Sharon's quake controversy

28 May 2008 12:58pm

Sharon Stone has caused controversy by apparently saying the recent earthquake in China was caused by bad karma.

The Basic Instinct actress told a Hong Kong film crew she thought Beijing's policy on Tibet may have something to do with the disaster, the BBC reports.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, she reportedly said: "I thought, 'Is that karma?' When you are not nice, bad things happen to you.

"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."

Sharon apparently added that she had been humbled by the support shown by the Tibetan Foundation to Chinese victims of the quake.

"They wanted to go and be helpful, and that made me cry. It was a big lesson to me that sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service even to people who aren't nice to you," she is reported to have said.

In what could also be described as "karma", the founder of the UME Cineplex chain chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers Ng See-Yuen allegedly described Sharon's comments as inappropriate and said he would not show her films in his cinema.

© The Press Association