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India newsflash: Richard Gere ordered to be arrested for 'obscene' kiss
By Stone Martindale Apr 26, 2007, 14:45 GMT
Indian activist of the Hindu fundamentalist Shiv Sena party shouts slogans against Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during a protest in New Delhi, India 16 April 2007. EPA/MONEY SHARMA
Stop the presses and lock the doors, Richard Gere is a wanted man on the loose.
In the land that gave us the the "swing", the "indriani" and the "knot" from the Kama Sutra, a tutorial on the many ways to do the business, an Indian court ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS campaign event this month saying it was an obscene act committed in public.
Reuters reports that Gere's "repeated kisses on Shetty's cheeks" at an AIDS awareness event in New Delhi sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who took it all very seriously as an "outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture."
The judge reviewed the video "evidence" of Gere kissing Shetty and found him guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity, the lawyer, Poonam Chand Bhandari, said to Reuters reporters.
The court has actually 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. Bottom line, they won't seek an extradition of Gere but he can never set foot on Indian soil again until the legal matter is cleared up.
Allegedly India is a favorite destination for Gere due to his devotion to the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India.
There were effigy burnings of both Gere and Shetty in protests across the country after newspapers splashed the kiss on their front pages and TV channels showed the event.
Shetty, who was at he heart of the British Celebrity Big Brother television brouhaha with Jade Goody a few months back, has said some irate Indians need to calm down and that they are overreacting to Reuters reporters and various Indian media sources.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
I didn't realize Indian culture was so archaic.
THIS is the funniest story in the whole internets currently.
Love it.
We certainly are a land of hypocrites. On the one hand we denounce public display of affection and on the other we lap up the misdemeanours of the characters of our tele-serials where multi-partners are the call of the day. Should not these directors/producers also be pulled up by the courts for 'spoiling' the morals of our children by inculcating in them a false sense of family values?
This complaint is a moronic waste of space and time. Anyone who supports it is an imbecile.
Too funny ... the prosecutor was apparently named Poonam ... LOL If they hated the kiss they would have gone nuts over the gerbils.
it's even funnier than the Sheryl Crowe toilet paper green lecture or John McCain announcing he is running for president again...
extricate -- i think they mean extradite ---
thems fightin words :)
Peace
OMG - If the Indian culture can tolerate news reports of violence
Interesting how in Indian culture, it is not unlawful and, indeed, is morally acceptable for prostitution to exist such that women are forced, due to socioeconomic adversity, to sell their bodies so they and their children can stay alive. However, it is 'obscene' for a man and a woman to kiss in public. More than just the mere irony of a celebrity getting arrested, one who is a humanitarian who uses his fame and fortune to raise consciousness to a culture largely ignorant of deadly disease, is the issue of a world ruled by patriarchal double standards which privilege males and subjugated, denigrate and devalue women. Even when women are supposedly 'protected' by males, it is a benevolent form of covert, subtle sexism to say that patriarchy will 'protect' a woman since, by the very act of 'protection', he relegates her to a position whereby she has lesser legal, economic and social rights than does the male, all the ways in which a person garners power. It is this 'benevolent sexism' that is highlighted in this case more than the simple case of so-called 'obscenity'. It is likely that Gere was applauding this woman for her courage to use her fame, pulchritude, energy and courage to engage in a humanitarian act since she certainly has a choice to merely use her fame and pulchritude in superficial and meaningless ways to prop herself up as a brainless, but beautiful Barbie Doll, an archetype that is replete in certain American industries and is nurtured for monetary reasons. Or it is likely that Gere wanted to educate by pointing out that AIDS cannot be caught by innocent acts of intimacy such as holding hands or kissing. Any way you view this incident, the highlight is the primitive and archaic double standard, patriarchal culture in India that is most salient and germane.
Indians are so much like Americans it scares me
Personally I thought the way he bent her way over backward looked really stupid besides the 'work clothes' he was wearing. It was one thing to kiss her, but the way he did it was pathetic!!!
Shilpa Shetty is lucky to be kissed by a world celebrity. I don't think Richard Gere was so mad about her beauty that she did it out of control. Its very shameful for the indian media to exagerating this topic. Hundreds of women are being raped and humiliated everyday in my India. But a good will kissing became an issue! Richard Gere, I feel very sorry for you! Stay away from the indian celebrities and media.
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V.K.MathurApr 26th, 2007 - 16:08:51
The act, I mean the Gere and Shipa scene, was a shameful one especially when veiwed from the Indian perspective. We Indians have left some things for the confines of the couples' bedroom. And kissing is one such act. To a certain extent, kissing (minus the aplob exhibited in the scene under question) between a husband and a wife can be held permssible even in public but certinly not between strangers or even friends of the opposite sex. Of late we have started shooting kissing scenes in the Indian films. But this too, I feel, ought to be banned. Gere and Shilpa, specially the former needs to remember the old proverb: 'In Rome live as the Romans do' and like wise, In India,'live and behave as the Indians do'.
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