George Clooney is returning to the Venice Film Festival this year, where he’ll be honored with a lifetime achievement award. The festival’s organizers said Monday that Clooney has been selected to receive the Golden Lion at the 83rd edition of the festival in September.

“I’ve had so many extraordinary moments in Venice. This festival is without question my favorite and to be given the Golden Lion is a tremendous honor,” Clooney said in a statement. “It also probably means I’m old, but I’ll take it.”

The star has indeed had many memorable appearances in Venice, and at the festival, including with Steven Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard adaptation “Out of Sight,” in 1998, and his sophomore feature as a director, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” in 2005. Last year, he came with Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” in which he plays a movie star experiencing an existential crisis in the lead-up to accepting a lifetime achievement award at an Italian film festival.

“In his triple capacity as actor, director and producer, George Clooney is a complete and charismatic artist, impassioned and original, who has transformed a deep vocation into one of the most luminous parabolas of contemporary film,” festival director Alberto Barbera said in a statement. “A perfect combination of the star glamour of days gone by, remarkable professionalism, and modern sensitivity, the actor has crossed the genres with rare versatility.”

Venice is also where Clooney exchanged vows with then Amal Alamuddin, in 2014.

The 83rd Venice Film Festival kicks off on Sept. 2 and runs through Sept. 12.

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LONDON — The drama that seems to surround Prince Harry returns to the United Kingdom this week, and the previews already have the British press buzzing with anticipation.

King Charles III’s estranged son arrived Monday in the land of his birth for a series of charity engagements. But for most royal watchers that’s just background noise.

For the past 10 days, British tabloids and news broadcasts have been filled with speculation about whether Harry’s wife, Meghan, will accompany him and, more importantly, whether they will bring their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, so they can finally get to know Grandpa Charles. But everything is up in the air as Harry seeks to arrange protection for his family after a government committee refused to authorize taxpayer-funded security.

“With just days to go until Harry’s first public engagement in the U.K. on Tuesday … very little is guaranteed at all,” the Times of London reported on Saturday. “For Archie and Lilibet to meet the king, it’s now or never,’’ wrote the Telegraph.

Harry, a British army veteran who served in Afghanistan, is visiting to attend events ahead of the next Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style competition he founded to motivate and inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries. The games will be held in Birmingham next year.

Not on the official schedule but very much in the media spotlight is a decision Tuesday at the High Court in London, where the judge will reveal his verdict in Harry’s invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail.

The decision about whether to bring the children, according to reports based on off-the-record briefings and unidentified people close to the royals, hinges on whether the U.K. government agrees to provide security for Harry and his family. It is an issue that has hung over every trip the prince has made to Britain since he and Meghan decamped to North America six years ago.

British authorities say Harry isn’t entitled to blanket protection because he is no longer a working member of the royal family and they will assess his security on a case-by-case basis, just like any other celebrity. Harry says it is unsafe for his children to travel to Britain without protection because his family remains a target simply by virtue of their royal status.

The decision rests with a government committee known as Ravec that rules on who should get state-funded protection.

The outcome could be problematic for the royal family, which is trying to show that it provides value for money after months of embarrassing headlines about the links between the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“In the paranoid atmosphere of waiting for more Andrew shoes to drop, Ravec and the royals themselves are terrified of public blowback if taxpayers are asked to fund protection for the House of Sussex,’’ royal commentator Tina Brown wrote on X. “The issue is not a hill that either the king or the government wants to die on, and who can blame them?’’

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NEW YORK — Midtown might have been melting in the heat — plus having a meltdown over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wedding-related street closures — but it was also teeming with A-listers making their way to the power couple’s wedding celebration at Madison Square Garden.

Stars from myriad media and generations were seen en route to or outside of The World’s Most Famous Arena, where the lovers, both 36, tied the knot Friday in front of up to 1,200 guests.

Among the most notable seen dolled up and going to the Garden were Swift’s longtime friends, like the Haim sisters, Lena Dunham, Mariska Hargitay and husband Peter Hermann, as well as Gigi Hadid and beau Bradley Cooper, People reports. Zoë Kravitz, newly engaged to Swift’s ex Harry Styles, was also photographed, as were Karlie Kloss and husband Josh Kushner.

Jason Sudeikis, Ethan Hawke and the latter’s wife Ryan, as well as Hugh Grant and wife Anna Aberstein, were also among the famous faces going to the event. Abigail Anderson, known to Swifties as the pop star’s longtime best friend, was seen Thursday ahead of a reported rehearsal “celebration,” as well as Friday.

In addition to Stevie Nicks and Paul McCartney both reportedly performing with the Grammy-winning bride, there were a slew of musicians seen Friday — or posting about their prep for the festivities — including Jack Antonoff, with whom Swift has often collaborated since her hit 2014 album, “1989,” The Chicks, Ellie Goulding, Sombr and the Chainsmokers’ Alex Pall and Drew Taggart.

Other hitmakers included Benson Boone, Camilla Cabello, Swift’s longtime friend and occasional collaborator Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry Seaborn, along with Rascal Flatts’ Joe Don Rooney and his wife Jenny Hecht.

Around 5 p.m. Friday, Emma Bunton, aka Baby Spice, who Swift has called a childhood idol of hers, was seen arriving in a black car while sporting big dark sunglasses. Some in the crowd mistakenly shouted, “It’s Kate Moss!” as the former Spice Girl ignored them.

Authors Jenny Han — whose “The Summer I Turned Pretty” was adapted for a hit Amazon show that uses Swift’s music — and Glennon Doyle were also photographed, the latter holding hands with wife Abby Wambach, formerly of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.

Those from Kelce’s world who were spotted included Chiefs coach Andy Reid and sportscasters Erin Andrews, Joe Buck and Charissa Thompson, as well as — perhaps more intriguingly — New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and his wife Jennifer.

Vrabel has made headlines in recent months over the nature of his relationship with The Athletic’s former NFL reporter Dianna Russini, after eyebrow-raising photographs surfaced of the pair together over many years.

Selena Gomez, Dunham, Antonoff, Adam Sandler, Cooper and Anderson were all among those seen Thursday ahead of what was said to be a rehearsal dinner.

Regardless of the cause for celebration, an estimated 200 New York Police officers were assigned to the arena, the perimeter of which was closed down through Saturday afternoon.

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From combined wire services