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Sharon Stone is facing a ban on the showing of her films in China after suggesting the recent earthquake that killed up to 67,000 people may have been the result of "bad karma" over the country's occupation of Tibet.

Stone, 50, who was speaking to reporters at the Cannes film festival, criticised the Chinese government's actions in Tibet and directly linked them to the disaster:

"I've been concerned about how should we deal with the Olympics, because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine," she said.

"And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma - when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"

A YouTube video of Stone making the comments has provoked fury amongst the online community and angered members of the Chinese film industry. Ng See-Yuen, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Film-makers and the founder of the UME Cineplex chain, told The Beijing Times that her comments were "inappropriate" and that his cinema chain, which has a strong presence in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, would no longer screen any films starring the actor.

The PR company for cosmetics giant Christian Dior has also taken action against Stone by removing images of the actor promoting the company's products from department stores across Beijing.

The ban may be something of a blessing for Chinese movie-goers. The Year of Getting to Know Us, the first of Stone's films to be affected by the ban, has been described by a user of the internet film site IMDb as "one of the five worst films I have seen in my lifetime".