Marion Cotillard, the Oscar-winning French actress, will not apologise over remarks she made describing the 9/11 attacks as a conspiracy and believes that the comments had been taken out of context and misunderstood.

Cotillard, who won the Best Actress statuette last week for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, has claimed that the September 11 atrocity had been orchestrated by the owners of the Twin Towers.

The comments, made in an interview first broadcast a year ago, have resurfaced on the internet since her Oscar victory.

Cotillard said that the towers were destroyed not as part of a terrorist plot, but because it would have been too expensive to rewire them. She also reheated an old conspiracy theory about the 1969 moon landing never having happened.

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The actress's agent, Bastien Duval, told The Times that Cotillard, who charmed the crowd with her emotional acceptance speech after winning her Oscar, was "still in shock" at the angry reaction to her comments in the United States.

Mr Duval said that the interview was filmed after a broadcast on Coluche, a French comedian killed in a motorcycle accident in 1986, and she had simply made clear that she intended to form her own opinion about the events of September 11 rather than follow the official version, that it was a terrorist attack led by al-Qaeda.

"This reportage has been taken out of context and one can only condemn such practices," he said.

"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."

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