Despite continued international efforts to keep the Olympic Games out of politics, Steven Spielberg has withdrawn as artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics, citing China’s failure to use its economic clout to force a resolution of the crisis in Darfur.

He said in a statement, “Sudan’s government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing suffering there.” China provides nearly all of Sudan’s oil, thereby effectively “underwriting genocide,” according to activists.

Spielberg’s decision could encourage other U.S. entertainers to boycott Olympics productions. In an interview with today’s (Wednesday) New York Times actor Don Cheadle, who heads the Darfur activist group Not on Our Watch, commented that if actions like Spielberg’s, “catch fire, and other people think of boycotting, or refraining, the cumulative effect could be something that potentially could change the calculation of [the Chinese] government.”

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Steven Spielberg will be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which will air live on NBC in January 2008.

The award, voted by the Board of Directors of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will honor Spielberg for his “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field.” It will be presented to Spielberg during The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards, which will be telecast live on NBC on January 13 from 8 to 11 p.m.

He will join the ranks of past Cecil B. DeMille winners, including Warren Beatty (2007), Anthony Hopkins (2006), Robin Williams (2005), Michael Douglas (2004), Gene Hackman (2003), Harrison Ford (2002), Al Pacino (2001) and Barbra Streisand (2000).

Spielberg has directed, produced or executive produced some of the top-grossing films of all time, including Jurassic Park and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. He is also behind blockbusters hits such as Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, The Color Purple, Munich, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws and Amistad, among many others. 

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A week after DreamWorks picked up Peter Jackson’s “Lovely Bones,” Steven Spielberg and Jackson are teaming up again, this time to bring Spielberg’s long-gestating pet project “Tintin” to the big screen.

Sources said Monday that Jackson and Spielberg would each direct installments of the franchise, which is based on a series of Belgian comic books called “The Adventures of Tintin” by Herge. It is unclear whether other filmmakers would be involved, and no script has been written.

The movies would be made using motion-capture technology.

In the comics, Tintin is a young Belgian reporter and world traveler who is aided in his adventures by his faithful dog Snowy. He later was joined by such colorful characters as Captain Haddock, Professor Cuthbert Calculus and bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson. The books, hugely popular in Europe, have been translated into 50 languages, with more than 200 million sold.

Spielberg is a lifelong Tintin fan, first optioning the film rights just before Herge, whose real name is Georges Remi, died in 1983.

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