Olivia Wilde Learns the Hard Way There's No Such Language as "Swiss"

Cowboys and Aliens star is lost in translation after failing to realize a Twitter gaffe

By Gina Serpe Aug 08, 2011 6:56 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

This here is a steaming mug of Swiss mess.

Sure, Olivia Wilde has always struck us as one of the smartest gals in Tinseltown—she works on one of the brainiest shows out there, is well on her way to becoming a bona fide movie star, spends her free time making documentaries and dating Hollywood's most eligible bachelors and looks, well, like she does—but hey, nobody's perfect.

And she's made the global gaffe to prove it.

The Cowboys & Aliens star has been a prolific tweeter since embarking on the international press tour promoting her new flick, but over the weekend showed celebs why tweeting first, thinking later may not always be the best way to go about things.

"Cowboys screening for 8,000 in the Piazza Grande a the Locarno Fest tonight," she tweeted Saturday. "Prepping my speech in Swiss, Italian, and Apache just in case."

Cute and harmless, right? Well, it was until her followers not so politely informed her that "Swiss" isn't actually a language (for the record, Switzerland has four official languages; "Swiss" isn't one of them). Oops.

Still, credit where it's due, Wilde was quick to acknowledge the mistake and keep things moving swiftly along.

"Oh good, turns out there's no Swiss language," she wrote later. "That makes things simpler. I'll throw in Cantonese just to keep things interesting."

Well played, Olivia. Well played.