In a misguidedly fairytale-prince like moment at an AIDS awareness charity event, Richard Gere took Shilpa Shetty into his arms and stole a kiss, causing an utter debacle and outraging the celebrity Big Brother winning Bollywood actress’s fans, followers and Countrymen.
Complainants were disgruntled with Gere because they felt he had insulted their culture and traditions, by holding the practically royal Shilpa Shetty’s face in his hands and kissing her.
This is a taboo practice in India and such displays of affection are seen as provocative and inviolable, something that Gere was obviously unaware of.
After philanderous photo’s of the kiss and cuddle surfaced on the front pages of India’s leading national newspapers, angry crowds took to the streets in demonstration, burning effigies of Gere, apparently perceiving him to be no gentleman.
Shetty has since come out in a press conference defending the Hollywood romantic actors actions.
What he did was very sweet. It was all in good humor. He especially told me to tell the media that he didn’t want to hurt any Indian sensibilities.

Gere apologized to Shetty profusely for kissing her and causing the debacle, which unfortunately took a lot of the spotlight away from the harsh, resurging outbreak of AIDS and the charity awareness campaign which was to be the focus of the event.