Rita Wilson and Oscar-winning husband Tom Hanks were among thousands of attendees at last night’s star-studded 92nd Academy Awards in Los Angeles, California.
The show attracted nearly 30 million viewers from around the world — and Wilson made it a point to give a special shoutout to her ancestral homeland.
“Yeia sas stin Ellada!” she said on live TV during her Red Carpet interview with E! News.
Her shoutout comes only two months after Hanks and his family received honorary citizenship from the Greek government.
Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos issued the honorary naturalization proclamation, granting citizenship to the 63-year-old actor, his wife and their two sons, Chester (Chet) and Truman Theodore.
The family received citizenship in recognition of their efforts to help during the deadly wildfires that killed more than 100 people outside Athens in July 2018.
“The Hanks family gave a signal all over the world for immediate relief actions to help our fire-stricken fellow citizens,” the order signed on Dec. 27 said. It added that, in their effort to assist charity efforts, they had provided “exceptional services to Greece.”
Wilson and her family are also regular vacationers on the island of Antiparos, where they own a home.
Watch Rita Wilson’s shoutout to Greece
Hanks received the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 77th annual Golden Globes on January 5.
He and his wife have received widespread acclaim for their involvement in the Greek Orthodox Church, including Wilson’s “Ode to Greek Easter” — a personal essay which continues to be the most widely-read page on The Pappas Post.
Hanks was the center of attention during Holy Week of 2016 — when a photo of him carrying the epitaphio during Friday night’s procession went viral.
The actor also received viral media attention in 2018 during his summer vacation in Antiparos, from where he sent a postcard to a 13-year-old American teenager with leukemia.
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