Cameron Diaz to Peru: Lo Siento Mucho
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.25.07 | 1:02 PM ET
Photo by Poor Cameron Diaz. She was only going for the commie-chic, retro-kitsch look on her trip to Peru. Instead, she wound up offending Peruvians. On a visit to Machu Picchu Friday for the taping of a Canadian TV show called “4 Real,” Diaz toted an olive green bag featuring a red star and the words “Serve the People” in Chinese. That old Mao-era propoganda is hip among many young people in China—the same crazy kids enjoying plates of “Socialist Economic Model” at Beijing’s Red Capital Club. But is it hip in Peru? Not so much.
It evokes memories of Shining Path rebels, whose Maoist insurgency is blamed for tens of thousands of deaths.
Diaz regrets the incident. “I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended,” she wrote in an e-mail to the AP. “The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China and I did not realize the potentially hurtful nature of the slogan printed on it.”
Diaz isn’t the only one to apologize to Peru lately.