Actress Marion Cotillard: "9/11 attacks made up" [Updated]

Ms. Cotillard at the Oscars this year. Embedded from Frankfurter Allgemeine

Marion Coitillard is an actress who received an Oscar this year for her performance in La Vie En Rose. Here is one reason why actresses should stick to acting:

"I think we're lied to about a number of things," Cotillard said, singling out the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center as an example of the US making up horror stories for political ends.
...
She added that the towers, planned in the early Sixties, were an outdated "money-sucker" that would have cost more to modernise than to rebuild altogether, which is why they were destroyed.

She said: "It was a money-sucker because they were finished, it seems to me, 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."

And how does she know all this? Her engineering degree? Her experience with demolitions? Finance expert? Nah - she knows it because she read it on the internet! From the actual interview:

"On peut voir sur internet tous les films du 11 septembre sur la théorie du complot. C'est passionnant, c'est addictif, même."

Translation: "One can see on the Internet all the films of September 11 about the conpiracy theory. It is exciting, it is addictive, even."

Ok, to be fair, she had another reason for doubting that planes were responsible:

MC: One can show you some other similar towers hit by planes, which have burned… there is a tower, I think it was in Spain that burned for 24 hours.
Interviewer: Before collapsing?
MC: It never collapsed! None of these towers collapse. And then, within minutes, the thing collapses.

She is referring to the Windsor Tower in Madrid, which burned for about 24 hours and didn't collapse. It is a favorite citation of conspiracy theorists. But there are some huge differences:

1) The Windsor Tower was 32 stories, not 110 as in the World Trade Center;

2) The Windsor Tower fire was not started by jet fuel;

3) The Windsor Tower wasn't hit by a 767, with the resulting structural damage and fireproofing stripped away;

4) The Windsor Tower wasn't really a steel-framed building either. Half of the building was pure concrete, with steel framing covering the top 16 floors.

Oh and if you didn't think she was loony enough, she also doubts that men ever walked on the moon too:

Is it true that man really walked on the moon? I saw a lot of the documentaries out there and I really wonder. In any case I do not believe everything they told me, that's for sure.

I'd like to keep her out of Hollywood, but it's probably inevitable at this point. She would feel right at home there.

Update 02/03/2008 05:37:00 PM:
Ms. Cotillard's agent is attempting some real damage control by releasing this statement:

Marion's reaction is that this video was filmed in special circumstances after a broadcast on Coluche (popular comedian killed in 86 motorcycle accident) and she was being asked to react to this broadcast. Marion then simply expressed the view that she wanted to form her own opinion (on 911) from watching various reports, but she never wished to call into question the events of 11 September.

This reportage has been taken out of context and one can only condemn such practises. Marion deplores that. She is currently filming in Chicago and has a lot of work. She is in an ocean of happiness and voila, this row blows up. It's rather strange. It's an old report, not at all current. Why bring it out now ?
I talked three times to Marion overnight. This is worrying her. She is still in shock and does not really know how to react. She doesn't have to apologise for a badly presented and badly interpreted reportage.... She hopes that the Americans will have enough distance to understand, but her career is not just American. She can make films everywhere.

Why bring it out now? Because the Oscars put her in the American limelight, that's why. I'm not sure about how a tragic motorcycle accident is supposed to be an excuse for her comments, but if she only "wanted to form her own opinion" on 9/11, what was with her theory of blowing the buildings as a cost cutting measure? And how does he explain her doubt that men walked on the moon?

I'll bet she's in shock. She's in shock because she's worried that her career may have just stalled out just as it was beginning...



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