The Sound and the Fury: Can Celebrities Knock the U.S. Without Taking a Hit?

Dec. 6, 2006 — -- Lost in translation.

That's Gwyneth Paltrow's story, and she's sticking to it.

The Oscar winner says she's "proud to be an American," and says the Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias got it all wrong when it quoted her as saying, "The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans."

Paltrow says the Portuguese media misunderstood her.

"I never, ever would have said that," she says on People magazine's Web site.

However, interviews given to the British media earlier this year suggest the "Shakespeare in Love" star might protest too much.

"I love the English way, which is not as capitalistic as it is in America," the actress said in a January interview with The Guardian newspaper.

Paltrow put down stakes in North London, after marrying Chris Martin, the lead singer of the band Coldplay.

"I like living here because I don't tap into the bad side of American psychology, which is 'I'm not achieving enough. I'm not making enough. I'm not at the top of the pile.'"

But can bashing Americans, their culture or their country cost a celebrity a pile of box-office receipts?

"Something like that is probably said in the 'slight of the moment,'" said Stuart Levine, senior editor of Variety. "I think people are willing to forgive and forget as long as it's not too insulting."

Or as long as you are not the Dixie Chicks.

The fallout from the now-famous comments casually uttered from a London stage has lasted three years.

The Texas trio began 2003 at the top of the country and pop charts, achieving rare crossover success, playing to sold-out crowds everywhere.

In March of that year, though, Natalie Maines' offhand observation that the group's members "were ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas" blew the group's good fortune to pieces.

By year's end, the Dixie Chicks could no longer fill a venue.

Country radio stations stopped playing their songs. Angry Americans burned their photos and CDs. And death threats were not uncommon.