London, Jan 25 : Controversial US filmmaker Oliver Stone has fuelled furore in Argentina after he described actress Eva Peron aka Evita, as "a mixture of saint and prostitute".

Evita, the former actress and second wife of President Juan Domingo Peron, is revered in Argentina, which is particularly sensitive to criticism from outsiders.

Stone had written the film script for Evita, the musical starring Madonna in the lead role.

The director also said that "Peronists have no sense of humour" and appears to have been justified by what happened next.

"We repudiate the disrespectful comments of Senor Stone and declare him persona non grata," Times Online quoted a statement signed by leaders of the fractious Peronist movement, as saying.

One Peronist, Geronimo Venegas, said that Stone had been drunk and called him "ridiculous" and a "deplorable provocateur who pretends to be an analyst of the Latin American reality".

Stone was in Argentina making a documentary about Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, and the resurrection of the Latin American left.

However, the Argentinian president, Cristina Kirchner, a populist Peronist, appeared to be unfazed by Stone's comments about Evita. (ANI)