Amal Alamuddin's Engagement Ring from George Clooney – See Exclusive Photos! 
 
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 Related Video: Inside Scoop – George Clooney's Engagement 
 
 If you've got it, flaunt it.At a private dinner on April 27, George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin showed off their newly engaged bliss – along with the bride-to-be's new ring.In an exclusive photo in this week's PEOPLE, the couple joined close friends Cindy Crawford and her husband, Rande Gerber, in Santa Barbara, Calif., just five days after Clooney proposed to the stunning London lawyer, to celebrate Gerber's 52nd birthday as well as their own happy news.In another exclusive photo, Alamuddin has her hand resting lovingly on the back of her fiancé's neck – providing a close-up look at her ring, which Clooney helped design. It features an ethically mined emerald-cut diamond estimated at 7-plus carats and two tapered baguettes set in platinum.In PEOPLE's cover story, sources reveal more details of the surprise engagement. On April 22, Clooney proposed the traditional way – on bended knee.The actor had visited Dubai in March to meet his Lebanese-born, Oxford-educated leading lady's family, spending time on a yacht excursion with her siblings, says a relative of Alamuddin's."They found George very easy to get along with, cool," the family member tells PEOPLE. "They felt at ease with him immediately."For much more on George and Amal's engagement news, including a closer look at the woman who won the heart of the ultimate Hollywood bachelor, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE ||||| So how did Amal Alamuddin tame George Clooney? By playing VERY hard to get 
 
 Just how does a girl pull off an engagement to the most eligible man in the world, whose name is synonymous with the words heart-throb and commitment-phobe? 
 
 Ask Amal Alamuddin, a beautiful and brilliant barrister, who is reported to have done just that with George Clooney. 
 
 As an adviser to former UN Secretary general Kofi Annan, now the special envoy to Syria, no doubt her knowledge on the subject of the war there impressed Clooney, who is a highly vocal political campaigner. 
 
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 George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin, who are believed to be engaged, out and about in London last year 
 
 But according to one well-informed source, what clinched it for Miss Alamuddin was not her vision for world peace but the strategy she deployed when Clooney pursued her. 
 
 It was the oldest trick in the book: she played hard to get. 
 
 ‘Clooney asked her out for dinner and she put him off twice, saying she was too busy, before accepting the third time,’ said the source. 
 
 
 
 ‘She was operating on the lines of “treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen” and clearly it worked. Clooney was beguiled by her and she had the upper hand. 
 
 ‘What he likes about her is that she treats him normally. He’s so used to being fawned over that it’s refreshing for him. And of course she is a brilliant human rights lawyer – but quite an operator too, you might say. She has met a whole bunch of A-listers through him and is seemingly quite cool about it, though you suspect she’s loving it.’ 
 
 And while an engagement within seven months is swift by most standards, it is astonishing by Clooney’s. 
 
 Until now, Clooney seemed destined to go through life with a mix of models and actresses - until he finally met his match with the UN adviser Miss Alamuddin 
 
 
 
 Until now, it seemed Clooney was destined to go through life with an interchangeable mix of models, actresses and cocktail waitresses – and most recently, Stacy Keibler, a female wrestler – on his arm. 
 
 
 
 But he will be 53 next month and perhaps even he has grown tired of saying he will never marry again. From 2000, there was periodic speculation that Clooney would marry another Brit, Lisa Snowdon. 
 
 But now he could finally make it down the aisle again with Miss Alamuddin. 
 
 Photographs of the actor and his girlfriend on holiday in Tanzania last month, decked out like a pair of extras in Raiders of the Lost Ark, certainly bear witness to assertions they are smitten with each other. 
 
 After Tanzania, the couple relaxed in the Seychelles and visited New York for a romantic stay at the Carlyle Hotel. Then they are said to have flown out to Dubai together, where George met Miss Alamuddin’s family. 
 
 Yesterday, her mother, Baria, said: ‘I’m so sorry but I can’t comment. She is my daughter and you understand it is very private.’ 
 
 Miss Alamuddin, pictured with Clooney in New York, is said to have turned down the Hollywood superstar's offer to take her out for dinner twice, saying she was too busy. She finally gave in on his third attempt 
 
 But maybe not for much longer. 
 
 According to a friend, Miss Alamuddin is very sociable and great at networking. 
 
 ‘She goes to all the right parties,’ said the friend. ‘She’s assiduous at making the right connections.’ 
 
 As a specialist in international and human rights law, her list of high-profile clients includes WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, in his fight against extradition to Sweden where he is accused of sex offences. 
 
 Whether Miss Alamuddin has had any other serious relationships is not known. 
 
 When she topped a list of London’s most beautiful barristers last year, she was described thus: ‘Amo, Amas, Amal. These are three short words that come to mind when thinking about this dazzling beauty.’ 
 
 According to a friend, she is a ‘man’s woman’, forthright in her opinions, and hugely ambitious. 
 
 Clearly, she is a woman who draws attention wherever she goes. If – and it is a big if – she does become Mrs Clooney, there will be a great deal more attention.
– Still wondering how human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin turned George Clooney from perennial bachelor into fiance? Well, apparently by playing hard to get—at least at first. Sources tell Radar when Clooney first met Alamuddin last September, at a charity fundraiser, he "immediately homed in" on her. But after a few minutes of conversation, she "did the unthinkable," an insider says, and "walked away from the group George was with. ... She just wasn’t impressed by the Hollywood actor persona." Clooney, on the other hand, was "instantly more intrigued by her" after she showed zero interest. He followed her to another group, and then at the end of the night, asked for her phone number—and she declined, a first for the actor. Somehow, Clooney was able to call her the next morning anyway, but when he asked her out on a date, she declined once again. "He was absolutely shocked," the insider says. The Daily Mail's sources say she ultimately turned down two dates. But Clooney eventually convinced her to go out with him, you know, so they could talk about his humanitarian work, and after hearing what he's done in Darfur, she was hooked. People has the scantest of details on how Clooney proposed last Tuesday—on one knee, with an ethically mined, 7-plus carat emerald-cut diamond ring.