On Jul 2, 10:20=A0am, CliffB wrote:
> Gwyneth Paltrow Still Hates America
> Especially New York City
>
> By =A0SCOTT ROSS
> Updated 6:19 AM PDT, Thu, Jul 2, 2009
>
> http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/entertainment/Gwyneth-Paltrow-Still...
> Getty Images
> Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter Apple apparently can't stand listening to
> mommy's blather either.
>
> A trip across Spain has Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow
> focusing her general contempt for the United States on New York City.
>
> "(Spain) is so different from the United States. It seemed to have a
> history, and the buildings are years and years and years old. Here in
> the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over
> there it's from 500 B.C., it's incredible," =A0said Paltrow.
>
> "Also, the way people live over there. They seem to enjoy life a
> little bit more. They aren't running around as much as in New York.
> They enjoy time with the family. They don't always have their
> BlackBerries on."
>
> Paltrow has been visiting Spain regularly since she was 15, but
> recently spent time touring the country and its cuisine with NYC
> celebrity chef Mario Batali, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman
> and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols filming "Spain ... on the Road
> Again" for PBS.
>
> Someone -- her publicist, maybe -- should explain to Gwyneth that when
> you eat your way across a country with a camera crew in tow, the
> people you dine with are probably going to be more at ease and not
> burying their heads in their Blackberries.
>
> This isn't the fist time the Paltrow has turned on her homeland, In
> fact, the actress has a long history of America bashing.
>
> "I love the English lifestyle, it's not as capitalistic as America.
> People don't talk about work and money, they talk about interesting
> things at dinner," Paltrow said in a 2006 interview with NS, the
> weekend magazine supplement of daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de
> Noticias. "I like living here because I don't fit into the bad side of
> American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and
> civilized than the Americans."
>
> Following the uproar that ensued, she made a plea to her fellow
> Americans.
>
> "First of all I feel so lucky to be American. When you look at the
> rest of the world, we're so lucky," she told People magazine. "I feel
> so proud to be American... I felt so upset to be completely
> misconstrued, and I never, ever would have said that."
>
> Except you did, Gwyneth. Repeatedly.
Ever since I was a kid I wanted to come to the US, which I finally did
to get an education. Then, I decided to stick around.
At the time, when I was a ager, and since I could not afford to
make the trip, I had to conform myself with reading books about the
USA, its history, culture, etc. In one of them I read a statement that
has stuck with me forever.
"For all of the defects it may have, the USA is probably the country
in the world with the most developed self-criticism, and that alone is
one of its best features."
Another of my favorite maxims (I even invented it, though don't claim
originality):
"Without criticism, there is no progress. Why would you want to
change something that is already good?"
-Ramon
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