When celebs smile, laugh or whatever it's always mentioned in the interview so I'm pretty sure she was serious. After all, they also wrote (speaking to her assistant) and that's how these things are usually included in interviews. The Liberation comment was definitely unencessarily patronising. The interviewer wasn't the one who should have apologised in my honest opinion. Emma could have let the person finish and said: "Yes, I know the newspaper and...blabla," which would have been so much more polite. But I liked the bits about travelling and university. Just hope she's not getting too stuck-up.