Sharon Stone is surrendering the ice pick.
The star has dropped her multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the producers of the long-planned, as-yet-unmade Basic Instinct sequel, she confirmed to E! Friday.
Stone even hinted that the project itself was being freed from the depths of development hell.
"Supposedly we are now back in the process of making Basic Instinct 2," Stone said. "You never, ever know, but it would be fun."
The actress' comments came as she was promoting Catwoman, the Halle Berry-in-leather excuse in which Stone costars.
The comments also came amid a tough PR week for the actress--a week in which the Smoking Gun ratted out Stone as both a perk-seeking diva and an overtime-denying boss.
Per the document-downloading Website, Stone's three-year-old Basic Instinct 2 lawsuit finally was to go to trial this month.
Stone filed suit against producers Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna in June 2001, shortly after the sequel was scrapped by MGM.
Complaining she'd lost jobs while waiting around to reprise her role as ice pick-wielding author Catherine Tramell, Stone sought the $14 million she said Kassar and Vajna had agreed to pay her up front.
She said the producers orally agreed to the contract; they maintained nothing was official.
If Stone didn't get her paycheck specifics in writing, it appears she gets her perk requests in triplicate.
As a marked-up, five-page document leaked last week to the Smoking Gun shows, Stone requires many things during the movie-making process, including: dibs on wardrobe and jewelry; caterer approval (a private chef's okay, too); a first-class motor home with such first-class amenities that "no one receives [will] better facilities"; and a Pilates Cadillac--a piece of exercise equipment, not an SUV.
While lengthy contract riders are the rule, not the exception among Hollywood stars, Stone's may have become an issue if her lawsuit had gone to trial. The producers reportedly were ready to argue her demands were among the project's sticking points.
In addition to requesting motor homes and the like, Stone also uses her contract to set boundaries: No cigar smoking on the set; no commercial tie-ins involving firearms or "feminine hygiene products"; and no nudity of the unplanned variety. (Nude scenes she's already read about, and approved, are okey-dokey.)
It was Stone's lack of wardrobe in the original Basic Instinct that lifted her up from costarring and B-movie roles, and helped establish the film as a Top 10 box-office hit of 1992, with $117.7 million in domestic ticket sales.
Stone was the only major Instinct player slated to return for the sequel. Star Michael Douglas, director Paul Verhoeven, and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas were long ago out.
Names of potential leading men were floated--Pierce Brosnan and Harrison Ford, included--but no name ever landed.
This week, Stone told the Australian newspaper the Advertiser that if the new movie went ahead her love/hate interest would be wrinkle free.
"Somebody should be younger," the 46-year-old Stone said in the Advertiser. "We are discussing it now."
There were no details on the lawsuit settlement.
Owing to the ever-watchful Smoking Gun, however, there were details this week on the nearly $20,000 California labor officials ordered Stone to pay a former personal assistant, who complained the celeb stiffed her on overtime and vacation pay.
With legal matters settled, Stone on Friday sounded as if she was looking forward to rediscovering her Basic Instinct.
"I'm good at being the villain," she told E!