Myanmar deports actress

Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar

The military-backed government of Myanmar has deported Hollywood actress Michelle Yeoh, who stars as pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in an upcoming movie, officials said Tuesday.

The Malaysian actress arrived in the country’s main city, Yangon, on June 22 and was deported the same day because she was on a blacklist, a government official said.

The official, who declined to be identified, did not say why Yeoh was on the list. But Myanmar’s repressive government has routinely rejected visa requests of journalists and perceived critics for years.

The Luc Besson movie about Suu Kyi’s life, “The Lady,” is due out later this year. Suu Kyi, 66, spent most of the last two decades detained by the former military junta.

Yeoh, a former Miss Malaysia, shot to international fame when she costarred with Pierce Brosnan in the 1997 James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” as a tough but beautiful Chinese spy. She has also starred in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Memoirs of a Geisha.”