Richard Gere
Gossip

Thanks to People magazine for this great collection of the week's top quotes from the celebrity gossip world.

"Rosie O'Donnell has the sexiest, juiciest breasts."
- Tyra Banks, telling Conan O'Brien that she gave The View host a surprising squeeze (which she also once did to Katharine McPhee)

"That's showbiz, but it's not sad because I've loved it here and I love you guys and I'm not going away. I'm just not going to be here every day."
- Rosie O'Donnell, announcing that she's leaving The View

"I hate sleeping alone."
- Lindsay Lohan, who we would like to remind you is 20, explaining why she goes out all the time

"It's nice to be able to just date, because I had never been on a date in my life."
- Lance Bass, on being single

"I was kind of mildly disappointed that nobody went last week. I look forward to that point. Does that sound bad?"
- Simon Cowell, expressing his dismay that no contestant got booted off during the "American Idol Gives Back" charity special, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show

"Yes, it sounds bad."
- Ellen DeGeneres, to Simon Cowell

"I figured that we're going to be lonely without you. So, Tim and I thought we should get busy and maybe make a little co-host."
- Elisabeth Hasselbeck, on The View, announcing she's expecting her second child, less than a week after O'Donnell announced she would be leaving the program

"I feel comedically sandwiched."
- Adam Brody, sitting between the host and comedian Garry Shandling, on Late Night with Conan O'Brien

"You can still have Indian food though, right?"
- Jon Stewart, asking Richard Gere about the controversy sparked after he publicly kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in India

From the way Indian authorities are treating him, you'd think Richard Gere ran somebody off the road, Brandy-style, or starred in a dirty, amateur sex tape like Brandy's bro, Ray J.

But Richard Gere is defending himself after an absurd warrant was issued for his arrest for giving an Indian actress a kiss that a local judge deemed "indecent."

"Kissing the girl on the cheek was nothing," Richard Gere, 57, said on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Thursday.

"It was an AIDS event for truck drivers. It was the largest truck depot in South Asia. They were climbing on their trucks [cheering]."

During the public HIV-awareness event in New Delhi earlier this month, Gere took actress Shilpa Shetty, 31, in his arms, kissed her several times on the cheek and dipped her in a tango-style dance move.

Indians in several cities protested and burned effigies of Gere, saying the kiss was an "indecent" act and "against Indian culture," and on Thursday, Judge Dinesh Gupta issued a warrant for his arrest in the city of Jaipur, acting on a petition by a local lawyer.

Gere, who was on the Comedy Central show to promote his latest film, The Hoax, added that Shilpa Shetty herself wasn't offended by the kiss:

"We went and had dinner afterwards and nobody said a word about this."

Wonder if they talked about the weather, the food at the restaurant, or the love life of Shetty's fellow Bollywood star, Aishwarya Rai.

The actor, a frequent visitor to India, where he's met with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama through his foundation. On Thursday, he hinted that the kiss controversy is politically motivated.

"There is a very small right-wing conservative party and they are the moral police in India and they do this quite often," said Gere, who has long fought for AIDS awareness in the world's second most populous country.

Still, the actor appeared unfazed by the arrest warrant.

"I don't know if anyone has gone to jail, but [a case like this generally] goes to a reputable court and is thrown out," Richard Gere said.

Still no comment on the whole gerbil thing.

Richard Gere has already been burned in effigy.

These things happen when you embrace and kiss hot Bollywood actresses in front of live, Indian television audiences.

But now, Gere's problems are worsening, as he's become the target of three legal complaints in Indian courts regarding his antics with Shilpa Shetty Monday.

Lawyers accused Richard Gere and Shetty of committing "an obscene act" in a public place, says the Associated Press, an act that shocked the conservative sensibilities of the Indian population.

We're not huge Richard Gere fans (neither are some other, rumor-spreading actors), but come on. An obscene act? He's lame, but not a criminal.

All we can say is that it's a good thing the Indian public wasn't broadcast a live feed of the infamous Britney Spears crotch shot last winter.

Residents of several Indian cities burned effigies of Gere after he took Shetty into his arms and kissed her several times (on the cheek, mind you) during an AIDS awareness event in Mumbai.

We suggest they burn Howard K. Stern next. Just a recommendation.

On a completely note, did you know Richard Gere's middle name is Tiffany? Tiffany! How bizarre. It's like a man named Brian Warner deciding he will heretofore call himself Marilyn.

Richard Gere.

He's always good for a story. Sometimes involving gerbils.

This time, though, it's his repeated kisses of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty that have him making headlines. The smooching took place at an AIDS awareness event in India Monday, sparking outrage from demonstrators burning effigies of the actor.

Wow. While we've considered burning an effigy of Spencer Pratt after a couple of episodes of The Hills, this reaction seems a tad extreme to us.

Footage of the Hollywood star sweeping Shilpa Shetty in a dramatic embrace at the Sunday event in New Delhi was repeatedly aired on news channels Monday. 

Many saw the act as an outrage against Shilpa Shetty's modesty and Indian culture, though Shetty herself angrily dismissed the protests as an "over-reaction" that made India look silly.

Groups of men burned and kicked effigies of the actors in protests across India, including the cities of New Delhi, Kanpur, Meerut, Varanasi and Indore.

Some called for the actors' deaths. Others wanted public apologies. One can only guess which group Gere nemesis Sylvester Stallone falls into.

Continue Reading...

Was Sylvester Stallone the source of that bizarre urban myth involving Richard Gere and a gerbil placed strategically up his...

Anyway. According to Sly, Gere thinks he did start the hilarious, yet also disturbing "felching" tale that dogs Richard to this day.

As Stallone tells it, the bad blood between the two all started when he and Gere had a falling-out on the set of the 1974 flick The Lords of Flatbush.

Stallone said that Gere was supposed to have the role played by Perry King, but he and Gere "never hit it off" and the man known best as Rocky Balboa got so mad at Gere that he once elbowed him in the head... over some chicken.

"[Gere] would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table," Stallone said.

He also says that one time during a fight scene, things got a little too real. At another point, things got physical during a lunch when Stallone went into a Toyota to eat lunch.

"I was eating a hot dog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper," Stallone recounted.

"I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.' He said, ‘Don't worry about it.' I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you're gonna know about it.' He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay."

THG NOTE: Whatever started the feud between Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton is unknown, but we guarantee it wasn't as funny as this - and did not involve food (obviously).

Richard Gere's spokesman wasn't available for comment, possibly due to being preoccupied with small rodents (zing!) but according to Stallone:

"Richard was given his walking papers, and to this day, seriously dislikes me. He even thinks I'm the individual responsible for the gerbil rumor. Not true, but that's the rumor."

If nothing else, we'd like to thank Sly for putting the Gere story back in the news. We haven't heard that rumor in about 10 years... and it's certainly just as funny (if not even more disturbing) as the Dustin Diamond sex tape.