Stone Addresses Paparazzi Crash
August 31 -- VENICE, ITALY — Actress Sharon Stone says that the storm clouds circling her at the Venice Film Festival are not her fault.
Here to chair Thursday night's American Foundation for AIDS Research Cinema Against AIDS celebrity auction with Richard Gere, Stone found herself at the center of reports that her arrival had inadvertently caused harm.
She was apparently being pursued by paparazzi Tuesday after they spotted her taking off her shoes to board a boat. As the actress's vessel sped up to get away from the photographers, it created waves that may have set off a chain-reaction boat crash in the city's canals.
According to a report by the Associated Press, one of the photographers' boats banged into a pole and a nearby boat. Another photographer needed stitches to close a head wound.
"I want to get the boating accident out of the way," the blond actress told reporters. "Two boats collided, and one paparazzi [sic] cut his head and got seven stitches."
Stone, looking sleek in a necklace of semiprecious stones and a glamorous sheath, said, "I've been associated with this accident, and it's caused me to have provocative thinking of our issue of interacting with each other.
"When there are accidents, whether the tragedy of Princess Diana or the seven stitches of this gentleman, it's the same thing. We pretend we're chasing each other [as part of] this game we play as the press and the people in the film business, and we're really a team."
Eerily, the incident took place just one day before the third anniversary of Princess Diana's death.
Stone went on to stress the importance of safety and more precaution in the interaction between journalists and celebrities. She asked, "How do we … take a serious, thoughtful look, and look at it as a team, not 'I need 10 feet' or 'No, don't take my picture but make sure you get a little'"?
The Basic Instinct star added that she was relieved to hear that the photographer involved in the crash did not have serious injuries.
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