Clooney: Not enough being done to end Darfur conflict

United Nations – Actor George Clooney expressed frustration Friday over the lack of action to end the conflict in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

“I wish we could stand here today and say that everything is moving forward. It’s not,” Clooney said during a U.N. news conference. “There are talks and more talks about who started the fight, who’s responsible and who’s to blame and the only people (who) didn’t start this fight are not responsible and are not to blame suffer and die.”

The Oscar winner met U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday to brief him about the delegation he led to China and Egypt, which included actor Don Cheadle, American speed skater Joey Cheek and Kenyan Olympian Tegla Loroupe. The four later gave an interview to The Associated Press.

All four have been to Sudan at different times, and Clooney said they spoke not just as “concerned citizens,” but as witnesses.

“All of us can report that the situation is at best grave and about to get much worse – 2.5 million refugees with now almost no aid, no protection, no hope,” Clooney said. “They are all alone, and workers are leaving, are being kicked out on a massive scale, leaving these people their last great task – watching their families die one by one.”

Beyonce not ‘flirtatious and super-confident’ offstage

New York – Beyonce Knowles says she becomes someone else when she’s onstage, an alter ego she’s even given a name to: Sasha.

“I wouldn’t like Sasha if I met her offstage,” the 25-year-old singer-actress tells Parade magazine in today’s issue. “Oh, no. She’s too aggressive, too strong, too sassy, too sexy! I’m not her in real life at all. I’m not flirtatious and super-confident and fearless like her.”

“I created my stage persona to protect myself,” she says, “so that when I go home, I don’t have to think about what it is I do. Sasha isn’t me. The people around me know who I really am.”

One of those close confidantes is her boyfriend, music mogul Jay-Z. “When I’m in love, I’m there 100 percent,” she says. “But if I don’t trust someone, if I’m not totally there because of it, then I’m not going to waste my time.”

Knowles, who started out in the girl group Destiny’s Child, plays singer Deena Jones opposite Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson in the movie musical “Dreamgirls,” opening Friday.