Summary

FTG FOR COVERAGE ON GEORGE CLOONEY / EXT BROLL CLOONEY AND DAD AT PROTEST AT SUDAN EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON DC / EXT BROLL CLOONEY AND PROTESTERS ARRESTED BY POLICE George Clooney, the Academy Award- winning movie actor, was arrested during a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. Clooney, 50, was taken into custody today and charged with crossing a police line, a misdemeanor, according to George Ogilvie, a Secret Service spokesman. He was taken to a police station for processing, Ogilvie said. He paid a $100 penalty and was released, according to Gwendolyn Crump, a police spokeswoman. Clooney was part of a group protesting attacks by the Sudanese government on its southern regions and blocking of humanitarian aid. Sixteen others arrested included NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, Martin Luther King III and Democratic U.S. representatives Jim Moran and Jim McGovern, according to Ogilvie. The Hollywood star has spent the past two days in Washington. On March 14, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee claiming the Sudanese government was killing its own people and blocking aid to the Nuba mountains and the Blue Nile regions. That evening, he was among the guests invited by President Barack Obama to a state dinner honoring U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. Clooney, at the Senate hearing, described a visit this month to southern Sudan where he witnessed hundreds of people seeking to hide in caves from Sudanese bombings.