[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcRiAytaD6w[/youtube]
I guess it was just idle speculation that had Sharon Stone on the top of the smart list. I interviewed her once, actually, and found her to be a very engaging conversationalist. But to come out with something like:
“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 Thursday during a Cannes Film Festival red-carpet interview with Hong Kong’s Cable Entertainment News. “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?”
It isn’t exactly awards related (although if she were up for an Oscar today this would throw cold water on it in a hurry) but since we have such an international readership here at Awards Daily I thought I would take this opportunity to apologize for Sharon Stone since she has not been able to do so yet (but she will, oh yes, she will). This video shows Stone, obviously having knocked back a short snort or two before the interview. Only the zealots among us would ever blame a people for a natural disaster. And to blame the Chinese people, 70,000 of whom have perished in this earthquake, for the actions of the Chinese government? Now there’s an admirable God? Uh….Logic, Ms. Stone, use Logic. I don’t care if the Dalai Lama is a “good friend” or not. Oh, and I’m sure His Holiness has changed his number by now.
On the bright side, you can’t buy this kind of publicity.
ONTD provided the link and video.
Sacha
I totally agree with you. Ziyi Zhang was also making the point recently that a lot of people in the West (she was in France at the time) didn’t even know that an earthquake had occurred in China.
If celebrities want to use their fame to assist with raising humanitarian aid, that’s one thing, but when they think it gives them kudos to make political statements which turn into offensive broadsides, it’s beyond the realm. I will choose not to watch Sharon Stone films any more, which won’t exactly change my viewing habits anyway.
Sharon Stone was smart?
She fucking did CATWOMAN. No offense, but I can understand why Halle Berry (back when she was the “it” prima donna bitch of Hollywood) and Benjamin Bratt* did that piece of shit movie, but Stone?
Damn, and to think, she once upon a time got an Oscar nod for Scorsese’s awesome CASINO.
~Doesn’t help either when Stone’s latest media spots has been this kharma flap, and TMZ making fun of her fatass.
*=Who by looking at the recent ANDROMEDA STRAIN mini-series, probably would fuck a pretzel for $20.
9/11 was a deliberate act of terrorism, an act of war. I suppose one could make an argument for karma but that’s a vastly different situation from a natural disaster like an earthquake.
Aside from the fact that her comments are batshit crazy, they’re also a little offensive. Most of the buildings that were destroyed in the earthquake were schools, you don’t seriously expect me to believe that a bunch of third graders had it coming.
There are times I believe things do happen for a reason, and then there are times when tectonic plates start to shift and people die as a result. The region the earthquake hit has always had seismic activity, so therefore an earthquake was BOUND to hit sooner or later. I hardly doubt the earthquake out of the blue just hit because China treated the Tibetans like crap. They’ve also treated the Sudanese like crap, but I suppose Karma is selective in its punishment. Anyway, they’ve treated Tibet like crap for decades, and suddenly after all that time the earthquake hits – was karma taking its time? How long does karma take to actually begin to strike?
I’m with Gentle Benj on this one – it doesn’t matter what the religion is, there’s always some nutcase that subscribes to it. I live in a hurricane prone region and every year we NEARLY get destroyed by a hurricane – I suppose when my country is finally destroyed by a hurricane we would have had it coming. Ugh.
I didn’t think there was anything wrong with her comments. They clearly came from the heart and were simple: People should be kind to each other. And if they’re not, there might be karma to pay. She’s a mother herself so she certainly wasn’t suggesting that those particular victims had bad karma coming at them personally…. Karma is universal. Karma exists on a universal and holistic plane. While the earthquake and its aftermath are beyond tragic, it has helped that country come together and encouraged others around the world to help as well. If she said 9/11 happened because of bad karma, would she be THAT wrong? The US has been swinging its big stick in the rest of the world for years, fighting with others, fighting amongst ourselves and putting our priorities in the wrong places time and time again. After 9/11 our country came together in a way that reminded all of us that not only were we proud to be Americans, but we were proud to be citizens of the world. I think Sharon Stone, in her own way, was looking at the big picture and simply expressing her uncertainty about how to handle the situation because of her respect for the trials of the Tibetan people. It was probably out of context but it’s clear she had good intentions so I think the Chinese government, as usual, are behaving like buffoons.
And meanwhile China keeps killing Tibetans. I don’t agree with what Sharon Stone said but make a fuss over it and ban her? The Chinese Goverment are fucking bitches.
Ugh, why would you ever say something that would remind people of a Pat Robertson quote? Even if you ARE drunk?
