Celebrity conspiracy theories

By Todd Martens and Patrick Day, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

In the days after winning an Oscar for her role in “La Vie En Rose,” Marion Cotillard's name started popping up in less-flattering headlines. Comments she had previously made in a French interview had been up till now largely ignored, but her thoughts that the U.S. government might have fabricated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, or that the 1969 landing on the moon might have been staged, couldn’t escape the post-Oscar spotlight.

She had been quoted as describing the World Trade Center as “money-sucker” buildings in need of major renovations, and added, “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."

But in celebrity circles, Cotillard is far from alone in expressing her unorthodox beliefs. Several other famous faces have gone on the record on everything from Hurricane Katrina to life from other planets.