Venetian wedding for Clooney

George Clooney AP FILE PHOTO

LOS ANGELES—George Clooney says he is to wed his fiancée Amal Alamuddin in Venice in the next few weeks, less than a year after the 36-year-old lawyer began dating Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor.

The US actor’s spokesperson confirmed the wedding location, but not the date, after Clooney let slip his plans to marry the British human rights attorney in the picture-postcard Italian city.

“I met my lovely bride-to-be here in Italy… I will be marrying [her] in a couple of weeks, in Venice of all places,” People magazine quoted him as saying at an awards ceremony Sunday in Florence, Italy.

No specific date

Reports suggested they could tie the knot on Sept. 26, but the A-list actor’s spokesperson Stan Rosenfield played this down, telling AFP: “He did not give a specific date.

“I can confirm only that he is getting married in Venice,” he said.

During Sunday’s event, the couple appeared very much in love, according to People.

Clooney put his arm around her shoulder and carefully brushed her hair back whenever her “flowing locks” fell out of place as she laughed.

Clooney was married to US actress Talia Balsam for four years, from 1989 to 1993, but has shown little interest in settling down since. He went through a string of younger model and actress girlfriends over the years.

Like his fiancée, he has long shown interest in human rights issues such as the humanitarian crisis in  Darfur.

Alamuddin, who is fluent in Arabic, French and English, worked with the international tribunal examining the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, and assisted ex-UN head Kofi Annan in efforts to make peace in Syria. AFP