Russia Rolls Out Red Carpet for Depardieu

Things are looking up for Gerard Depardieu: Not only is the French actor a newly minted Russian, he's already broken bread with Vladimir Putin, gotten a hero's welcome, and scored a free apartment. Depardieu grabbed his shiny new Russia passport from Pooty-Poot last night over dinner in Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics, notes the AP. He then flew today to Saransk, where the mayor offered him the apartment of his choice. Depardieu hasn't said yet where in Russia he'll settle. France, which Depardieu fled in the face of its proposed 75% tax on millionaires, is less than impressed, with Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac snorting, "I find it a bit pathetic that for tax reasons this man—whom by the way I admire infinitely as an actor—has decided to exile himself." (More Gerard Depardieu stories.)