COTILLARD AS 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIST: MEDIA JUMPS ON OSCAR WINNER'S YEAR-OLD STATEMENTS (TELE, VAR, NYDN, GD)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Over the weekend, the past came back to haunt newly crowned best actress Marion Cotillard. Statements made by the Oscar winner regarding her tendency to believe in conspiracy theories � over, for example 9/11 and the moon landing � may have left the actress in a rather embarrassing spot.

The British press first reported that 32-year-old French star could be facing a US backlash after footage surfaced on the Internet showing her questioning the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the 1969 moon landing.

In an interview on French TV channel Paris Premiere which originally aired a year ago, she opined, "I think we were lied to about a number of things," singling out September 11.

�On the Internet you see all these films about a 9/11 conspiracy theory. It�s fascinating, addictive even,� she said.

Referring to the World Trade Center, Cotillard said: "We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed."

Cotillard suggested that the towers, planned in the early 1960s, were an outdated "money sucker" which would have cost so much to modernize that it was easier to destroy them.

�They were finished, I think, by 1973, and to re-cable all that, to bring up-to-date all the technology and everything, it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them,� she said.

Turning to America�s space program, she said: "Did a man really walk on the moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don�t believe all they tell me, that�s for sure."

Although the comments were largely ignored last year, a transcript of the interview was recently posted on www.Marianne2.fr spurring a rash of press and Internet reports.

Cotillard�s lawyer, Vincent Toledano, told Agence France Presse she had �never intended to contest nor question the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and regrets the way old remarks have been taken out of context.�

It remains to be seen what effect the revelation of her beliefs will have on her future in US films, notes Variety.

Related Links

Marion Cotillard's 9/11 conspiracy theory (TELE)
Cotillard shares her Sept. 11 views (VAR)
Oscar winner Marion Cotillard dismisses 9/11 as conspiracy (NYDN)
Conspiracy beliefs come back to haunt Marion Cotillard (GD)