Reporteros On Line

Sharon Stone was paid $500,000 for Basic Instinct. Michael Douglas was paid $14 million. The scene that made the movie famous was hers, and she says she was tricked into it. 1992. The interrogation scene. She crosses her legs in front of a room full of detectives, and the world sees more than it was supposed to. According to her memoir, she didn't want to take off her underwear, and the director, Paul Verhoeven, told her, "We can't see anything – I just need you to remove your panties." She first saw the shot at a screening for the cast, crew, agents and producers. Her words: she "went to the projection booth, slapped Paul across the face, left, went to my car, and called my lawyer." Her lawyer told her she could get an injunction and block the release, because filming up a dress broke Screen Actors Guild rules. She let it stay. "But I did have choices," she wrote. It was "correct for the film and for the character." Verhoeven tells it the other way: "Sharon is lying. Any actress knows what she's going to see if you ask her to take off her underwear and point there with the camera." Basic Instinct cost $49 million to make. It made $352.9 million around the world. She got $500,000 of it. The only thing she negotiated well was the dress. "I put in my contract that I could keep the clothes." That white dress has been zipped up in a garment bag ever since. The case for Sharon: she was told nothing would show, and she found out with her agent and producers in the room. The case for Verhoeven: she was an adult, she saw it before release, and she chose to keep it in. Who's telling the truth, Sharon Stone or the director?