Sharon Stone Tells Sydney Sweeney to ‘Take Responsibility’ for Novig Ad

• Sharon Stone, 68, says her Euphoria co-star Sydney Sweeney, 29, should “take responsibility” for her nearly nude ad for the sports app Novig.
• She said it at Variety’s Power of Women on Sept. 23, a year after she presented Sweeney’s own Power of Women honor.
• Sweeney hasn’t answered Stone. She defended the ad by posting ESPN Body Issue photos of athletes who posed nude.

Sharon Stone, 68, is not defending Sydney Sweeney this time. On Wednesday (Sept. 23), the actress said her Euphoria co-star, 29, needs to “take responsibility” for her nearly nude ad for Novig, the sports trading app that female athletes say sexualizes women in sports.

Stone made the comments to People at Variety’s Power of Women event at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where she was honored for her work with the ACLU. At the 2025 edition of the same event, she was the one handing Sweeney her honor.

What did Sharon Stone say about Sydney Sweeney?

I think that it’s up to her to take responsibility for her actions, not up to me to judge her for her actions.

Sharon Stone, Sept. 23

Stone said her own job was to cheer on female athletes. “It is up to me to be a cheerleader for the women who have made it through and become champions in women’s sports,” she said. “We can’t denigrate women’s sports to get men’s attention so they can gamble.”

She added that the subject is personal. Her high school had no girls’ sports teams, she said, so she threatened to sue for the chance to try out for the boys’ golf team, and she made it. “I had something to prove,” Stone said.

What is the Sydney Sweeney Novig ad?

Novig released the one-minute spot on Sept. 9, ahead of football season, as its first national brand campaign. Sweeney poses nearly nude behind footballs, shoulder pads, hockey goalie gear and a basketball, and keeps repeating one word: “sports.”

“Novig is just sports. So they wanted to show just sports,” she says in the ad. Stretched across a pool table, she adds: “You can’t trade this. I just look good here.” The deal also made her a strategic partner and an equity holder in the company.

The loudest criticism came from athletes. British sprinter Amy Hunt told BBC Sport after the 200-meter final at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Sept. 13: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.”

American gymnast Gracie Kramer, 28, called the ad “infuriating” and “a massive step backward” on social media. “We should not have to take our clothes off to convince men that women belong in sports,” she wrote. Canadian skier Cassidy Gray, a 2026 Olympian, called it “senseless” on TikTok.

Sweeney has not responded to Stone. As the criticism built on Sunday, Sept. 13, she posted a nude still from the spot on her Instagram Story next to ESPN Body Issue photos of athletes, including Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Rob Gronkowski and Jason Kelce.

On launch day, she told Complex the campaign was “a very simple and playful idea.” “I don’t like to just put my face on something,” she said. “Being able to be a part of watching this company grow and not just be the face of it is really important to me.”

Is Novig a sports betting app?

Not under the law it runs on. Novig is a prediction market regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that oversees futures trading, rather than by the state gaming boards that license sportsbooks.

Instead of betting against the house at fixed odds, users buy and sell contracts on a game’s outcome with each other. Prices move between $0 and $1 as the market’s live estimate of the odds, and a winning contract pays $1.

Novig says it makes money from trading activity, not from customers’ losses. Its federal status lets it operate nationwide, except in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, including in states where sportsbooks are not legal. Users must be 21 or older and trade with real money, which is why Stone called it gambling.

Didn’t Sharon Stone defend Sydney Sweeney before?

Yes. In October 2025, Stone presented Sweeney’s Power of Women honor, a few months after Sweeney’s American Eagle “great jeans” campaign drew accusations that the slogan played on “genes.” Stone opened with a line that got the room cheering: “As we all know, it’s hard to be hot.”

She recalled the day Sylvester Stallone told her “You’re one of us now,” a club that, in his telling, included Dolly Parton. Being that famous, he explained, means strangers reaching into a pocket could be going “for the gun or the pen.”

Then she drew the line between fame and staying power. There is “a difference between being the moment and then being something,” Stone said, and getting there takes integrity: “you make choices about who you are and why you are here.”

The first jab came a week before this year’s event. In a Variety interview published Sept. 17, Stone said her Euphoria character had tried to get Sweeney’s Cassie to “stop being a cam girl” and work on a show called L.A. Nights.

“As you can see from Sydney’s new lingerie line, it didn’t take,” Stone said, referring to Sweeney’s brand, Syrn.

More celebrity news: Brittany Mahomes apologized for “a lot of bad words” at a Chiefs game, and Kate Beckinsale’s deleted “I give up” posts, explained. More in Celebrities.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Sharon Stone’s remarks to People (Clare Fisher and Amanda Champagne-Meadows) at Variety’s Power of Women, Sept. 23; Stone’s October 2025 Power of Women speech on Variety’s official channel; her Sept. 17 interview with Variety; her Sept. 23 red-carpet interview with Extra; Novig’s “Just Sports” ad on the company’s official channel and Novig’s help center; Sydney Sweeney’s statements to Complex and GQ. Reported by Entertainment Weekly (Daysia Tolentino), In Touch Weekly (Amy Hogan), TODAY (Drew Weisholtz), The Hollywood Reporter (Lexy Perez), Fortune (Camila Grigera Naón) and CNBC (Contessa Brewer).