In a shocking turn of events, a person who is given millions of dollars and lavish praise to look pretty while reading lines and emoting has said something remarkably ignorant, causing many gasps of horror and sending monocles dropping into champagne glasses around the civilized world.
Marion Cotillard, the chick who won the Oscar for playing Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, told a French website in an interview (a year ago, but just getting press due to her new-found fame) that she thinks the US made up the 9/11 attacks.
We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes. Are they burned? They [sic] was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burnt for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [in New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed.
How many misinformed statements were contained in just that little snippet? I count 138. For instance, “we see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes?” Really, Marion? Do you exist only in big budget disaster movie plots? She makes it sound like this sort of thing happens all the time. Remember last week when those two airliners crashed into that 100-story office tower in Avignon? That’s right, the fire department came around, hosed it down, and then everyone went out for crêpes.
And how about that building in Spain? That was the Windsor building, a 32-floor steel-reinforced concrete building that was consumed in fire back in 2005. In addition to differences in size and building materials (World Trade Center was steel), the two situations also differ in that the Windsor wasn’t hit by any damned airplanes (nor were any nearby buildings). And if you need further convincing, the steel supports in the Windsor did suffer complete collapse. And how did I figure all that out? Well, I did 5 minutes of research. Ta-da!
In case you were worried anyone would take this woman seriously, have no fear. She also said she didn’t believe men landed on the moon (hi Phil! Just when you thought that stupid conspiracy theory was dead!). I have no doubt that in future interviews, Marion will also claim to not believe in mainstream medicine, Oswald singlehandedly killing JFK, and the existence of the platypus.
Thanks to Pete for sending in the tip!
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Want an avatar next to your comments? Go sign up at Gravatar.com with the same e-mail you used to sign up here on Skepchick. Add any pic you’d like to that e-mail and it’ll automatically show up here (though it might take some time to propogate).
"Non! Je ne comprend rien!"
Fexake.
Not to mention the Statue of Liberty. That thing is always getting whopped by planes.
and asteroids.
and flying saucers.
and it's fine!!!!
The avatars are lovely, and I'm a smidge jealous, but…
Why are they wearing clothes?
;)
Forgive me as I launch into an ad hominem attack. It is unscientific and tres gauche.
This argument is coming from a woman who looks like a droopy boobed fish on Oscar night.
There I said it.
I have never and will never understand why so many people put so much stock in the opinions of actors and musicians… I don't care who Jack Nicholson is going to vote for, I just want to watch batman again.
I'm with Rystefn; I can't say I really care. There are a lot of dumb bozos out there, but La Vie En Rose was one of the few movies I've seen recently where I actually managed to forget that the lead actress was actually an actress and not the actual person she was portraying … it was a phenomenal performance. Most people who are uninformed and irrational don't have any other skills, and so we never hear from them. So why care?
There's reason to care, actually. It's not about what one actress thinks, but about why she thinks this way and why she's comfortable making these statements publicly. She just happens to be a public figure whose casual ignorance made news. Many other people accept the same absurdities and show the same lack of curiosity and inability to think things through, but don't have cameras following them.
Don't dismiss her as one ditzy actress. She speaks for millions.
I've lived in Hollywood for 20 years. It is sad to say but the acting community for the most part is not interested in facts. They are only interested in ratings and looking beautiful…. I just had a conversation with a casting agent friend who is not only convinced that 911 was a conspiracy but that the earth is tilted off its axis and the government is covering it up. Hooray for Hollywood?
Stephen Fry once proposed the simile "As mad as an actress".
Breaking news: politician is misinformed, possibly stupid..
from ABC news:
"At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there’s strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. — a position in stark contrast with the view of the medical establishment."
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/j…
This just in from the "news" at imdb.com:
"Actress Marion Cotillard has hit out at media reports she questioned the official account of the September 11 terrorist atrocities in New York, insisting her remarks were "taken out of context." The French star – who scooped the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose – has landed in controversy after a 2007 interview surfaced in which she controversially blasted the accepted theory the World Trade Center was brought crashing down by planes. But Cotillard's lawyer, Vincent Toledano, insists the 32-year-old "never intended to contest nor question the attacks of September 11, 2001, and regrets the way old remarks have been taken out of context.""
How can those comments be taken out of context? She was being sarcastic? That's supposed to be better, apparently. Although, "taken out of context" seems like the standard line of defense in these cases.
I haven't seen her in anything since TAXI 3.
But I'd just like to point out that the earth's axis actually IS tilted (and has been so for a very, very long time). However, how the earth could possibly be tilted off its axis is beyond my understanding.