Sharon Stone's films may be boycotted in China following comments she made last week at the Festival de Cannes regarding China's recent natural disaster that killed more than 65,000 people and left 5 million homeless.
"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," Stone said in a red-carpet interview with Cable Entertainment News of Hong Kong. "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?"
Stone was a guest last year at the Shanghai International Film Festival, but her recent remarks angered Chinese media.
Ng See-Yuen, the founder of one of China's biggest urban cinema chains, called Stone's comments "inappropriate" and said his company would boycott all of the actress' films.
Stone has several films coming out this year.
However, the Chinese media did not latch onto another remark Stone made during the French film festival. She said she cried when she received a letter from the Tibetan Foundation asking her to help victims of the natural disaster.
"Sometimes you have to learn to put your head down and be of service, even to people who aren't nice to you. That's a big lesson for me," Stone said.
But Stone isn't the only celebrity who's made an international relations faux pas recently.
According to The Boston Globe, Dunkin' Donuts has decided to pull a TV commercial featuring Rachael Ray wearing what looks like a keffiyeh.Fox News commentator and conservative columnist Michelle Malkin was the first to notice Ray's garb. She wrote on her blog:
"The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons."
Although Dunkin' Donuts initially ignored the complaints and rumors of a boycott, they eventually chose to pull the ad.
"In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by her stylist for the advertising shoot," the chain wrote in a statement via The Globe. "Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we are no longer using the commercial."
