George Clooney and Brad Pitt took a break from publicizing their movie, “Burn After Reading,” at the Venice Film Festival to publicize another cause: Clooney’s Not On Our Watch charity.

The organization has raised more than $7 million to help victims both of the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and the cyclone in Myanmar, according to executive director Alex Wagner.

The charity has famous roots and it’s definitely growing quickly. It was started last year by Clooney, Brad Pitt and some of their “Ocean’s Thirteen” colleagues, as a way to use their celebrity appeal to bring attention to human rights abuses.
But busy filming schedules make it hard to schedule publicity and fundraisers where both of the founders can be there. “Scheduling is very difficult. Two of them happened to be in Venice at the same time because of the ‘Burn After Reading’ premiere … so there was a brainstorming session,” Wagner said of the planned joint appearance.

One recent grant by the group was $500,000 in March to keep helicopters and airplanes flying aid into Darfur region of Sudan — topping off a $1 million donation a year earlier for the same program.

Not bad for something they do in their “spare” time!

*alexis