The Hollywood actor is a prominent donor to the Democratic Party in the United States. In recent years, that has regularly led to criticism from President Trump, who has called him a “second-rate movie star,” among other things. According to Clooney, it didn’t bother him much. “It’s not my job to keep the President of the United States happy.”

  • FreddiesLantern@leminal.space
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    1 day ago

    Anyone would have a better life in France instead of the US but good for him. Glad to see there’s still some backbone in Hollywood.

      • Sunflier@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        edit-2
        18 hours ago

        More than just a plane ticket. You need a marketable skill that is easily transferred, rent, food, utilities, new transportation, new licensing, and coverage for enough months until you can get the job. Also, the immigration fees. Basically, immigration is for the rich who can use money as a cushion or for the impoverished who have nothing to lose by assuming the risk.

        • BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          8 hours ago

          More than just a plane ticket. You need a marketable skill that is easily transferred, rent, food, utilities, new transportation, new licensing, and coverage for enough months until you can get the job. Also, the immigration fees.

          You’ll need a marketable skill, rent, food, and transportation if you stay, too. I’m not sure what you mean by licensing. Immigration fees is something that I haven’t looked into before, but it appears to be something like 800€ in here Denmark.

          As for language, if you pick the Netherlands, Scandinavia or larger German cities, then English will be OK.

          I’m not saying that I think it’s a walk in the park, nor that’ll be free, but it may be easier, and less expensive, than people think. Start by going on an extended vacation to the countries that you’re interested in. Maybe talk with potential employers. Then make plans afterwards.

          • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            13 hours ago

            Go to a big city in the Netherlands or the Nordics if learning a new language is too hard. People there are fluent in English. And in many companies there who hire expats they speak English on the work floor.

      • Renohren@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        13 hours ago

        This is at the heart of a scandal he triggered in France. A lot of people would have prefered him not to get fast-tracked when he doesn’t qualify for the minimum requirements ( this is from his own confession) when so many are getting bumped out when they are more “worthy” ( not in financial or influence terms).

  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    I’m a regular guy who saved up for years while studying another language and gtfo of the US. It’s an option.

    • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 day ago

      I did that too and I got tired of it and came back and now it looks like the country’s fucked. Thanks a lot guys

      • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        1 day ago

        If you did it once, you can do it again. Nowhere is perfect, though. If I had it to do over, I’d probably pick one of the Nordics instead of Japan.

          • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            21 hours ago

            Probably a harder time as they’re often expected to know all the unwritten rules and behave a certain way. I know people who have struggled a lot to reintegrate. Many end up working for themselves and/or in entertainment if they have a more western mondset

  • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    140
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 days ago

    ITT: people not realizing his wife was born in Lebanon. Are they safer than your average non-pure-white family? Absolutely. But they have legitimate reasons to be scared.

    Also apparently she’s a human rights lawyer so she’s bound to have pissed off republicans one way or another already.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        56
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Yeah I get hating rich people, because fuck inequality, that’s true, but the Clooneys seem like pretty decent people to me as far as rich celebrities are concerned.

        • cmbabul@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          19
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          He for sure has too much money(Google said $500 mill) but he’s small time compared to the richest and the corporations that are doing the most damage to the future. I doubt more than a few folks interested in eating the rich are champing at the bit to get at Clooney.

        • DylanMc6 [any, any]@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          1 day ago

          George Clooney did a pretty good job (just like all the other actors) in the 2000 Coen Brothers film “O Brother Where Art Thou”. Seriously!

    • Spaniard@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 day ago

      What does her wife being from Lebanon has anything to do with this? She has British and French citizenship so it is easy for him to get the citizenship and I bet she is safe from ICE on virtue of having shit ton of money, other 2 nationalities and being an international lawyer.

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        19 hours ago

        What does her wife being from Lebanon has anything to do with this?

        That she’s obviously not safe in the country and people are mad that they decided to uproot their family and leave?

        I bet she is safe from ICE on virtue of having shit ton of money, other 2 nationalities and being an international lawyer.

        I’m sure that being part of the team that being one of the authors of this article makes you popular with Netanyahu’s sock puppet’s pet anti-immigration criminal organization lmao. She’s also represented other people that the US government doesn’t exactly agree with. There are a LOT of good reasons for Trump to disappear her. She did exactly the one thing that the shit ton of money allowed her to do: Escaped. I hope everyone else who can and needs to, does as well. The bigger the brain drain, the better - Trump’s empire won’t last as long.

        • Spaniard@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          14 hours ago

          Neither him nor her or their family are in any danger in the USA, besides the usual due to the nature of the country.

  • Obi@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    22 hours ago

    My family has been in that area he’s moved to for a couple generations. It’s really nice and it’s the south, but it’s very far away from the busy/fancy parts of the côte d’azur. I can definitely see why they’d choose going there. The only downside to this whole region is it votes pretty right wing and you can sometimes feel it in conversations with the locals, but since I’m sure they’re still pretty insulated they probably don’t feel that.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Probably not. Wealthy people like him have to pay an exit tax on their unrealized gains when they renounce their US citizenship

      • Jess@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 hours ago

        Wait, what? He has to pay the US government on potential taxable income he might have made and owed to the government if he were still a citizen? That doesn’t seem fair. Even if we weren’t talking about a movie star. I don’t want to pay the government when I divorce them for my new country.

      • Flipper@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        13 hours ago

        A lot of German banks don’t want to deal with the hassle of a us dual citizen. Don’t know if it’s the same with french banks. But that could be another reason to give it up.

        • michel@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          14 hours ago

          Depending on the intricacies of tax treaties you probably won’t pay much US tax after moving to a high taxation country. Relinquishing US citizenship when you are wealthy means paying the capital gains exit tax on your worldwide assets though so if you can afford good accountants, keeping both is probably easier

          • Renohren@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            13 hours ago

            Yeah: you are correct. My french wife is also a US citizen and he works in hospitality (nor she or I are loaded). Her tax is high enough here that it annuls any taxes she should pay to the IRS.

            Tax is not on the bingo card. What is on the bingo card is that France never never extradited it’s own citizens. And if you are sought after by another country’s justice system, no matter how heinous your supposed crimes (like being an influencial democrat supporter in the current US ), you will be 100% safe on french soil if you are french.

  • Breezy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    1 day ago

    Wtf is wrong with these comments. Is lemmy full of hate bots now aswell?

  • ronl2k@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 day ago

    The rich and famous will live their lives in a bubble no matter where they reside. And Clooney is still going to hear about Trump’s criticisms no matter where he lives.