George and Amal Clooney become French: the escape of the stars from Trump’s America

The last ones are them, the Hollywood star George Clooney and his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney: they requested and obtained French citizenship, for themselves and their two children – Ella and Alexander8-year-old twins – as shown by official French government documents. “It’s for privacy reasons,” the actor explained to the RTL broadcaster. For him and his wife it is essential that their children can lead a normal life in a country where the paparazzi’s interest is not so morbid. «Here you don’t take photos of children. There are no paparazzi lurking outside the school gates. This is the most important thing for us.” Not a political motivation, therefore. Or at least not made explicit. Only the desire to enjoy the property purchased in 2021 in the South of France, a house in a vineyard worth around 9 million euros in the town of Brignoles. “We also have a house in the United States, but our favorite place is this estate where the children can have fun,” George said.

However, the escape from the USA is a reality and other famous people do not hide that the reason is impatience with the current administration. If during Trump’s first presidency many threatened to leave but then stayed, today we move from words to actions. The director Jim Jarmusch he told France Inter radio on Friday that he would also apply for French citizenship. «I would like to have another place to escape to, if necessary, away from America. France, Paris and French culture are deeply rooted in me. I would be very honored to be able to obtain a French passport,” he said.

Before him, others had declared and put into practice their desire to leave. The director James Cameron – born in Canada but moved to California with his family at the age of 17 – had already decided to move to New Zealand, but Trump’s arrival has accelerated the process and the decision to take citizenship is now imminent. «I don’t know if I feel safer here, but I certainly don’t have to read about Trump on the front page every day. There is something positive about New Zealand newspapers: at least they put it on page three. I don’t want to see that man’s face on the front page anymore. In the USA it is inevitable: it’s like watching a car accident that repeats itself over and over.”

The actress Robin Wrightstar of House of Cards, in a recent interview with Times of London called America a disaster and one of the reasons he decided to move from the hills of Los Angeles to the English countryside. «I love living here, there is more freedom. The people are kind, they really live, they’re not stuck in traffic in the car, panicking on the phone, eating a sandwich in a hurry like most of America is. There everything is rush, competition and speed,” Wright said.

The Game of Thrones actress Sophie TurnerEnglish by birth, after her divorce from Joe Jonas she decided to return to the United Kingdom, vowing that she will never set foot in the USA again. «The armed violence, the massacres, the annulment of the Roe v. Wade (and therefore of the legality of abortion at the federal level, ndr). It all piled up. After the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas (in which 19 children and two teachers died, ndr) I realized it was time to leave.”

Despite living in the UK for years, only last March Courtney Love revealed that he had applied for British citizenship. “I’m really happy to live here,” he said. «It’s fantastic. As for Trump and his followers: it’s like a show of imperial power. They wear million dollar watches. At Mar-a-Lago you can breathe this air of empire. It’s scary. It’s like cyanide,” added the singer even before learning of the Kennedy Center’s name change to the Trump Kennedy Center, perhaps the most sensational example of the imperial desire the singer talks about.

With a unanimous vote of the board (made up of people all nominated by him), the cultural center in Washington – a sort of memorial dedicated to John F Kennedy in 1964, a year after his killing – was renamed adding the name of the current president, an unprecedented move which caused the cancellation of several shows already scheduled due to the refusal of the musicians to perform as well as strong protests from the Kennedy family.

Jimmy Kimmel he obtained Italian citizenship thanks to his maternal grandmother from Ischia. The comedian said he has no plans for an imminent move but isn’t ruling it out in the future. “The situation is incredible,” he said of Trump. Also Ellen DeGeneres and his wife Portia have chosen to live in the English countryside, a decision made the day after Trump’s re-election. «We were already here. We woke up full of messages from desperate American friends. We decided not to return. In America they are trying to cancel same-sex marriage. They are trying to prevent this in the future and perhaps even cancel those already celebrated. Portia and I are already inquiring and, if they do, we will get married here,” he declared.