By Keen Zhang
China.org.cn Arts & Entertainment editor reporting in Beijing
zhangr@china.org.cn
American actress Sharon Stone, who had been dropped by Christian Dior in China after saying the recent earthquake was the result of bad "karma", told New York Times that she has not apologized.
[Cast your vote for Stone's comments]
"It makes it appear that I'm in agreement that I did a bad thing," Ms. Stone said.
A Dior China's publicity official was reached by the Beijing News after Sharon Stone talked to the New York Times Thursday. The official responded that Sharon Stone is having an "unstable mood".
The actress accused Christian Dior Chinese branch of twisting her words for damage control.
"I'm not going to apologize. I'm certainly not going to apologize for something that isn't real and true — not for face creams," she said.
Stone said to Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Dior that she didn't believe she had done anything wrong. She told New York Times that her original message after the incident was, "I am deeply saddened that a 10-second poorly edited film clip has besmirched my reputation of over 20 years of charitable services on behalf of international charities. My intention is to be of service to the Chinese people."
She said she had expressed sympathy to the earthquake victims and said she regretted if her comments in Cannes were misunderstood.
But the Dior's Chinese office, which has been avoiding controversy in these sensitive times, sent out a statement Wednesday saying, "My erroneous words and deeds angered and saddened the Chinese people, and I sincerely apologise for this", which irritated the star.
"We don't know whether we overestimate or underestimate her IQ," A Dior official named Charlotte said. She added, "We just hope that her latest statement was not for a new-round hype. It is out of our control in this complicated situation when she accepted other media's interviews. But we hope people realized that Dior has no necessary cause-and-effect relation with what she said."
As for Sharon Stone's claim that her words were distorted by the Dior Chinese office, the official said that the statement was written under the name of Stone's agent. Dior attempted damage control to keep Chinese customers. The official said, "Now that her mood is unstable, Chinese people cannot control her thoughts, we can't either."
But in a statement emailed to CNN Saturday, Sharon said that she "could not be more regretful" of her comments.
"Yes, I misspoke," in a statement released by Stone's publicist, "I could not be more regretful of that mistake. It was unintentional. I apologize. Those words were never meant to be hurtful to anyone. They were an accident of my distraction and a product of news sensationalism."
