LOS ANGELES: Sharon Stone’s ‘karma’ comment is having an instant effect on her movie-star status in China.

The 50-year-old actress suggested last week that the devastating May 12 earthquake in China could have been the result of bad karma over the government’s treatment of Tibet. That prompted the founder of one of China’s biggest cinema chains to say his company would not show her films in his theatres, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter.

“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 last week 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?”

Ng See-Yuen, founder of the UME Cineplex chain and the chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, called Stone’s comments “inappropriate,” adding that actors should not bring personal politics to comments about a natural disaster that has left five million Chinese homeless, according to the Reporter.

UME has branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, China’s biggest urban movie markets.

The Beijing Times reported that the Chinese public relations company for cosmetic and couture giant Christian Dior — which uses Stone extensively in its advertisements — had distanced itself from her remarks. Dior boutiques in major Beijing department stores that had until recently featured advertisements with Stone’s image had also removed these images by late Tuesday, the paper said.