Sharon Stone has been criticised in China after she suggested that the recent earthquake may have been caused by bad "karma".
The Basic Instinct actress had told reporters at the Cannes film festival that the disaster, which has claimed more than 67,000 lives, could have been a recrimination for China's human rights records in Tibet.
Her comments have been labelled "inappropriate" by filmmakers in the region, who have vowed to no longer screen her movies.
"I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else," he had told a Hong Kong film crew in an interview last week.
"And so, I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don't like... that.
"I've been concerned about how we should deal with the Olympics, because they're not being nice to the Dalai Lama who is a good friend of mine," she continued.
"And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"
Ng See-Yuen, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers and the founder of the UME Cineplex chain, was quoted by the Hollywood Reporter as saying Stone's comments were "inappropriate".
He said actors should not bring their personal beliefs to commenting on a disaster that has killed thousands and left five million people homeless and vowed that UME cinemas, which have branches in the lucrative movie markets of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, would no longer screen Stone's movies.
Cosmetic advertisements featuring the 50-year-old's image have been removed from Christian Dior boutiques in Beijing department stores, according to the Beijing Times newspaper and she has come in for significant criticism from Chinese websites.
28/05/2008 11:45:10
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