Several injured, one possibly dead after tour bus hits overpass at airport




















Several people have been injured and one may be dead after the top of a double-decker tour bus entering Miami International Airport hit an overpass at the airport's arrivals entrance.

There were 30 to 35 people on board and some suffered "major injuries," said Greg Chin, a spokesman for the aviation department.

This article will be updated with more information.








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EBay’s double tax base prompts calls for investigation












LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and Germany may have missed out on a combined $ 1 billion in sales tax since online marketplace eBay picked a tiny Luxembourg office as its base for EU sales, a shift that lawmakers say should now be investigated.


EBay’s nomination of Luxembourg unit eBay Europe Sarl – with a staff of nine – as its provider of services to EU clients allows it to charge customers in Europe a low rate of sales tax, often known as Value Added Tax, helping it to compete against rivals.












However, the unit doesn’t actually receive the money from sales. Instead, eBay said it continues to channel revenues through a Berne-based unit, allowing the company also to benefit from what Swiss tax lawyers say is the most competitive corporate income tax regime in Europe.


EU rules allow companies to establish subsidiaries in Luxembourg and levy VAT at Luxembourg’s low VAT rate on sales to customers across the bloc.


However, the rules also allow individual EU taxmen to challenge any claim to Luxembourg residence, and the right to charge Luxembourg VAT, in their domestic courts, if the taxman feels a Luxembourg-based subsidiary does not have sufficient staff or assets to support its claim to be the true supplier of goods or services.


Tax experts say eBay’s arrangement, which appears to give eBay the best of both income and sales tax worlds, could be open to challenge, and lawmakers in the UK and Germany want their taxmen to investigate.


“I hope that HMRC (UK tax authority Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) takes note … and takes prompt action,” said Margaret Hodge, member of parliament and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which monitors government finances.


“I will be seeking assurance that they are, next time we take evidence from HMRC,” she added. Officials from HMRC are due to testify to the PAC in early December as part of the committee’s investigation into tax matters.


Sven Giegold, member of the European Parliament for Germany’s Green Party, said he wanted the German tax authorities to “have a very critical look at this”.


It is common for companies to seek to reduce their tax bills, and a number of multinationals have established bases in Luxembourg so they can charge customers lower levels of VAT.


EBay said HMRC was aware of all its tax arrangements and that it was confident it met all its tax liabilities in the UK and elsewhere.


“In all countries and at all times, eBay is fully compliant with national, EU and international tax rules (including the OECD) including the remittance of VAT to the appropriate authorities,” an eBay spokesman said in an emailed statement.


The UK, German, French and Luxembourg tax authorities declined to comment on eBay, citing rules on taxpayer confidentiality.


LOWER THRESHOLD


Big companies’ tax practices have risen to the top of the political agenda in Europe in the past year, with lawmakers growing increasingly frustrated with the way in which companies such as search engine company Google pay almost no income tax in countries where they have billions of dollars in sales.


The companies escape liability for income taxes in countries like the UK by arguing the value created by their business, and therefore the location where the profit should be realized, is not the place where the customer resides, but rather in the location where the intellectual property underpinning the product or service is based.


Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said this was a valid economic argument and that if, for example, HMRC wants to claim more income tax from Google, it has to prove the company is generating more value in the UK than it is declaring.


This would require a thorough deconstruction of its business model and supply chain.


However, it is easier to establish liability to VAT, since this tax hinges simply on the location of the buyer and seller.


“The threshold is lower,” said Simon Newark, head of VAT at accountants UHY Hacker.


“There are a lot more aspects for HMRC to challenge in VAT than in direct (income) tax.”


For tax purposes, the EU deems eBay’s online platform an “electronically supplied service”, a category that also covers e-Books and music downloads.


Under EU rules, suppliers of such services based within the bloc are supposed to charge EU customers VAT at the rate prevailing in the country where the supplier is based.


A number of suppliers of electronic services, including Amazon.Com Inc and Apple Inc’s iTunes have established European headquarters in Luxembourg to enable them to charge customers lower VAT rates than prevail in their customers’ countries.


Luxembourg has traditionally charged the lowest standard VAT rates in the European Union. Its 15 percent rate compares with rates of 19-25 percent in most other EU members.


