BACKGROUND
George Clooney, Hollywood's most celebrated bachelor, is reportedly engaged to a British human rights lawyer. The 52-year-old actor and Amal Alamuddin, 36, a Beirut-born barrister, have bought an engagement ring and shared the news with friends, according to various celebrity news sources. Full story >>
THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail shows a man kneeling to propose to an overweight woman sitting on a sofa. He's showing her the engagement ring he's bought. The woman tells her parents in the next room, "Hurry up, Mum. Google it. Has George Clooney definitely been hooked?"
COMMENTARY
The joke is that the woman will only say 'yes' to her suitor if George Clooney is no longer available to marry her!
VOCABULARY
1. If you propose to someone, you ask them to marry you. • He proposed to her in June and they got married the following month. The corresponding noun is proposal. • She accepted his proposal.
2. If two people get engaged, they formally agree to get married. An engagement ring is a ring that you give someone as a formal sign that you have decided to get married.
3. To google something is to search for something on the Internet using the Google™ search engine.
4. To hook someone is a metaphor from fishing. The idea is that someone (usually a woman) succeeds in getting engaged to or marrying an eligible man (such as GC). To continue the fishing metaphor, the man is sometimes referred to as a catch. • Three stats that show why George Clooney’s a catch. By the way, to get hooked is an informal expression meaning to get married, but there's no suggestion that one party has 'landed' the other one.
