Joe Paterno, Sienna Miller, Al Gore and Pope Benedict XVI have all found themselves quoted in ways they felt lacked complete context for their remarks. A CLOSER LOOK Celebrities of all stripes claim they've been quoted out of context. Here are four recent examples. Al Gore: In his 1992 book "Earth in the Balance," Mr. Gore talked about the dangers of cutting Pacific yew trees, which are used to make the anti-cancer drug Taxol. Noting that it takes three yew trees to make enough of the drug for one person, and that only the oldest trees have the potent chemical, Mr. Gore wrote: "Are those of us alive today entitled to cut down all of those trees to extend the lives of a few of us, even if it means this unique form of life will disappear forever, thus making it impossible to save human lives in the future?" Later, Republican politicians and writers used an earlier part of the passage to say that Mr. Gore believed saving trees was more important than saving people. Pat Robertson: Last year, the evangelical broadcaster said that the United States should "take out" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. After being criticized for endorsing assassination of a foreign leader, Mr. Robertson said, "I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him." Joe Paterno: In January, the legendary Penn State coach was asked to quit by the National Organization for Women after comments he made following a sexual assault accusation by a woman against Florida State football player A.J. Nicholson. "There's some tough -- there's so many people gravitating to these kids," Mr. Paterno said. "He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?" Pope Benedict XVI: Last month, the pope created a firestorm among Muslims around the world when parts of a speech he gave at a German university were circulated. The speech was about the pope's belief that God is a rational being and God favors peace. In one of many examples he used, the pope quoted an exchange between a 14th century Christian emperor and a Muslim from Persia, in which the Christian leader said; "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." Many Muslims were outraged by the pope's reference. His supporters said that because it was a small part of a much longer address, he had been quoted out of context. -- Mark Roth

In apologizing last week for her profane remarks about Pittsburgh, actress Sienna Miller joined a crowd that includes Al Gore, Pat Robertson, Joe Paterno and Pope Benedict XVI.

No, they haven't all said nasty things about our hometown. But like Ms. Miller, they have claimed that quotes attributed to them were "taken out of context."

The phrase has become one of the stock arguments used by celebrities after they say something controversial, and its use as a catchall defense is becoming increasingly common.

An unpublished study by communications Professor Matthew McGlone at the University of Texas finds that between 2002 and 2004, there were nearly 1,000 instances in which people claimed they had been quoted out of context, and the annual number of such claims doubled in the election year of 2004.

Just because more and more people are using that excuse, though, doesn't mean that they are wrong.

The standard definition of "out of context" is that a quote distorts the overall intent of what the person was trying to say, or wrongly emphasizes one small part of what a person was saying.

When Dr. McGlone and his students analyzed the out-of-context claims in their study by comparing people's quotes with the full transcripts of what they had said, they concluded that about two-thirds of the time, the aggrieved parties had a legitimate case to make.

A classic example of that in recent history is the way in which conservatives used a part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech to argue that the civil rights leader would have opposed affirmative action policies.

The segment they used was: "I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

Affirmative action, some said, was a form of "reverse discrimination" based on skin color, not a person's character.

But it is clear from Dr. King's overall writings, Dr. McGlone said, that he believed the United States owed financial and legal reparations to black Americans for the legacy of slavery.

Of course, no one is comparing Sienna Miller with Martin Luther King, but does her out-of-context claim have any validity?

In her interview with Rolling Stone writer Jenny Eliscu, Ms. Miller was quoted this way:

"'Sh---burgh,' she called it earlier over wine and garlic-parmesan Buffalo wings at the hotel bar. 'Can you believe this is my life? Will you pity me when you're back in your funky New York apartment and I'm still in Pittsburgh? I need to get more glamorous films and stop with my indie year.'"

Andrew Cline, a journalism and rhetoric professor at Missouri State University, said she might have a case.

Noting that she had made her Pittsburgh remarks earlier in her conversation with the reporter and also had complained about other things going on in her life, Dr. Cline said:

"The chances are she might not have expected to be quoted and what she might have meant is not so much that she was in a city she hated, but it might have been one in a series of things that had happened to her that she didn't like."

Rolling Stone's Ms. Eliscu tended to back that up. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, she said that because of night filming, Ms. Miller had largely been stuck in her hotel room here.

"She didn't seem bummed about being there," Ms. Eliscu said. "Her attitude is, it's hard to be stuck in one place that's not home and in a hotel room."

On the other hand, she acknowledged that Ms. Miller "did call it Sh---burgh. She's like more of a cosmopolitan kind of gal; she'd sort of rather for a month be in a city like London or New York."

Not everyone gives Sienna Miller the benefit of the doubt, though.

Rachel Smolkin, managing editor of the American Journalism Review and a former Post-Gazette reporter, said, "It's very hard to understand how this quote from Sienna could have been taken out of context.

"I'm all for nuance," she said "but this doesn't sound like a nuanced situation; she slammed Pittsburgh -- and sometimes quotes speak for themselves."

And when outsiders criticize a city they are visiting or living in, it can be particularly explosive, said Irving Rein, a communications professor at Northwestern University.

Dr. Rein, who got his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh, tracks celebrity athletes, and has seen some of them stumble over the same kinds of remarks.

Once someone has trashed a city, Dr. Rein said, "then the question is, what do you do about it? Unless you're crazy, you can't come back and say, 'I meant it.' You're not going to say 'I was drunk.' What are your choices?

"So instead you say, 'the person I said it to misunderstood me.' And saying you were quoted out of context is sort of related to that."

Ms. Smolkin emphasized that one of the most important jobs journalists have is to make sure that a person's quotes reflect the overall context of what the person was trying to say.

She acknowledges that doesn't always happen -- in fact, her mother was quoted out-of-context this week in The Washington Post.

In an article on the disappearance of good handwriting among students, Laura Smolkin, an education professor at the University of Virginia, said "it's like so many other things in our society -- there's a sense of loss for what once was."

That left the impression that Dr. Smolkin lamented the loss of cursive handwriting skills, but Rachel Smolkin said her mother's overall comments to the reporter simply described the shift from handwriting to typing on keyboards as being as inevitable as the change from the horse and buggy to the car.

On top of that, her mother's last name was misspelled.

While out-of-context claims are cropping up more frequently, they've been around for a long time.

One of the earliest references known is in an essay by 18th century English novelist Tobias Smollett, who said an enemy had quoted him out of context.

"It's probably been in the spoken vernacular for a long time," Dr. McGlone said, "so for all we know it could go back to Venerable Bede" (a 7th-century English saint, in case you're rusty on your medieval history).

In today's climate, saying you were quoted out-of-context accomplishes another purpose, Dr. McGlone said -- it shifts the blame to the media, and "that appeals to people who are cynical about the press."

Given the low approval rankings journalists get in public surveys, Ms. Smolkin added, "it's kind of like blaming a used car salesman, unfortunately."

Still, the best defense of all is for the celebrity not to say something stupid or ill-advised in the first place.

"In boxing, when the fighters come out to the center of the ring," said Northwestern's Dr. Rein, "the referee says, 'Protect yourself at all times.' Anybody who's in the limelight should understand that.

"When you're in the public eye, people do give more credence to your comments than the average person."

For better or worse, he said, Sienna Miller "has credibility with some people because she has visibility, and she needed to be prepared better" to answer questions in a hotel bar.

Post-Gazette Staff Writer John Hayes contributed to this article.