- Title: JAPAN/FILE: Sharon Stone talks poverty and diamonds at a news conference
- Date: 23rd November 2009
- Summary: (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) STONE LEAVING THE STAGE WAVING HANDS TO THE AUDIENCE
- Embargoed: 8th December 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVADEN95A4EDC0J2TT8MOVDVUXGJ
- Story Text: Hollywood star Sharon Stone was in Tokyo on Friday (November 20) to call attention to both her fight against AIDS and poverty in Africa and her personally designed line of men's jewelry .
The 51-year old actress of "Basic Instinct" fame arrived at a downtown theatre packed with 500 of her fans to promote her new line, "The Sharon Stone Collection," designed in collaboration with Italian jewelers Damiani and on sale in Japan this week.
But her appearance was not all about the sparkle and tinsel of Hollywood and luxury jewelry. Stone explained how part of the revenues from selling the jewels was going to be donated to help build wells in Africa.
"We don't experience poverty on the level that we experienced in Uganda when we say, you know, there's nothing to eat, or we see people who are poor or have little to eat. We don't experience and understand what it really means to have nothing to eat. Literally zero," she said.
Stone has been actively involved in helping developing countries in Africa. At the Davos summit in 2005, she raised one million U.S. dollars for malaria research and prevention, and at this year's Cannes Film Festival she co-hosted fund-raising events which former U.S. President Bill Clinton also addressed.
Stone has recently spent time in Uganda and has been raising awareness about poverty in the country.
"And you really have to understand what having no water means. It means that - I took a bottle of water like that to help a little child and he didn't know how to drink a bottle of water because he'd never had, he'd never ever seen or had a clean water like that in his whole life," Stone said.
The Golden Globe-winning actress has created 18 pieces of jewelry with one of Italy's largest jewellery designers and producers with prices ranging from 147,000 yen (1,417 U.S. dollars) for a simple silver diamond ring to 2,835,000 yen (31,900 U.S. dollars) for a brownish gold rough diamond bracelet.
She said all her designs were inspired her father.
"I wanted it to be very manly. I don't know how to explain that, but it's just the way I feel. Man, I like men, and I wanted it to have the way that I see men. Very, I don't know. My dad is really manly and I wanted it to be able to, like if my dad could wear it," Stone said.
Damiani has 80 stores worldwide and opened its first jewelry boutique in Tokyo's Ginza fashion district in March 2008. The Sharon Stone Collection will be available in Damiani outlets around the world before Christmas. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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