Whackadoos abound
16 April 2007 by Stardust
Protesters burn effigies after Gere kisses Shilpa
Apparently it’s ok for truck drivers to go all through India picking up whores and spreading the AIDS virus (even bringing it home to their wives), but for two stars who were merely performing in a little fun onstage while promoting AIDS awareness in New Delhi, their play-acting triggered violent protests and even some to call out for the actors’ deaths!
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Richard Gere’s repeated kisses on the cheeks of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an event to promote AIDS awareness sparked protests in India on Monday with demonstrators burning effigies of the actors.
Footage of the Hollywood star sweeping Shetty backwards in a dramatic embrace at the Sunday night event in New Delhi was repeatedly aired on news channels on Monday.
Many saw the act as an outrage against Shetty’s modesty and Indian culture, though Shetty herself angrily dismissed the protests as an “over-reaction” that made India look silly.
Groups of men burned and kicked effigies of the actors in protests across India, including in the northern Indian cities of New Delhi, Kanpur, Meerut and Varanasi as well as in the central city of Indore.
Some called for the actors’ deaths. Others wanted public apologies.
But Shetty, the winner of the “Celebrity Big Brother” reality TV show in Britain this year, said the reaction to the kiss made India look “regressive.”
“I admit it went a little overboard but that was not the intention,” she said to a crowd of journalists and protesters that had besieged her film set in Mumbai on Monday evening.
“He did not do anything obscene,” she said of Gere, adding that they had since spoken on the phone. “He apologized to me and told me to tell the media that he apologized.”
She said Gere was only re-enacting his moves from the film “Shall We Dance” to entertain the audience and communicate in a Bollywood style as he did not speak Hindi.
The clinch between the two stars had originally gone down well when it happened onstage at an event on Sunday night to encourage truckers — seen as a high-risk group in India’s fight against AIDS — to wear condoms during sex.
They whooped with delight and whistled loudly as Gere swooped down on a visibly delighted Shetty to kiss her on her hand and a number of times on one side of her face.
“No condom, no sex,” an ebullient 58-year-old Gere shouted in Hindi to thousands of truck drivers who roared his words back in unison at a dusty fairground in New Delhi.
Indian authorities have been focusing on high-risk groups such as truckers, who have helped spread the virus across the country as many of them have sex with prostitutes during their journeys and infect their wives back home.
(Additional reporting by Onkar Pandey and Krittivas Mukherjee)
16 April 2007, on 8:05 pm
But Shetty, the winner of the “Celebrity Big Brother” reality TV show in Britain this year, said the reaction to the kiss made India look “regressive.”
Bingo! We have a winner.
16 April 2007, on 9:23 pm
I was looking forward to the thought bubbles above their heads.
Hers: “Get this crazy old buddhist offa me.” (My apologies to the buddhists out there.)
His: ” She doesn’t taste like chicken at all, more like tofu.”
16 April 2007, on 9:48 pm
While I think Gere’s got some silly ideas, he’s trying to do some real good in the world. Too bad some Indians have so much time on their hands to burn friggin’ effigies of an actor.
Some people just need to get a life.
16 April 2007, on 10:24 pm
No, my take is someone has stage-managed this into an event. Who, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps Bin Laden and/or alQaeda?
For Zeus’ sake, they wrote the fucking Kama Sutra and invented tantric sex!
17 April 2007, on 4:26 am
“Some called for the actors’ deaths.”
Whoah thats a harsh price to pay for a kiss whatever way you want to look at it.
17 April 2007, on 4:28 am
It’s about time their was a post on the insanity of tradionalist Hinduism here. “they wrote the Kama Sutra..blah,blah…” . Sure, they also invented the Caste system, untouchables, the miracle cults of Ganesha, the Barhatiya Janata theocratuc party, extreme brutality and suppression of Muslims in many regions, ad infinutum. Nuts, just like all the other religions on earth.
17 April 2007, on 12:54 pm
FF, I’ll agree to dismiss my remarks on sexual enlightenment in India. However, this is so similar to the Muslim cartoon outrage as to ring a bell, at least in my mind.
