Sylvester Stallone
Gossip

He may have made a bad decision with his recent DUI, but at least Ty Pennington isn't a washed-up, middle-aged, steroid-using fiend.

Sylvester Stallone pleaded guilty this morning in a Sydney court to bringing banned muscle-building hormones into Australia.

Richard Gere's nemesis will be sentenced next week.

The Rocky Balboa star didn't appear in court, but said in an apologetic letter to Sydney's Downing Center Local Court that he had "made a terrible mistake" because he was "ignorant" about local laws, according to the AP.

Right, because steroids are all good in the U.S. of A. Surprisingly, Jason Wahler hasn't been arrested for using any. Give it time.

Stallone was accused of bringing the restricted growth hormones into the country when a customs search in February turned up 48 vials of Jintropin, a human growth hormone.

Then, said a prosecutor yesterday, the Brandon Davis look-alike threw four vials of the male hormone testosterone out of his hotel room when customs officials searched it.

The maximum penalty for Sylvester Stallone's offense could be 5 years in prison and $91,500 in fines, but he will face up to $18,500 for each charge because his case is being heard in local (not federal) court.

Will Rocky be stripped of his many titles?

Sylvester Stallone was officially charged with importing performance and image enhancing drugs in a Sydney, Australia courtroom, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

According to Australian authorities, the 60-year-old action star, who did not appear in court, was caught at Sydney Airport with several vials of a steroid known as hGH (human growth hormone), during a random baggage check.

Customs officials claim they found a total of 48 vials of the steroids after they raided Stallone's Sydney hotel room, limo and private jet.

Maybe Stallone started the felching rumor about his former acting rival, Richard Gere, to distract the media from his own steroid use. Something to think about.

Stallone will be required to enter a plea on April 24. If found guilty, he faces a fine of up to $22,000. That's less than Britney Spears drops per month to her rehab clinic of choice.

According to a popular steroids website, "Body builders may illicitly self-administer hGH to improve size and strength, usually by subcutaneous injection into the lower abdomen." HGH has also "become a popular but expensive medication prescribed in anti-aging therapies."

It's only a matter of time before Pete Doherty discovers this stuff!

Stallone was visiting Australia in February to promote his latest film, Rocky Balboa. Who knew he would go down under drug suspicion.

Reps for Stallone had no comment. No word on whether the home of Stallone look-alike Brandon Davis has been raided as part of the steroid probe.

T.H. Gossip can't help but wonder: Should Brandon Davis have played Rocky's son in the newly-released motion picture event, Rocky Balboa?

Absolutely not, because Brandon Davis is not only a total assclown, but a dude with no acting experience. But with his messed-up dark hair, oily-looking face and pouty lips, the partying pal of Paris Hilton could pass for a younger, wimpier Sylvester Stallone. See below:

 

Uncanny, don't you think? And the similarities don't end with their looks. Davis' nickname is "Greasy Bear," while Stallone once got in a fight with Richard Gere involving some greasy chicken! Also, Davis was the one who unceremoniously anointed Lindsay Lohan "Firecrotch," and the 60-year-old Stallone surely banged scores of redheads in his prime.

Okay, so we're reaching. They all can't be Suri Cruise / Bjork caliber.

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.