I gotta say it IS refreshing to hear this guano spouted outside of a Judeo-Christian context. Blame karma for once! Yes!
I teach at a tiny Christian school in Japan, and last spring when our annual campout was rained out, some of the parents loudly blamed “individuals in the community” who didn’t believe and pray hard enough that it would be sunny. AKA, me. Same crazy, different scale. I don’t get it.
I am not putting the fault on the Chinese people either.
Good for you….I hear you. I respect you, your thoughts.
Buddhism is not a religion….the question of God is not addressed.
Richard, there is zero chance I’m going to read up on anything in the spiritual realm. People who ask me why I don’t investigate Christianity, etc., it was never in my DNA to wonder or ask in that regard. Nature and science is where I put my belief – and that is enough mystery for me. I don’t believe there is a reason for everything — I think it is an indifferent universe. The explanation for China’s earthquake is really quite plain: there was tension on the tectonic plates that lay underneath that region – the same region, ironically, that produces such a high peak in Mount Everest. Also, the sherpas at Everest believe the mountain herself gets angry and thus, people die climbing Everest. There is a reasonable explanation and a fanciful one; I’ve never been inclined towards the fanciful one — I blame it on genetics. I always had a problem with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Astrology, forget it. The answer might not satisfy one’s need for a higher power but it helps to understand earthquakes better and it helps us to learn how to build more sound structures.
The very last thing I would ever do is put the fault on the Chinese people.
Sasha, I understand, get your anguish for the victims of the Chinese quake. My heart goes out too…to the quake victims, to all victims, be it from tornados, hurricanes, fires, etc.
A simple starting place for Karma would be Wikipedia.
Read about karma. You will, or you won’t.
Richard, what did the poor Chinese mothers do to deserve this karma?
Last week on NPR there was an interesting story about the supersticious Chinese rulers. Karma, Sasha, is not “logical” when it comes to time.
nic said:
and after Basic Instinct 2, if there really is karma then Sharon Stone better watch her back.
Lol.
In fact, she’s so much smarter than all of us poor mortals, that we haven’t noticed she was testing us and she was actually making fun of the blond stereotype. It didn’t work Ms Stone!
Miranda, I have no common sense and even I wouldn’t blame the quake the dirty dealings of the Chinese government. Or Katrina on homosexuality in New Orleans…natural disasters are just that. They don’t take sides in our wars.
Well, I have a soft spot for Ms. Stone regardless.
Sasha, I’m sure you’re aware of this. A great intellect does not necessarily have anything to do with common sense.
You can possess both, neither or merely one of those characteristics.
Sharon Stone was supposed to be smart?
Richard, please! By that logic, the US should have much worse disasters.
And yeah, Stone’s comments reveal how removed from real life she actually is. I guess that’s what surprised me most. Either that or she hasn’t been listening to the news reports of mothers who lost their only children when the schools collapsed. One mother said her son begged her to take him with her to work and she almost did but then she didn’t at the last minute.
As a Buddhist, I don’t think Stone is too far off the map here. The Chinese rulers are superticious. It’s a hold over from the time when they believed they were gods. They are doing a good job with the clean-up…..and NOW they themselves, the rulers, believe deep down they need to change their tune(s) when it comes to Tibet. We shall see.
It’s bad karma if we consider the earthquake happened to obligate the chinese government to ask for help. I feel the same about Katrina and 9/11. Even if thousands of peoplle died, that could be a result of external politics from USA and to make the government realize how fragiles they are and they need the others help.
I do believe that she has issued an apology and has stated she would never wish the number of fatalities on anyone…
This is not the first time Ms. Stone has appeared in front-of a camera, opened her mouth, and revealed her intelligence level. I can’t remember where I saw this, but she was in Israel about a year or two ago and said some of the dumbest things I had ever heard. I couldn’t believe somebody with a functioning brain would even say what she said. I can’t remember it specifics.
I’m sure she will survive this, but I love that people are defending her, or writing that the comments are out of context. How is out of context, the entire exchange is on video?
Won’t hurt her at all. Much underestimated and misunderstood, Ms. Stone will survive this.
i really think her comments are being taken out of context….of course she should have know they would and never said them in the first place. she was saying it was wrong to think something like karma caused the quake and in times of disaster you need to put aside your differences and come together. so i wont hold it against her….
and after Basic Instinct 2, if there really is karma then Sharon Stone better watch her back. maybe a soon to infamous remark like this blowing up in her face is her karma…