George Clooney to aid quake-hit Italian city

July 09, 2009 Clooney toured L'Aquila with Bill Murray, Walter Veltroni, former mayor of Rome and self-proclaimed film buff, and a pack of paparazzi and security personnel matched by only a handful of the 40 heads of state in town for the three-day summit, which concluded Friday. Just days after the earthquake, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced plans to move the G8 meeting to L'Aquila from its planned site in Sardinia in part to call attention to the battered city and also to direct millions in infrastructure spending tied to the summit to the area. The visit from Clooney, Murray and Veltroni did help call attention to the city as well as sparking a promise from Clooney to shoot a film in the area to help revive its sputtering economy.

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