of couture outfits she wore in just two weeks last September while working as a human rights lawyer fighting trafficking, Isis, sex slavery and weighing in on the refugee crisis.
I’m sure she spends as much time on her legal briefs as she does on planning her wardrobe (although if the rumour she is pregnant with twins is true, Amal will soon be forking out for very expensive maternity wear).
What really sticks in one’s craw is seeing a highly privileged lawyer honoured in this way on the back of her multi-millionaire husband while so many other great women can’t get a look-in because they don’t swan about like Amal in celebrity circles.
By AMANDA PLATELL
