He abandoned his citizenship in an emotional, sweeping open letter addressed to French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault that was published in mid-December in the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche.

CNN: French star Depardieu ditches France for Putin's Russia

For French paper Le Monde, Marc Roche accuses Mr Cameron of remaining "vague" about the "fundamental point" of what would happen if France and Germany refuse to meet his demands.

BBC: Commentators' verdicts on David Cameron's EU speech

Since then the French paper Le Parisien (followed by the British press, including The Times and Daily Mail) has taken that idea one step further and proclaimed as truth that Beckham, the highest paid soccer player in the world, is scamming the French government out of his fair share of taxes.

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