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It turns out that movie producers hired Penelope Cruz for a movie so that they could do some filming in Spain and thus qualify for $20.4 million in EU subsidies.
This started me thinking about a Producers like story:
We have a scam artist living on French side of the Spanish/French border. Every year he cruises the beaches of Spain looking for an unknown Spanish actress to cast in his new film. He overinflates the production costs, gets EU subsidies and lives off the rest. Every year he shows the movie at the Cannes Film festival where it bombs and nobody notices. Over the years he used the subsidies to buy a farm on the border for which he collects subsidies for not farming. He has also declared the farm a forestry operation for which he gets subsidies for not cutting down any trees.
The guy is an American from LA who got his EU citizenship by marrying a French wanna be actress. Unfortunately, his hot Spanish starlets cause quite a bit of friction, but at least she gets to be the supporting actress in all his films.
This year, though, he gets an incredibly hot Spanish starlet who is actually a really good actress and the movie is a hit at Cannes. He is finally going to be a big Hollywood player. Unfortunately, now that he is making real money, the French and Spanish governments want to audit him for taxes. On the verge of success he now has to sabotage the release of his own movie to avoid an audit or have a hit movie and be on the lam from the EU.
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