Sharon Stone supports Madonna over letter insult

Sharon Stone has said she refuses to be "pitted against" Madonna after the publication of a letter the singer wrote in the 1990s in which she called the actress "horribly mediocre".

In the letter, Madonna said she didn't like how her acting career was compared to that of the Basic Instinct star.

"Know that I am your friend," Stone wrote in response on Facebook.

"I have wished to be a rock star in some private moments... [and] have felt as mediocre as you described."

The actress said it was "absurd" that some of Madonna's private letters had been published after being entered in an auction.

She continued: "We know, as only those who have survived so long that owning our own mediocrity is the only way to own our own strengths; to become all that we both have become.

"I love and adore you; won't be pitted against you by any invasion of our personal journeys."

The 59-year-old star was responding to a letter in which Madonna said she was fed up with reading that Stone had "the film career I'll never have".

The handwritten letter, addressed to "J", is believed to have been written to John Enos, an actor she once dated.

In it, she admits to being "uncomfortable in my own skin" and "so discouraged" and having a "black black black" outlook on life.

"It's so unequivically [sic] frustrating to read that Whitney Houston has the music career I wish I had and Sharon Stone has the film career I'll never have," she wrote.

"They're so horribly mediocre and they're always being held up as paragons of virtue and some sort of measuring stick to humiliate me."

The letter had been included in an online sale of Madonna memorabilia scheduled to begin on 19 July.

As of Friday morning, though, it no longer appeared to be among the lots on offer on the Gotta Have Rock and Roll site.

Other letters offered for sale include one Madonna received from rapper Tupac Shakur, in which he said race had been a factor in his decision to break up with her.

Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].