For U.S. diplomats, the Fourth of July represents an opportunity to share the American experience and strengthen relationships with foreign counterparts…DipNote’s editors asked our colleagues serving around the world to share about their embassies’ Independence Day celebrations…

From the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal:

…Embassy Lisbon organized a July 4th reception that was a mini-vacation in Americana. Ambassador Thomas Stephenson and his wife Barbara hosted a “Tribute to Hollywood” July 4th event. Costumed actors…portraying Audrey Hepburn, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, and others mingled with the crowd, providing a living, breathing representation of the collage of classic clips…that played on six large screens. In his remarks, Ambassador Stephenson credited American film with providing a window onto our country for the rest of the world – and noted that many foreign-born directors and actors had helped in this effort of explaining America to the world. “Never have we seen such a marvelous celebration of America,” was what Embassy Lisbon hosts heard from contacts…And, if bilateral relations can be unpredictable at times, “like a box of chocolates,” we know that in the end we can “handle the truth” that our alliance is sure, partly based on our common cinematic experience.

It sounds like it was a cool event, much more fun than your average diplomatic “party”.

But….what?? Isn’t the biggest problem with our films worldwide reach that people, especially poor and uneducated ones, think that’s how the average American lives, works, and talks? That’s scary! Most of the time, movie characters are unbelievably fake! Movies that portray something like an “average” American would be so boring that nobody would watch them! Not because we are boring, but because everybody around the world eats, poops, slaves away at work, feeds the kids, and sleeps…and then does it all over again the next day. Who wants to watch a movie about that?

The best part was the end, when the ambassador actually suggests that we can know an alliance is strong thanks in part to the fact that we all watch movies. I can’t believe an ambassador would say something like that in public. But then again, he IS Bush’s representative…