Actress Sharon Stone Apologizes for Saying Chinese Earthquake Is “China’s Karma”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/fashion/01stone.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin
NEW YORK, USA, May 30, 2008: Sharon Stone admitted that her comments suggesting that karmic retribution may have caused the devastating earthquakes in China were blithering. “Clearly, I sound like an idiot,” said Ms. Stone on Thursday evening from her home in Los Angeles, after she had watched a widely viewed Internet video of her remarks from Cannes. In the red-carpet interview on May 22, Ms. Stone told a journalist: “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 the earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that bad things happen to you?”
The comments created a stir in the Chinese news media and on blogs, and Dior, which has a modeling contract with Ms. Stone for a face cream, removed her from advertising in China, fearing a backlash. Dior’s Shanghai office issued a statement in which Ms. Stone was quoted apologizing: “I am deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people.”
[HPI note: We suggest also reading this brief transcript of a short talk given by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami on group karma here]
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