Right-wing Hindus burned effigies of Richard Gere...

**voivod** · 04.16.07, 08:02 PM

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Angry protesters in cities across India burned effigies of actor Richard Gere on Monday after he showered Bollywood starlet Shilpa Shetty with kisses at an AIDS awareness event, officials said.

Right-wing Hindus burned effigies of the 57-year-old Gere in India's entertainment hub of Mumbai and organised street rallies in the capital New Delhi one day after Gere's public display of affection, seen as taboo here.

"This is against Indian ethos... Don't touch our women," the demonstrators screamed in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

Similar protests erupted in other cities like Benaras, Bhopal, Kanpur and Indore, with demonstrators demanding an apology from the silver-haired Hollywood actor, PTI said.

At an AIDS awareness function in New Delhi on Sunday, Gere embraced the 31-year-old Shetty -- winner of Britain's Celebrity Big Brother reality show -- and kissed her several times on the cheek in front of 4,000 onlookers.

"Such a public display is not part of Indian tradition," said the spokesman for the opposition Hindu nationalist BJP party, Prakash Javadekar.

Security was beefed up around Gere, who has starred in Hollywood hits like "Pretty Woman", "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "American Gigolo", sources at India's home ministry said.

"Since he is a guest we have to provide him protection and it's for the police to judge whether he committed an indecent act," a ministry source told AFP.

Shetty called for calm, telling a news conference in Mumbai: "Richard called me three times to apologise, saying he is sorry if he has hurt the sentiments of Indian people.

"This is not how we treat our guests and it's my humble appeal to all my fans who have taken it very personally to ignore this."

Gere became an AIDS awareness campaigner in the early 1980s when a friend died of the disease, focusing his efforts on India, Russia and China. India has the largest number of HIV-AIDS cases in the world, with 5.7 million people infected, according to the Geneva-based UNAIDS.

**LLFHS** · 04.16.07, 08:05 PM

What a freakin FOX!!!! They may as well start burning me in effigy as well, because she's in the Scum Spank Bank now, by god!

**OLO** · 04.16.07, 08:06 PM

spank bank.

**muffdiver** · 04.16.07, 08:07 PM

Wow...I'd be all over her too.....

Putting a whole country in a rage doesn't matter when you're tryin' to get some sweet Indian lovin'....

J/K.......

**FORD** · 04.16.07, 08:11 PM

Oh my Krishna! She's hotter than India in August!

Guess right wingers are loony tunes everywhere? Or maybe their ancestors were all reincarnated as gerbils, and that's why they really hate Richard Gere?

**LLFHS** · 04.16.07, 08:23 PM

Awwwwww yeah!

"Don't touch our women" my ass. I'd wear her as a hat!

**JasonG5150** · 04.16.07, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by FORD

Oh my Krishna! She's hotter than India in August!

Guess right wingers are loony tunes everywhere? Or maybe their ancestors were all reincarnated as gerbils, and that's why they really hate Richard Gere?

lol not me i think shes fine as hell

**voivod** · 04.16.07, 08:28 PM

**Axxman300** · 04.16.07, 10:26 PM

That's a big step up from his last date:

Sorry, someone had to go there. And that foot is me.

**FORD** · 04.17.07, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by Axxman300

That's a big step up from his last date:

Sorry, someone had to go there. And that foot is me.

I already went there! Didn't you see my joke about the Hindu right wingers being pissy because their ancestors all reincarnated as Gerbils??

**ZeoBandit** · 04.17.07, 06:09 AM

She is a hottie. No doubt about that!

**Charvel2** · 04.17.07, 11:54 AM

Shilpa Shetty was the centre of this year's biggest television event on this side of the Atlantic, Celebrity Big Brother 5. In the clip below, you will see Jade Goody (the horrible, horrible toad faced woman - a nobody who got famous for being stupid on an earlier series of Big Brother) throwing away a lucrative career. She, and two other female housemates, embarked on a campaign of bullying Shilpa that verged on out-and-out racism. The two other women involved also destroyed their careers.

Behold, one of the most horrific women you have ever seen...

**JasonG5150** · 04.17.07, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by FORD

I already went there! Didn't you see my joke about the Hindu right wingers being pissy because their ancestors all reincarnated as Gerbils??

not gerbils, SHEEP!

**chefcraig** · 04.17.07, 01:05 PM

Public displays of affection are frowned upon, yet public displays burning pictures in effigies are ok. Yup, makes sense.

**ZeoBandit** · 04.26.07, 08:58 AM

India court orders Gere's arrest
POSTED: 7:37 a.m. EDT, April 26, 2007
Story Highlights
• Gere's kisses at an AIDS event caused mass outrage
• The actor can face up to three months in prison
• Shetty said it was overboard, but not obscene

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) -- An Indian court ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS awareness event this month saying it was an obscene act committed in public.

Gere's repeated kisses on Shetty's cheeks at an event to promote AIDS awareness in New Delhi sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture.

The order by a court in the northern city of Jaipur came in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.

The judge watched a video recording of Gere kissing Shetty and found him guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity, the lawyer, Poonam Chand Bhandari, said.

The court also summoned Shilpa Shetty to appear on May 5, Bhandari said, adding that Gere was also ordered to be arrested.

Gere can be sent to jail for up to three months or fined or both for the crime if he is arrested. He is not in India now but can be held if he visits the country again.

The Hollywood star is a devout Buddhist and a vocal supporter of the Tibetan cause and visits India frequently to meet the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India.

He is also involved with charities looking after HIV-infected people and orphans, as well as AIDS prevention groups in the country.

Groups of men had burned and kicked straw effigies of Gere and Shetty in sporadic protests across the country after newspapers published the picture of the kiss on their front pages and TV channels aired visuals of the event.

Shetty, the winner of the "Celebrity Big Brother" reality TV show in Britain this year had said the kiss may have gone a "little overboard" but it was not obscene and the protests made India look regressive.

She said Gere was only re-enacting his moves from the film "Shall We Dance" to entertain the audience at the AIDS event and communicate in a Bollywood style as he did not speak Hindi.

Many commentators had subsequently expressed their unhappiness at what they said were fringe groups making a mountain of a harmless peck on the cheek.