Sharon Stone defends Moss after cocaine scandal
Kerstin Gehmlich

PARIS—Actress Sharon Stone defended Kate Moss on Tuesday and implicitly criticized companies who were parting with the British supermodel after a newspaper alleged Moss had snorted cocaine. The cocaine scandal has prompted two fashion houses — Britain’s Burberry and Swedish-based Hennes and Mauritz — to sever ties with Moss.
France’s Channel said it would not renew her contract when it expired this month, but did not comment on whether the decision was linked to the cocaine scandal. “I’d like to say as for Kate Moss, I understand that she has apologized and is changing her life. And I think that that is the most important thing that’s happened,” Stone, the star of sultry thriller “Basic Instinct,” said in Paris.
“I think that we have to be aware that people are allowed to make mistakes in their life,” she told a news conference at which she was being presented as the new face to promote Christian Dior’s Capture Totale anti-ageing line. Stone implicitly criticized the fashion houses who had parted with Moss, after Britain’s Mirror tabloid featured grainy pictures that apparently showed the 31-year-old model taking large quantities of cocaine.
“Whether or not a house stands with her or not through it says more about the house than it does about her,” Stone said. “Because someone who doesn’t allow someone to fail and change and grow — it doesn’t say very much about them, in my opinion.” The actress, 47, who made headlines earlier this year for raising $1 million in five minutes from business tycoons at the Davos World Economic Forum for African children, earned loud applause for her comments.
“If you are in here and haven’t made a mistake, I’d like to meet you because I’ve been waiting for Jesus — and today would be the day,” Stone said to loud laughter. Moss, whose annual earnings from modelling are estimated to be in excess of 4 million pounds, apologized last month to friends, family and business associates for her behaviour.