George Clooney is already a special winner although the Emmy Awards are still a few weeks away.

Clooney's humanitarian efforts for the "Hope for Haiti" TV special, which received a nomination for an Emmy award, will be acknowledged. He has also been very busy in helping increase awareness about genocide in Darfur.

According to chairman and chief executive of the TV academy John Shaffner, Clooney was "an obvious choice" for the award because he made use of the power that television has to inspire people to act.

Clooney is the fourth person to be given the Bob Hope Award. The first three winners were Oprah Winfrey, Boll Cosby and Danny Thomas.