Actress Gwyneth Paltrow says she is mortified by press coverage of an alleged comment she made dissing Americans and boasting that Brits are "much more intelligent and civilized." Paltrow says she did not give an interview to the Portuguese paper who ran the quote but she did attend a press conference in Spain.
"I said that Europe is a much older culture and there's a difference. I always say in America, people live to work and in Europe, people work to live. There are positives in both," the actress told People. "Obviously I need to go back to seventh-grade Spanish!"
"First of all I feel so lucky to be American. When you look at the rest of the world, we're so lucky, and that's something my dad always instilled in me," Paltrow tells People. "I feel so proud to be American."
The actress was criticized after she was quoted in the Portuguese newspaper Diario De Noticias as saying, "The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans."
"I felt so upset to be completely misconstrued and I never, ever would have said that. I definitely did not say that I think the British are more intelligent and civilized than Americans. I am a New York girl, that's how I always think of myself and see myself."
Paltrow, who lives part-time in London with her British husband, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and their two children, Apple, 2, and Moses, 7 months, says: "I live in England half the time because I'm married to an English guy. It's not like I've left America."
