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Friday, 27 April 2007, 15:54 GMT 16:54 UK
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Gere apologises over Shetty kiss
Photographs of the embrace made the front pages in India
The kiss
Actor Richard Gere has apologised for causing offence when he kissed Bollywood
actress Shilpa Shetty. The incident, at an AIDS awareness event in Delhi,
prompted public protests and then an arrest warrant for both stars over the
"obscene act". Gere, 57, said he had misread Indian customs and that he
regretted any problems he had caused Shetty. He asked for the "media circus"
to end and hoped it would not detract from the message of preventing AIDS.
Gere kissed Shetty, 31, several times on the cheek while sweeping her backwards
in a tango-style move. The court in Jaipur in Rajasthan state called it "an
obscene act" after a local lawyer filed a complaint. Gere said: "What is most
important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear,
and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it
ever be, my intention to offend you. I've felt terrible that
(Shetty) should carry a burden that is no fault of hers
Richard Gere
"If that has happened, of course it is easy for me to offer a sincere apology."
Gere had earlier taken a tougher line, saying he expected any charge to be
dismissed. Speaking on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, the actor said the
situation as "nothing". "There is a very small right-wing, very conservative
political party in India and they are the moral police in India... they do this
kind of thing quite often," he said. A judge had ordered Shetty to appear in
his court on 5 May, saying she did nothing to resist the kiss, which he called
"highly sexually erotic". Gere said Shetty was not to blame for the incident.
"I've felt terrible that she should carry a burden that is no fault of hers,"
he said. Buddhist beliefs 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. Shetty has
defended Gere saying that it was all done "in good humour". 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.
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