Actor Warwick Davis, of Star Wars and Harry Potter series fame, recently described what it is like working on An Idiot Abroad:
“It’s gruelling, because when the cameras stop you’re still there. There’s no kind of: ‘Okay guys, thanks a lot,’ and then off to a five star hotel. You’re left where you are, and if you sleep rough in a gypsy caravan, you sleep rough in a gypsy caravan for the cameras. That’s what happens. So yeah, we had a few rough nights.”
For those unfamiliar with the series, An Idiot Abroad is a documentary-style comedy in which a Brit (Karl Pilkington) is sent abroad, and outside his comfort zone, by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to experience different cultures.
Merchant hopes Karl will have a great experience, while Gervais is more set on seeing Karl in absolute misery as he wades through cultural experience after cultural experience. Either way, expats all over the globe will find plenty to relate to through Karl’s life abroad.
Channing Tatum isn’t exactly an expat, but he will be working abroad, and his wife will have their baby overseas in London:
Channing Tatum has revealed his first child will be born overseas.
The actor and his wife, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, revealed on the Oscars 2013 red carpet in Hollywood on Sunday that due to work commitments, their baby will be born in London — something the “Magic Mike” star expanded on during his visit to “Jimmy Kimmel Live After The Oscars.”
The article notes that the couple’s child will not be able to be President of the United States. Is that reason enough to stay at home and have the baby on their native soil?
The trend of Americans working abroad ditching their citizenships, according to a recent article on Time.com.
Why is Tina Turner switching from American to Swiss citizenship? The legendary singer, a longtime Zurich resident, told the Blick newspaper that she has been very happy in Switzerland and “can’t imagine a better place to live.” But some observers believe she may be one of thousands of American expatriates who have taken the drastic and irrevocable step of giving up their citizenship because of what they consider to be the unjust and discriminatory taxation practices of their government…
According to government figures, nearly 1,800 Americans relinquished their passports in 2011, a process that requires a special application and a $450 “exit fee.” True, that number is just a drop in the bucket, considering that an estimated 6 million U.S. citizens currently live abroad. But the numbers are growing dramatically — a sevenfold increase since 2008, and that is not counting thousands of applications waiting to be processed in U.S. consulates and embassies around the world.
The article provides some insight into how U.S. citizenship, given current tax law, can impact one’s life while living abroad. This include’s relationship matters, getting a mortgage, and more. Please feel free to share how U.S. tax laws have affected your life abroad.
I should also point out that it’s not just the U.S. who has made headlines when a famous expat gave up his or her citizenship. Gerard Depardieu recently renounced his French citizenship due to France’s tax laws.
Gerard Depardieu is now officially an expat. Perhaps forever?
French film star Gerard Depardieu received a hug from President Vladimir Putin and a new Russian passport on Sunday after abandoning his homeland to avoid a new tax rate for millionaires.
Putin signed a decree on Thursday granting Russian citizenship to Depardieu, who has fumed over French President Francois Hollande’s plan to impose a 75% tax rate.
Whoa! That’s one committed Frenchman… er, I mean Russian. Who else out there would renounce his citizenship to avoid a huge tax burden? Oh, that’s right… Eduardo Saverin! The Facebook founder saved himself by $39 million by expatriating to Singapore and renounced his U.S. citizenship.
Who’s next out there? Any other expats getting ready to drop their citizenship to avoid the long arm of the tax man?
(Read previous post about Depardieu’s move to Belgium.)
Australian expats in Boulder, Colorado got to see the stars of the St Kilda Football Club, which hosted their pre-season training camp in the picturesque foothills city. It’s fun to read about the reaction of having these Australian stars in town and the ease of access to them:
[Mathew Hayward] posed for a picture with Saints midfielder Lenny Hayes, shook his hand and congratulated him on a great career.
“It would be like an American from Boulder going to Melbourne and being able to have a chat to Peyton Manning and have their photograph taken,” said Hayward, beaming. “You’d have to go to Melbourne to appreciate the significance of these guys in our city. These people are household names. To have the experience of looking in his eyes and wishing him well, I would never get the opportunity in Australia.”
As someone who used to live there, I can tell you I completely understand why the Saints chose to hold their pre-season camp in Boulder. So many sunny days in a visually spectacular location.
I wonder if anybody out there in the expat world has encountered athletes or celebrities abroad and what the reaction was like if you approached them? People do tend to act a bit different away from home sometimes, right?
It’s always interesting to hear or read an expat’s story about why and how they decided to move from one country to another. Sometimes we forget to look back and examine some of the most exciting expatriate stories of all. Huffingtonpost.com recently ran one such story, about how one story launched Walter Cronkite, who was an expat reporter in London, on a trajectory for international acclaim:
Along with Stars and Stripes’ Andy Rooney, the New York Herald Tribune’s Homer Bigart, and five other reporters, Cronkite was a charter member of “The Writing 69th,” the fraternity of American journalists trained by the Eighth Army Air Force in early ’43 to fly along on combat missions. That February morning, Bigart and Cronkite both took off from the 303rd Bomb Group’s base at Molesworth. Their respective B-17s emerged unscathed, but Rooney’s Flying Fortress absorbed a direct hit from flak, although it was able to safely land at its airdrome in Thurleigh. A B-24 carrying the New York Times’ Robert Perkins Post was shot down near the mission’s objective, the Kriegsmarine base at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Post was killed, a tragedy that abruptly disbanded the Writing 69th: the duty was far too dangerous.
I had never read that story about Cronkite, and I’m sure there are many other such stories that are lost or nearly forgotten. Do you know any? Share them!