I still maintain it’s manufactured, goaded by someone(s) with a motive that has nothing to do with a man enthusiastically kissing a woman.
17 April 2007, on 1:16 pm
Yes, as a straight woman, I have to say that the idea of being kissed by Richard Gere is totally and beyond utterly disgusting. And I’m sure my gay male friends agree that they would feel likewise. Yucky, icky, pooh.
Get a life? There has to be a statement that moves a step beyond that one. Any suggestions?
Bravo to the person who said the response makes India look “regressive.” Yay
17 April 2007, on 2:30 pm
Hinduism is whacked. The Brahmins believe that their chants make the universe run (so they’re actually more powerful than the gods!); if a non-Brahmin overheard them by accident or on purpose the punishment used to be to pour molten lead into the ears of the eavesdropper (which was lethal).
And lately the uglier aspects of the Islamic elements in India have rubbed off on the Hindus…a growing problem is the murder of young women by their new husbands if the husbands feel their honor is insulted by too small a dowry.
Lovely culture. Just lovely.
17 April 2007, on 2:32 pm
Groups of men burned and kicked effigies of the actors in protests across India, including in the northern Indian cities of New Delhi, Kanpur, Meerut and Varanasi as well as in the central city of Indore.
I wonder how many of those who comprised the ‘groups of men’ fantasise about kissing – or even being more intimate – with Shilpa?
Sour grapes, methinks.
Mind you, one musn’t lose sight of the fact that India is one of the most corrupt societies in the world, and that hypocrisy is rife there. And in such societies, ‘bread and circuses’ is a popular means of keeping the hoi-polloi otherwise amused. Without such distractions, they might actually start to realise that they’re all being shafted by the power-elites that are running their societies for their own benefit.
18 April 2007, on 8:51 am
Yes lets all commiserate with the misogynist jackasses who burn widows on funeral pyres and trade females like cattle.
I’m just so broken up that someone touched something you consider your property.
Boo fucking hoo.
I wonder why their zoo gods haven’t stampeded in to save them?
20 April 2007, on 2:20 pm
^ “Zoo gods” – I like that one, OurLady!
22 April 2007, on 10:19 pm
For a society who has been deeply damaged by colonialism can one think of a more offensive image of a white guy grabbing a daughter of India and forcing himself upon her? It is so symbolic. It is right in line with the image of the white colonist forcing himself upon a country and just taking whatever he wants.
Richard Gere should pay the ultimate price for this.
What bothers me however is those who would blame Shilpa Shetty for this.
Too often women victims of rape in India are blamed for what happened like they wanted the rape to happen or it was their fault the rape happened even when the truth might be that the rapists brutalized them and they couldn’t stop the rape from happening.
While of course Richard Gere didn’t actually rape Shilpa Shetty, I still see this whole “Blame the Woman Victim” dynamic in place. From what I saw from the video Shilpa Shetty did nothing to cause Richard Gere to act the way he did, and was in fact as shocked as everyone else was that he would act in such a disgraceful manner.
We need to defend this daughter of India, not blame her for this white man’s assault upon her.
22 April 2007, on 10:28 pm
Scott, first of all both Gere and Shilpa are both in the entertainment industry. If you had read the article thoroughly you would see that the pair were reenacting a scene from “Shall We Dance”.
Have you nothing to say about the problem of many Indian truck drivers who are spreading terrible diseases to others and even to their wives?
And I don’t know where you got the idea that Shilpa was “shocked”…
I think it’s rather ignorant of people to make a big deal out of a simple reenactment of a movie.
Instead of focusing on a serious problem, the crowds zeroed in on something totally innocent and made it into something it was not.
26 April 2007, on 1:02 pm
[...] Kiss or diss? By Stardust Here is the video of the alleged “improprieties” by Richard Gere which has led a court in India to call for the arrest of both Gere and Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. This is a follow-up to my April 16th Post, Whackadoos abound. [...]