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Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his portrayal of a man who spent four years stuck on an island before being rescued. His son, Chet, may not be dealing with a similarly harrowing situation, but he still managed to find himself stranded in Colombia after running into a passport issue during a last-minute trip.
It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 15 years since I was first introduced to Chet Hanks, who was going by the rap name “Chet Haze” while trying to make a name for himself while he was enrolled at Northwestern.
Hanks is the first child Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had together after they got married in 1988, and he’s had a very interesting ride through life.
He’s pursued an acting career of his own while landing roles on shows including Shameless, Empire, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the man who proclaimed the arrival of “White Boy Summer” in 2021 has continued to make music while having both pursuits overshadowed by the antics that are inextricably linked with his self-professed battle with substance abuse.
The 35-year-old has been lying relatively low in recent years while occasionally chronicling his various exploits on social media, and we were treated to our latest update when he decided to head to Colombia only to discover he was being denied entry to the United States after trying to head back home.
Chet Hanks got “stuck” in Colombia after running into a passport issue during an impromptu trip to Medellin
Over the weekend, Hanks posted a video on Instagram that was accompanied by the caption “Free me,” and he recapped the series of events that led to him getting stranded in Colombia before turning to the internet in search of some help for his plight.
He said he initially headed down to Puerto Rico for a buddy’s birthday bash before he decided to hop on a flight to Colombia to visit his “homie Taylor,” who lives in Medellin. He noted he was traveling with the Greek passport he obtained courtesy of the lineage of Wilson’s father (who was born in Greece), adding he declined to fly with his American one because it was close to expiring.
However, that ended up being a bad decision in hindsight, as he was turned away from the flight that was supposed to take him back to the United States after being told he’d be denied entry to the country where he was born over the lack of a green card he doesn’t possess due to his status as a citizen.
He was under the impression he’d be able to handle the problem by visiting an American embassy in Bogota, but he was not particularly thrilled with the idea of having to make the trek to another city to sort things out.
It appeared he was still in Colombia as of Sunday based on a picture he posted on his Instagram story, and while the American government may have some more pressing matters on its hands due to the situation in Iran, here’s to hoping it will be able to sort this out for him.