By charging customers VAT at Luxembourg’s rate eBay is better able to compete with rivals based elsewhere in the EU, such as Britain’s eBid, which must charge customers VAT at the standard UK rate of 20 percent.


However, to be entitled to charge Luxembourg rates, a company has to be able to prove in British, German or EU courts that it is genuinely based in the Grand Duchy.


Companies selling to EU customers from outside the EU – as eBay was until the 2007 nomination of eBay Europe Sarl as supplier to EU clients – must charge European customers VAT at the rate prevailing in the country where the customer resides, and to pay that VAT to the taxman in the customer’s country.


There is no definitive checklist that determines the true base of a company and any decision by a national court can be challenged in the European Court of Justice. In the UK, HMRC said it approached the matter on a case-by-case basis, and disputes are often resolved in court.


“HMRC will challenge any arrangements where it is claimed that supplies are made from a particular country but the business does not have the necessary resources to make those supplies,” a spokesman said.


EUROPE EXPANSION


EBay, which is headquartered in San Jose, California, moved into Europe in 1999 when it established eBay International in Berne. Switzerland’s low income tax regime for foreign companies was highly beneficial for the auction site. “We do have a very favorable international tax structure,” then-Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta told analysts in 2002 when asked how the company managed to pay such low taxes on its non-U.S. income.


The Swiss base also meant, initially, that the company didn’t have to charge EU customers VAT. But in 2003, Brussels changed the rules, which forced eBay to charge EU sellers on its platform VAT based on their residence. The VAT gathered was remitted to the tax authority in the customer’s country.


Not all customers are charged VAT. Most medium-sized and big businesses are legitimately exempted from paying VAT on some purchases, such as eBay seller fees.


EBay’s Swiss-based European public relations head declined to say what portion of its EU customers were liable to be charged VAT. James Cordwell, equities analyst at Atlantic Equities, estimated that such customers accounted for 40-50 percent of sales in Europe.


Since the 2007 creation of its Luxembourg operation, eBay has had German fee revenues of $ 6.1 billion and UK revenues of $ 5 billion, its annual accounts show.


If the services were supplied from Switzerland or another non-EU country, and assuming only half of customers should have been charged VAT, EU rules would have obliged eBay to collect $ 580 million in VAT for the German taxman and $ 500 million in VAT for HMRC since 2007.


EBay’s entitlement to charge Luxembourg VAT on sales and to pay this to the Luxembourg taxman rests on being able to prove in court that eBay Europe Sarl is the provider of services to EU clients.


But despite German and UK fee income of $ 3.1 billion last year, eBay Europe Sarl recorded turnover of only 5 million euros in 2011.


John Hemming, an MP with the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in the British coalition government, said the fact eBay’s sales revenues did not go through the Luxembourg unit undermined the claim that it was the true provider of services to EU clients.


“If it’s a real transaction, you would expect the money to pass with it, and not pass someplace else,” he said.


Rather than going to Luxembourg, the money generated from customers continues to go to Berne-based eBay International AG, a spokeswoman said.


When Reuters visited in mid November, staff at the Luxembourg office, just opposite the central post office, declined to discuss what operations the unit conducted for eBay.


A spokesman later said the office conducted activities including billing, data privacy, contracting, regulatory, management and some customer services operations.


By contrast, Amazon and iTunes do report their sales of ebooks and music downloads to EU customers through their Luxembourg units.


Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at Essex University, along with Newark and Roy-Chowdhury said a cash trail through a unit was one of the key factors used as evidence that the unit was the true supplier of a service.


UK and German tax authorities could argue that the shift in eBay’s supply base to Luxembourg from Berne was therefore not genuine. If successful, they could claim back the VAT lost.


EBay declined to say why it channeled sales through Switzerland. Tax advisors say the country can still offer some companies lower tax rates than other European low-tax jurisdictions such as Ireland and Luxembourg.


Indeed, EBay’s closest rival Amazon, which channels about half its non-U.S. earnings through Luxembourg, reported average income tax on overseas earnings of 6 percent in the past four years. EBay paid just 3 percent over the same period.


