Shilpa and Gere

Peter Collins

Burning effigies....lawsuits..."obscene acts"...

Is it just me or do those Indians need to lighten up? :rolleyes:

They seem to burn an effigy every other day. Do they have nothing else to worry about?

Madge

Yeah it's totally ridiculous, he kissed her on the cheek- so what?! :rolleyes:

Stargal

In what could possibly be a slight overreaction, an Indian court has put out a warrant for Richard Gere's arrest. From the bbc website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6596163.stm

An Indian court has issued an arrest warrant for Hollywood actor Richard Gere after he kissed Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty in public.

Gere, 57, kissed Shetty, 31, several times on the cheek at an Aids awareness event in Delhi earlier this month.

The court in Jaipur in Rajasthan state called it "an obscene act", after a local lawyer filed a complaint.

It was not immediately clear how the warrant could affect Gere, who is a frequent visitor to India.

Shetty, who found fame outside India as the winner of Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, has also been asked to appear before the court.

But her spokesman, Dale Bhagwager, said the actress had not received any court order or summons and was currently away visiting temples.

He said Shetty had not done anything wrong.

Bigger issue

"What is there to comment? They were three innocent, natural cute pecks on the cheek," said Mr Bhagwager.

"What can one say, when three pecks can be made into an issue in the land of the Kama Sutra? People should concentrate on the bigger issue of Aids, rather than this."

Photographs of the clinch were splashed across front pages of newspapers in India.

Public displays of affection are still largely taboo in India, and protestors in Mumbai (Bombay) set fire to effigies of Gere following the incident.

Dance scene

Shetty has defended Gere saying that it was all done "in good humour".

"He especially told me to tell the media that he didn't want to hurt any Indian sensibilities," she said.

She said Gere had only been re-enacting a scene from his film Shall We Dance.

Under Indian law, a person convicted of public obscenity faces up to three months in prison, a fine or both.

Gere, star of films such as Chicago and Pretty Woman, is a Buddhist and travels to India frequently to visit the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the north of the country.

r3nu4l

Public displays of affection are frowned upon in India and therefore many Indians will blame Gere for his defilement of Shilpa Shetty. Some of them may blame her by saying that she knows Indian customs yet still allowed this man to do this without protesting...

I'd say the Government arrest warrant is simply a way of appeasing the population who will demand action.

Artmustang

I saw the video on TV news and she seems to be enjoying it. She just wants to be in the center of lights me thinks.:mad:

Lirange

Is this from the same country that gave the world Kama Sutra? :eek:

Kojak

God almight, there's always some crowd that have to complain about pointless stuff. OK, maybe its not right to show public affection in India, but burning efigies (sp?) of Gere and Shetty is just going way too far.

This kinda reminds of Janet Jackson and her "wardrobe malfunction" - people getting hysterical about very little, IMO.