It is one of the great truisms of life: that stuff happens and what goes around comes around, and if you cause pain to other people then sure enough there's some bad shit coming your way, buster. I think it was the Dalai Lama who said that.
Let's take a random example. A few years back I attended a Sharon Stone press conference in Cannes that was so anodyne, stage-managed and cynical that it made me want to unplug her microphone and stick my finger in the socket. This year the exact same actor shows up at the exact same festival, sparks an international incident and now finds herself derided as "a dirty swine", the "public enemy of all mankind" and (ouch) an "old lady". Now that's karma for you.
Here, for the record, is what Stone told newshounds last week (we've reposted the YouTube clip above, too, for the one or two people in the world who may not yet have seen it). "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," she said. "... 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?" In the wake of this outburst she was unceremoniously dumped by China's largest cinema chain and jettisoned as the face of Christian Dior's Chinese marketing campaign.
There is, of course, much to chew over here. Stone, after all, has always prided herself on being a challenging public figure, whether it be via her crypto-proto-feminist antics in Basic Instinct or through her recent spiritual makeover as a friend of the Dalai Lama and ordained minister of the "Universal Life Church". This is just her latest dollop of wisdom; a little food for thought.
Naturally many people will regard her pronouncement as somewhat crass, given the circumstances. Others may feel that she is entitled to say whatever she wants, however stupid. What complicates the issue for me, however, is what is ostensibly the most trivial aspect of the whole affair. It is the Dior connection.
Forgive the puritanism, but I've never been able to understand why millionaire celebrities feel the need to supplement their incomes by making adverts. (Actually, I've banged on about this before and yet - shockingly - the practice still continues.) The whole thing suggests nothing more than a rapacious greed. It compromises the integrity of the work they do when they're not flogging American Express. But it also compromises their lofty pronouncements on the state of the world in general. While I have a great deal of affection for George Clooney, I can't help feeling his off-screen liberal activism would have a bit more traction if it didn't double up with his role as the "Nespresso Ambassador". Similarly, Sharon's Stone's recent stance begs an obvious question. If she is that opposed to China's policies, why was she so happy to serve as the official face of Christian Dior across the country? She is - albeit indirectly - accepting money from a regime that she - albeit indirectly - would like to see reduced to rubble.
In the wake of her Cannes statement, Stone has now commenced the back-peddling. "I feel deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people," she says, adding that she is now willing to "wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people". The country is not showing her films and she has no spring collection to sell. Stripped of those pesky commitments, she may now be of some real, practical use.