(Additional reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Will Waterman)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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North Korea says it will attempt to launch long-range rocket in mid-December








SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced Saturday that it would attempt to launch a long-range rocket in mid-December, a defiant move just eight months after a failed April bid was widely condemned as a violation of a UN ban against developing its nuclear and missile programs.

The launch, set for Dec. 10 to 22, is likely to heighten already strained tensions with Washington and Seoul as the United States prepares for Barack Obama's second term as US president and South Korea holds its own presidential election on Dec. 19.

This would be North Korea's second launch attempt under leader Kim Jong Un, who took power following his father Kim Jong Il's death nearly a year ago. The announcement by North Korea's space agency followed speculation overseas about stepped-up activity at North Korea's west coast launch pad captured in satellite imagery.





REUTERS



A soldier stands guard in front of a rocket sitting on a launch pad at the West Sea Satellite Launch Site in April.





A spokesman for North Korea's Korean Committee for Space Technology said scientists have "analyzed the mistakes" made in the failed April launch and improved the precision of its Unha rocket and Kwangmyongsong satellite, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA said the launch was a request of late leader Kim Jong Il, whose Dec. 17, 2011, death North Koreans are expected to mark with some fanfare. The space agency said the rocket would be mounted with a polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite, and maintained its right to develop a peaceful space program.

Washington considers North Korea's rocket launches to be veiled covers for tests of technology for long-range missiles designed to strike the United States, and such tests are banned by the United Nations.

North Korea has capable short- and medium-range missiles, but long-range launches in 1998, 2006, 2009 and in April of this year ended in failure. North Korea is not known to have succeeded in mounting an atomic bomb on a missile but is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen bombs, according to U.S. experts, and in 2010 revealed a uranium enrichment program that could provide a second source of material for nuclear weapons.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

In Seoul, South Korean officials have accused North Korea of trying to influence its presidential election with what they consider provocations meant to put pressure on voters and on the United States as the North seeks concessions. Conservative Park Geun-hye, the daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, is facing liberal Moon Jae-in in the South Korean presidential vote. Polls show the candidates in a close race.










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Boat Show may block Miami’s 2016 Super Bowl bid




















This winter, the biggest NFL match-up in South Florida might be Super Bowl versus Boat Show.

As South Florida readies a bid for the 2016 Super Bowl, it must contend with a major potential conflict on the tourism calendar. The National Football League may move the Super Bowl to Presidents’ Day weekend, already home to the five-day Miami International Boat Show since the 1940s.

It’s a significant enough conflict that, in the past, local tourism officials have declined to pursue a Super Bowl if it fell on boat show weekend. But this time around they may have no choice. For the first time, the NFL is requiring that potential host cities agree to a Presidents’ Day weekend Super Bowl if they want to pursue the big game at all, said two people who have seen the NFL request for Super Bowl bids.





The NFL “invited South Florida [to bid] knowing there was going to be an issue with Presidents’ Day weekend and the boat show,” said Nicki Grossman, Broward’s tourism director. “In the past, South Florida has not responded to a Super Bowl date that included Presidents’ Day weekend. This package is different.”

South Florida vies with New Orleans as the top Super Bowl host, with government and tourism leaders touting the game as both a boon to the economy and a publicity bonanza. But the notion of accommodating both Super Bowl and boat show — not to mention a major arts festival in Coconut Grove — strikes some top tourism officials as a bad idea.

“There is not sufficient hotel inventory available in Miami that weekend to host a Super Bowl,” said William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We have taken a close look at that weekend, and it’s not physically possible in Miami to host Super Bowl during the Presidents’ Day weekend because of the boat show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. The hotel inventory is all being used for these two great events.”

His comments are at odds with the region’s top Super Bowl organizer and reflect the burden that the boat show may be to South Florida’s Super Bowl hopes for 2016 and 2017. The NFL invited Miami and San Francisco to bid for the 2016 Super Bowl by April 1, with the loser vying with Houston for the 2017 game. Talbert said the bid package states both decisions will be made in May.

For now, South Florida’s Super Bowl organizers face a largely hypothetical challenge, because the current NFL schedule has the Super Bowl occurring two weeks before Presidents’ Day weekend. The bid requirements for the ’16 and ’17 Super Bowls include three consecutive weekends as possibilities for the game, with the latest falling on the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Still, possible logistical hurdles may combine with political obstacles if the Miami Dolphins resume their push for a tax-funded renovation of Sun Life Stadium, the Super Bowl’s South Florida home.

