The red carpet and flowers were out this week at the United Nations' headquarters for its messenger for peace, actor George Clooney, to give his report after a harrowing trip to Darfur.
The Oscar-winning star had even brought his parents along to see him give one of the most important performances of his career: a speech highlighting a new surge in violence in Sudan.
But at the last minute, someone pulled the plug. Clooney, designated the UN Messenger for Peace, had a message someone did not want to hear.
Sources at the UN said France and Russia were the nations that objected to the idea of an actor reporting on the horrors he had witnessed in Sudan and neighbouring Chad.
The rebuff is the first suffered by one of a chain of celebrity envoys the UN employs to highlight its work around the world.
Clooney himself refused to be silenced, gathering journalists in an adjacent room to broadcast a plea for action. ''I am the son of a newsman,'' he said. ''The job of messenger comes with the responsibility to deal with facts, not to tell people what they want to hear, but to tell them the truth, unfiltered.''
"Despite fine words and half a dozen resolutions, the UN, or more accurately its member states, has washed its hands of the problem," observed the actor.
''I was in Chad two years ago, and it's worse now than when I was there,'' he said. ''And Sudan isn't particularly better now.''
