Stone me, I've offended 1.3 billion people

IT WAS a statement that demonstrated both classic Hollywood vapidity and a lack of karmic understanding.

Sharon Stone experienced some bad karma of her own yesterday, in a backlash over flippant remarks she made on the red carpet about the earthquake in China that killed up to 68,000 people this month.

The star of Basic Instinct and Casino was forced into a humiliating public apology after she suggested that China's "bad karma" over unrest in Tibet was linked to the disaster.

The luxury retailer Christian Dior, which has a modelling contract with the 50-year-old actress, had pulled adverts featuring Stone from its stores in China (population 1.3billion). Chinese bloggers had reacted with fury and there were threats to ban her films in the country.

Stone had made her remarks in a red-carpet interview at the Cannes Film Festival, which was later picked up and broadcast on the YouTube video website. Within less than 24 hours, she had retracted.

"In the course of the interview I made inappropriate remarks and for any harm created towards the Chinese people I am extremely sad and apologise," she was quoted as saying, in a Chinese translation of a statement released by Dior.

Film stars have frequently caused diplomatic storms, though sometimes by mistake. Cameron Diaz apologised after carrying a bag with Maoist symbols in Peru, home to the Shining Path guerrillas. Jane Fonda has been "Hanoi Jane" ever since appearing in North Vietnam during the Vietnam war.

When celebrities' words blow up in their faces, the key to defusing a row is "speed of reaction, in as few words as possible," said Mark Borkowski, a PR adviser to celebrities and brands from Noel Edmonds to Virgin Mobile.

Tibet has been a popular cause in Hollywood for years. Actor Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Goldie Hawn and Uma Thurman have all spoken out.

But campaigners risk offending China, an increasingly powerful presence in the corporate and entertainment world.

Mr Borkowski said: "The problem is how do you deal with China. Most entertainment and commercial Goliaths have big deals with China. They can't have celebrity collateral pouring petrol on to this sort of fire.

"It doesn't help with a pretty crass statement but the speed of this apology expresses the difficulties that people have.

"Celebrity brands have to be very careful about who pays their wages. A hasty apology recognises just how powerful the China lobby is."

Hours after Stone's remarks, Antonio Belloni, managing director of LVMH, the luxury goods giant that owns Dior, made his views clear. The actress had to "put things in the right perspective" or the company would "detach" itself from her.

On the red carpet, the actress referred to the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, as a "good friend". She said: "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.

"And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"

Chinese newspaper readers and internet bloggers exploded in anger. "Don't give any attention to this old lady – don't watch her movies, don't buy the products she represents," read one.

Celebrities slip up on sensitive global issues

LAST June, Cameron Diaz, one of the stars of Charlie's Angels, provoked painful memories in Peru by audaciously sporting a bag with the Chinese Communist slogan, "Serve the People", and the Red Star, symbol of Chairman Mao's China.

Diaz later apologised to the Peruvian people, for whom the memory of the Maoist "Shining Path" revolution, which claimed the lives of 70,000 people in the 1980s and 1990s, was all too recent.

The Maoists' brutality, destroying the native Incan culture and carrying out mass executions for offences such as independently selling vegetables, was clearly lost on the US actress as she visited the ancient Incan city, Machu Picchu.

"I sincerely apologise to anyone I may have inadvertently offended," the actress said. "The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China."

In April last year, the actors Shilpa Shetty and Richard Gere caused outrage among Indian nationalists and religious fundamentalists while campaigning against HIV.

A lighthearted display of affection, as Gere demonstrated a move from his latest film Shall We Dance and kissed Bollywood actress Shetty on the cheek, offended Indian nationalists, for whom public affection is taboo. Gere's position as a foreigner and non-Hindu exacerbated the situation. Shetty refused to apologise, claiming the reaction was "regressive", while posters of her were burned in protest.

The Academy Award-winning actress Jane Fonda caused a famous controversy by her campaigns against the Vietnam War in 1972. The image of Fonda posed sitting on an anti-aircraft gun that could have been aimed at US planes shocked and hurt many servicemen.

In 1988, Fonda expressed her regret to former US PoWs and their families, saying she was horrified by the photo and its implications of a betrayal.

The French actress Marion Cotillard, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, caused uproar this spring when she described 9/11 as a "conspiracy". Cotillard accused the US of lying "about a number of things" and contrasted the rapid destruction of the World Trade Centre with other constructions which had withstood fires.

The comments were made a year earlier, but resurfaced when she won the Oscar. The actress was deeply shocked by the way they were taken "out of context", her agent said.