Last year, the Dolphins proposed that Broward and Miami-Dade counties subsidize a $225 million renovation at Sun Life as a way to keep the region competitive for Super Bowls and other large events. The renovation includes a partial roof that would prevent the kind of drenching Super Bowl spectators suffered in 2007 when a rare February downpour hit Miami Gardens.





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College student seeks immunity in South Miami man’s stabbing death




















James Arauz, the Miami Dade College student who stabbed his mother’s employer to death, testified Thursday in the first day of a hearing to determine whether he would be granted Stand Your Ground immunity.

Arauz, who was 20 at the time, stabbed Vincent Pravata to death and went on a shopping spree with his credit cards in Oct. 2009. Investigators later found bloody fingerprints on a glass that led them to Arauz, who confessed to the murder and claimed self-defense.

The defendant’s mother worked as a housekeeper for Pravata for eight years and Arauz helped do yardwork for four months.





After Arauz’s father died from a heart attack in 2008, the 63-year-old Pravata offered to act as a mentor.

Arauz, an engineering student, testified that Pravata, who was openly gay, occasionally made comments about Arauz’s “beautiful eyes” and asked if he’d ever thought about gay sex.

The defendant’s mother said Pravata was unusually excited when Arauz broke up with his girlfriend less than a month before the stabbing.

From the witness stand Thursday, Arauz said he went to Pravata’s South Miami home to pick up the letter of recommendation he had requested for an internship application.

He said Pravata demanded sexual favors in exchange for the letter.

When Arauz rejected Pravata’s advances and tried to leave, he said the older man “went into a rage and tried to pin me against a wall”

After a chase and physical resistance, Arauz grabbed a decorative knife off a filing cabinet and stabbed Pravata 18 times when he tried to prevent him from opening a metal gate outside the house.

“I had already tried flight and it didn’t work, so I was trying to fight,” Arauz said, describing the desperate struggle for the knife. “It was the survival instinct.”

As Arauz was moving the body back into the house, he saw the victim’s wallet in his pocket and took his credit cards and $480 cash.

Arauz was also facing an outstanding shoplifting charge at the time. He was charged with second degree murder and credit card theft.

Judge Yvonne Colodny will hear further testimony on Friday and decide whether to grant the motion for immunity. If she decides that the defense has not provided enough evidence for Stand Your Ground, the case will go to trial before a jury.





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Rumer Willis on 'Hawaii Five-0' Clip

In Rumer Willis' upcoming cameo on Hawaii Five-0, her character quickly shifts from flirting with one of her customers to fearing for her life. ET gives you an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming episode.

Willis, the daughter of now-divorced couple Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, plays a bank teller in her upcoming Five-0 cameo, and is just about to seal a date with one of the bank's patrons when a group of masked gunmen storm into the bank.


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As the clip ends, one of the bank robbers points his gun at Willis' character and commands her to fill a duffel bag with money.

The 24-year-old actress has performed cameos on an array of television shows in her acting career, including CSI: NY and most recently the Comedy Central series Workaholics. While most of her appearances on TV have been cameos, Willis recently held a role on Gossip Girl in its second season.


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Watch a sneak peek of Willis' Hawaii Five-0 cameo above and find out if her character makes it out of the bank in one piece on Monday at 10 p.m. on CBS.

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Egypt Islamists hurriedly approve new constitution








CAIRO — Islamists approved a draft constitution for Egypt early Friday without the participation of liberal and Christian members, seeking to pre-empt a court ruling that could dissolve their panel with a rushed, marathon vote that further inflames the conflict between the opposition and President Mohammed Morsi.

The vote by the constituent assembly advanced a charter with an Islamist bent that rights experts say could give Muslim clerics oversight over legislation and bring restrictions on freedom of speech, women's rights and other liberties.

The draft, which the assembly plans to deliver to the president Saturday, must be put to a nationwide referendum within 30 days. Morsi said Thursday it will be held "soon."




