Venice Film Festival opens with George Clooney, Murdoch film and geopolitics

George Clooney may be at the Venice Film Festival to receive a lifetime achievement award, but he didn’t dwell just on memories and nostalgia on Wednesday. Before the award ceremony, which he attended with wife Amal Clooney, the 65-year-old actor and director addressed issues such as the artificial intelligence revolution in Hollywood and the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, and the state of journalism and power in America. “There’s a great word, kakistocracy, which is a country run by the least qualified people,” Clooney said. “I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now. But we’ll get through it.” Of artificial intelligence, Clooney said that his industry is going to have to find ways to survive, and that he would “like to avoid being in a tampon commercial 20 years after I’m dead.” He bemoaned the fact that some of the world's richest men own The Washington Post and X and said that the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. was “a complicated thing because I don’t know how this works out, I don’t know how it goes through." Over the course of 11 days, the 83rd edition of the festival will see many stars from Hollywood and beyond grace the red carpet, from Robert Pattinson...