Actor George Clooney and his family have been granted French citizenship, official government documents show, after he has previously voiced concern about raising his children amid the glitz of Hollywood.<\/p>\n
A gazette notice listing all new French naturalizations, released on Saturday, includes Clooney \u2013 as well as his wife, Amal Clooney, and their twin children, Alexander and Ella.<\/p>\n
Clooney, who also holds US citizenship, and Amal, a British-Lebanese humanitarian lawyer, are already well familiar with their new adopted country. Though they also have homes in England and near his family in Kentucky, their primary residence is a farm in France, the actor told the New York Times<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing up in Kentucky, all I wanted to do was get away from a farm, get away from that life,\u201d Clooney told the paper. \u201cNow I find myself back in that life. I drive a tractor and all those things. It\u2019s the best chance of a normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n He made similar comments in an interview with Esquire<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n \u201cI was worried about raising our kids in LA, in the culture of Hollywood,\u201d Clooney said. \u201cI felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life. France \u2013 they kind of don\u2019t give a sh*t about fame,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don\u2019t want them being compared to somebody else\u2019s famous kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The actor and director has long been vocal about his privacy concerns surrounding his family, and in 2021 wrote an open letter urging the media to keep his children\u2019s faces out of the press for their safety.<\/p>\n France has strong privacy protection laws: it\u2019s illegal to photograph someone in a private place, or disclose personal information like their home addresses or phone numbers. It\u2019s also illegal to publish pictures of celebrities in public places unless that appearance is related to their position as public figures.<\/p>\n When paparazzi in France try to photograph celebrities during their personal time, outside of media appearances, \u201cthe celebrity\u2019s security or assistant will take a picture or video of the paparazzi,\u201d litigation attorney Chassen Palmer wrote in a 2020 article<\/a> in the California Western International Law Journal.<\/p>\n \u201cLater, the picture and\/or video are sent to the celebrity\u2019s attorney, and the local media outlets are informed that the celebrity will seek civil damages if the photograph or video is published,\u201d which has \u201clargely deterred taking photographs of celebrities out in public,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n