The opposition has called for a major rally Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where some demonstrators have camped out in tents since last week to protest decrees Morsi issued to grant himself sweeping powers. Hundreds gathered in the plaza for traditional Friday prayers, then broke into chants of "The people want to bring down the regime!" — echoing the refrain of the Arab Spring revolts, but this time against a democratically elected leader. Other cities around Egypt braced for similar protests.

The Islamist-dominated assembly that has been working on the constitution for months raced to pass the charter, voting article by article on the draft's more than 230 articles for more than 16 hours. The lack of inclusion was on display in the nationally televised gathering: Of the 85 members in attendance, there was not a single Christian and only four women, all Islamists. Many of the men wore beards, the hallmark of Muslim conservatives.

For weeks, liberal, secular and Christian members, already a minority on the 100-member panel, have been withdrawing to protest what they call the Islamists' hijacking of the process.

"This constitution represents the diversity of the Egyptian people. All Egyptians, male and female, will find themselves in this constitution," Essam el-Erian, a representative of the Brotherhood, declared to the assembly after the last articles were passed just after sunrise Friday.

"We will implement the work of this constitution to hold in high esteem God's law, which was only ink on paper before, and to protect freedoms that were not previously respected," he said.

The sudden rush to finish came as the latest twist in a week-long crisis pitting Brotherhood veteran Morsi and his Islamist supporters against a mostly secular and liberal opposition and the powerful judiciary. Voting had not been expected for another two months. But the assembly abruptly moved it up in order to pass the draft before Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court rules on Sunday on whether to dissolve the panel.










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California Pizza Kitchen brings prototype to Sawgrass Mills




















The restaurant chain that took barbecued chicken pizza mainstream is ready to push the culinary envelope again. How about a pizza topped with roasted Brussels sprouts and applewood smoked bacon or a Korean barbecue pizza with pork loin and spicy kimchee salad?

Innovative menu items are just one piece of what’s unique about California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship restaurant unveiled Thursday at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. The first of its kind, the Sawgrass location aims to reinvigorate the brand that started in 1985 in Beverly Hills.

“The whole idea is about taking the best of what put us on the map and making it relevant for 2012 and beyond,” said G.J. Hart, who took over as chief executive officer of the chain just over a year ago. “Over the years the brand morphed from being a leader and it became a follower of food trends. We want to bring back the hip, cool feel.”





The changes are obvious from the moment you walk into the restaurant, which opens to the public Monday. The new look is all about focusing on the chain’s California roots. Very little of the bright yellow and chrome remains. The design is California-casual with earth tones and reclaimed wood everywhere from the walls to the floor and tables. An outdoor terrace with couches and fire pits is designed to encourage lingering. Large windows and glass doors let in lots of natural light and fold open to enjoy the weather.

Pizza is center stage with the kitchen designed so diners can watch the pizza makers at work. At the Sawgrass location — and by mid-2013 at all restaurants — pizzas will once again by hand-tossed. Currently the chain uses a pizza press to make the dough more uniform.

The new focus is on upping the culinary quotient across the board with dishes like a roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad, plus a sweet pea carbonara featuring pea-filled pasta purses tossed with Italian pancetta and a Romano cream sauce. These are some of the unique items only on the Sawgrass menu, which also features a specialty menu of hand-crafted cocktails.

Chain-wide the company has actually slimmed the menu from more than 100 items to 74 in order to improve execution. But there are also more healthy choices like quinoa and arugula salad or a fire-roasted chile relleno stuffed with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and eggplant that dishes up at only 380 calories.

“As we grew, we didn’t keep up with the creativity on the menu and we tried to be all things to all people,” said Brian Sullivan, senior vice president of culinary innovation, who has been with the company for 24 years. “We’re always going to be pizza-centric. But we’ll continue to push the envelope with these specialty items that resonate with who we are. We don’t want items that you are going to see in other restaurants.”

The chain chose Sawgrass to unveil its new flagship location because of a combination of the area’s diverse demographic base and the influx of international visitors. South Florida has already been a strong market for the brand, which has seven locations in the tri-county area stretching from Coral Gables to Palm Beach Gardens.

The opening is the culmination of a new vision that began to take shape when Golden Gate Capital purchased California Pizza Kitchen in July 2011 for $470 million, taking the company private and bringing in Hart as the new chief executive.

