Sharon Stone Is Being Sued for Skipping an Anti-Chevron Protest [View all]

[Zorro]

Environmental activists accuse Chevron of polluting the Amazon jungle in Ecuador. Chevron counter-accuses lawyers representing rain forest residents of fabricating evidence and other forms of fraud.

Cue Sharon Stone.

It's the latest bizarre twist in an epic, 22-year environmental brawl. Stone, the star of such films as Basic Instinct, has been accused in a federal lawsuit in New York of failing to show up for paid anti-Chevron appearances in Ecuador. The actress backed out of gigs scheduled for April 2014, in which she was to be the latest in a parade of celebrities who've condemned the company, according to MCSquared, a U.S. public relations firm that's suing the actress and her talent agency for $352,000. MCSquared alleges that the actress didn't return a $275,000 fee paid to her via American Program Bureau, a speakers bureau in Boston. The firm said it also spent $77,420.09 "to accommodate Stone's diva-like requests, including first-class airfare tickets and luxury hotel suites for herself and her three companions," along with hair and makeup services and personal guides.

Beyond the extreme weirdness factor—Sharon Stone paid to protest oil pollution in the Amazon?—the suit is notable because time and again, the campaign to tar Chevron has allegedly succumbed to fraud, manipulation, and theater in the service of extracting billions of dollars from the oil company.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sharon-stone-being-sued-skipping-174146086.html