DiCaprio and His 'Diamond' Start Controversies

DiCaprio's latest cinematographic endeavor, 'The Blood Diamond', starring himself and Oscar winning actress Jeniffer Connelly, is already the subject of many discussions although it just recently started shooting in South Africa and Mozambique.

The plot of the movie is about the so called 'conflict diamonds', exploited from mines on the African continent and later used for the sponsoring of civil wars. Leo plays a mercenary smuggler jailed in Sierra Leone, where the bloody civil war that ended in 2002 left behind almost 50,000 dead.

The big bosses from the diamond industry have already spoken against the idea of the film, claiming that the matter of the 'conflict diamonds' is no longer a present one and that the movie might lead to the decrease of sales and to negative consequences on the livelihood of the African people.

During the World Diamond Congress, Shmuel Schnitzer, president of the World Diamond Federation, stated that to portray the situation of the 'conflict diamond' as if it still were a current one will be an injustice to an industry that has many merits that haven't been yet acknowledged.

Up to this moment, Warner Bros. Pictures hasn't released a press statement regarding their stand on the subject.