“They saw a brand that was undervalued,” said Hart, who has an ownership stake in the chain. “This is an iconic brand with so much brand equity. If we can bring the excitement and enthusiasm back we’re only going to see it go up.”

Industry experts say the changes make sense because the brand still has a loyal following, although it has not kept pace with the competition.

“It’s a good time for them to go back to what were the fundamental things that made the brand so intriguing,” said Dennis Lombardi of WD Partners, a restaurant industry consultant. “The difficulty is going to be getting the word out to consumers that this is different. The devil is always in the details in these kind of evolutions.”

Based on consumer reaction, the plan is to take pieces of the Sunrise concept and introduce it into the chain’s other 268 existing restaurants. Some restaurants could be completely remodeled, but most will only get elements of the new prototype, which cost $2 million in Sunrise, Hart said. The company’s Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton locations could be strong candidates for remodeling next year or early 2014, he said.

Community and business leaders, who got a first look at the restaurant on Thursday, were impressed.

“This is phenomenal,” said Luanne Lenberg, general manager of Sawgrass Mills. “We’re so excited to have this caliber of restaurant and to be their test for the rest of the world.”





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Did polo magnate on house arrest smash monitor? Broken ankle bracelet set for testing




















A consultant’s laboratory will be the temporary home to the small electronic device that could have earned Wellington polo magnate John Goodman an early start on his 16-year DUI manslaughter prison sentence.

Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath on Wednesday signed an agreed order to have Goodman’s broken house arrest monitor transported to a consultant his legal team hired in hopes of proving Goodman didn’t intentionally break open the ankle monitor that deputies found smashed in October. The incident sent Goodman straight back to jail and ended months of the house arrest, which Colbath ordered when he released Goodman on a $7 million bond as he appeals his conviction in February 2010 crash that killed 23-year-old Scott Wilson.

Assistant State Attorney Sherri Collins argued in a hearing last month that Goodman intentionally destroyed the device and should be sent to prison to begin serving his sentence. Colbath will decide whether to keep Goodman incarcerated after the remainder of the hearing Dec. 18, when Goodman’s attorneys may use the results of Monday’s tests to argue Goodman should be allowed to go free again.








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'Shreveport' Set Visit: Ryan Phillippe Talks Directorial Debut, His Children Acting

Having established himself in the film industry after years of acting, Ryan Phillippe is now making his directorial debut in Shreveport, which he also stars in, wrote, and co-produced. As his children with ex-wife Reese Witherspoon are getting older, Phillippe pondered on the prospect of his children becoming actors.

Phillippe, who had two children with Witherspoon that are now 13 and 9 years old, revealed that his children had been on the set of the upcoming thriller with him. While his children's parents are both actors, Phillippe assessed that he doesn't foresee them in acting and wouldn't be heartbroken if they didn't pursue the field.


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"I don't encourage it; I wouldn't necessarily discourage it," he said of his children becoming actors. "I think there have been times in my life where I think I'd like them to do something that maybe matters a little more...but I think this can too in some ways."

Apart from his own ideological influence in guiding his children towards their future careers, the 38-year-old actor asserted that his children haven't displayed characteristics that would suggest they're cut out to become actors.

"I feel like [their] personalities are maybe not so performer-inclined," he said. "Maybe they'll find something [in entertainment]. Maybe they'll be a director, but they're still taking shape."


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Phillippe's directorial debut is being filmed in Shreveport, La., where he insisted it be filmed over the alternative of creating a set because he aimed to capture the natural beauty of the outdoor swamps. Having important creative control over the project is something that he cherishes.

"I do love the idea of being writer-director," he said. "What I love is...[that] this structure that we got to build where my character's held captive is completely by my own design and is exactly what we were writing the script to, so that's an incredibly rewarding thing...These characters, the way they speak, this setting [are] really all out of the imagination of myself and my co-writer."


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Phillippe revealed that he isn't the only one enjoying the experience of his directorial debut, as he maintains that the cast is one of the happiest he's seen and has created one of the best sets he's ever been on.

"I've been on the set of over 30 movies as an actor and in other ways, and this is one of the first where people walk around quoting lines all day," he said. "They're just super into the content, and it makes it more fun for everybody."


Shreveport
is set for release in 2013.

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