Gwyneth Paltrow needs to hire someone who will issue clear denials of the stupid things she supposedly says. She claimed she never said Americans were stupid and boring since they talk about how they work to make a living compared to what her British blue-blood friends, who don’t have to lift a finger in life, talk about. She did say something that was likely suggestive of that during a Spanish press conference. She’s pretty vague about what she actually said, and claims that her bad Spanish was to blame, but since she once bashed Americans for mourning 9/11, it’s likely she wasn’t all positive about how great America is.

“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 has recently been criticized after she was quoted as telling the Portuguese newspaper Diario De Noticias, “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,” says the 34-year-old Oscar winner. “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.”

As for where the quotes came from, Paltrow says she did not give an interview to the Portuguese daily newspaper, though she did give a press conference – in Spanish – for an endorsement she did in Spain.

“This is what I said. 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,” says the actress, adding, “Obviously I need to go back to seventh-grade Spanish!“

Yeah, she probably said that the Americans talk too much about work. It’s not like she’s wrong in that America is more work-focused, but she’s a public figure and her career depends on keeping in the public’s good graces. If she doesn’t want to stir up controversy she shouldn’t compare Americans to British unfavorably.

She gets a B grade for this denial. It’s adequate and she seems somewhat sincere, but in light of the crap she’s said in the past it seems like she did say something that was pretty similar to how she was quoted. I think a carefully worded statement from a publicist would have closed the matter a lot better.