Newly-married George Clooney has surprised fans with an appearance at the New York Comic-Con.
Clooney, who married human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin on September 27 in Venice, Italy, walked on stage during a panel discussion for the upcoming Disney fantasy film Tomorrowland, in which he plays a hermit inventor.
“It’s not lost on me that I’m spending my honeymoon at Comic-Con,” Clooney told the crowd to a thunderous applause.
Panel moderator Chris Hardwick then asked the actor: “So what did you say: ‘Honey we’re going to Comic-Con?’.”
“She was as confused as you all were,” Clooney said.
Before walking on stage, Disney showed the crowd a two-minute trailer of the film.
It’s not lost on me that I’m spending my honeymoon at Comic-Con
“We’ve been waiting on this for a year-and-a-half and that’s it,” Clooney told director Brad Bird. “I’m barely in the teaser.”
Later Clooney introduced an exclusive clip from the film that prominently showed him and Britt Robertson in an action sequence, calling the experience larger than anything he had ever done.
“We were all over the world for this film. Hugh (Laurie) and I got to get in trouble in the Bahamas.
“That was fun, two former television doctors,” Clooney told the crowd to prolonged laughter. “Bring on that McSteamy guy, we’ll take on all of them TV doctors.”
Laurie starred in House, while Clooney appeared on ER.
He also hammed it up with references to superheroes.
“Since I did Batman, I’ve been de-invited from Comic-Con. I met Adam West and apologised.”
Meanwhile, the star’s wife, human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, is heading to Athens to advise the Greek government in its battle to repatriate the ancient Elgin Marbles statues from Britain.
The Lebanese-born Alamuddin, is to meet Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Culture Minister Konstantinos Tasoulas alongside her boss Geoffrey Robertson, their Doughty Street Chambers said.
“Robertson and Alamuddin Clooney were first asked to provide legal advice to the Greek government on this matter in 2011.
“They will be holding a series of meetings with government officials during their stay,” the chambers added in a statement.
The Marbles are a set of ancient Greek sculptures taken to London after being removed from the Acropolis in Athens by a British aristocrat, Lord Elgin, while Athens was under Ottoman control in the 19th century.
Greece has sought their return from the British Museum for decades, to no avail.
In March, George Clooney backed their return to Greece while promoting his film The Monuments Men.
The Trustees of the British Museum maintain that the marbles legally belong to the museum.
Greece says it is no longer an issue of ownership and that it would accept them back as a permanent loan. To do so, the Greek government would first have to relinquish its claim to them, the British Museum says.