Speech is free, but it ain't cheap. Maggie Gyllenhaal's publicist will tell you so (Photo: Serenade Films)

As you likely read on The Reeler's companion indieWIRE Insider blog yesterday, Maggie Gyllenhaal has promised to behave herself when it comes to expressing her political views on the red carpet. Her last commentary venture--suggesting that the United States bore some of the responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks--did not quite come off the way she wanted it to, and her publicist-approved follow-up was not really walloping enough to un-ring that particular bell.

But as Gyllenhaal told the Daily News' Nancy Mills on Sunday:

"(N)either the red carpet nor an interview about a movie is the right place to talk about my politics. I realize I have to be careful, because it's very easy to misunderstand a complicated thought in a complicated world. I was so surprised by the way it was misunderstood, and the disdain that came back at me was a real shock. I regret what I said, but I think my intentions were good."

"Misunderstandings" aside, perhaps Gyllenhaal--whose Tribeca hit The Great New Wonderful looks at the lives of men and women dealing with the aftermath of 9/11--should consider taking a page from director Oliver Stone's handbook.

Stone is pairing up with fellow Oscar winner Nicolas Cage on a biopic about the last men rescued from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, and the ink was not dry on his contract before the publicists gave him a quote of his own:

"It's a work of collective passion, a serious meditation on what happened and carries within a compassion that heals. ... It's an exploration of heroism in our country--but it's international at the same time in its humanity."

This from the same guy who blamed Alexander's catastrophic box-office failure last year on "a raging fundamentalism in morality in the United States," particularly in the South.

So you see, Maggie? You can basically convey any "complicated thoughts" you have about 9/11 as long as they are A) incomprehensible and B) contradictory in the most shit-eating fashion imaginable. It is not that hard, especially now that you have a publicist at your disposal. The whole world is here to listen and ready to believe--take advantage of it!