Posted on 04/27/2007 9:50:28 AM PDT by bedolido
Richard Gere isn't bothered that a warrant's out for his arrest in India, and he's accusing a "very small right-wing, very conservative" faction in the country for coming after him for his public kissing of an Indian actress. "They do this kind of thing quite often," Gere told Jon Stewart on last night's "Daily Show." "I don't know that anyone has actually gone to jail ... It goes to a reputable court and they throw it out." Yesterday, an Indian judge issued a warrant for Gere's arrest in Jaipur, saying that he had "transgressed all limits of vulgarity" when he smooched Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS benefit.
Gee, I wish I could be like Richard Gere when I grow up!
Ugh.
SF Republican to Indian Moral Police - Don’t
Do you think he Hollywierd days are over and he needs this to get attention?
When did he last have a movie that made any money?
Such a class act.
Whadda Putz..
“...very small right-wing, very conservative” radical Hindus! Wait til they hear about the hamster.
I don’t want to hear about Ger’s Gerbils....
Just another example of how Americans are not gaining the warmth, respect and love of others on an international scale. So very sad.
LOL!
2004’s ‘Shall We Dance’ did fairly well.
“very small right-wing, very conservative”
So, now not only Christians are right wing conservatives, but Hindus and Siks. Why not throw in Islam Richard? They wouldn’t approve either.
Dear Richard, WWBD (What Would Budda Do?) Tell them to kiss his dead @ss too?
lol...
The Moral police wouldn!t know where to start he is all A**
Yeah, they could wind up with a small furry rodent in their mouth.
Richard Gere’s arrest warrant outrages legal experts
The Times of India
Posted on 04/26/2007 5:17:21 PM EDT
JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: A Jaipur additional chief judicial magistrate on Thursday ordered the arrest of Hollywood actor Richard Gere for landing a peck on the cheeks of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty, triggering an outrage among the country’s top legal experts who called it a “cheap publicity stunt” that bordered on “judicial indecency”.
The magistrate, Dinesh Gupta, reacting to a private complaint filed by advocate Poonam Chand Bhandari, watched a CD of an AIDS awareness function in Delhi at which Gere hugged and gave Shilpa a peck, as shown by a TV channel, to pronounce that the act was “sexually erotic” and “indecent”.
Former attorney-general Soli Sorabjee, who is one of the most respected legal luminaries of the country, took little time to describe Gupta’s ruling as reminiscent of the “Taliban moral police”.
Finding flaws in Gupta’s ruling, other top legal experts too called it yet another instance of “hounding orders on frivolous complaints”. They said the Indian judiciary would become a laughing stock in the world and urged the high court to take suo motu notice of the order and quash it.
“Judicial magistrates should not behave like Taliban moral police,” said Sorabjee. He said the magistrate, acting on an attention-grabbing complaint, had completely overlooked the “clear distinction between obscenity and vulgarity.”
“The order is totally unsustainable and makes us look ridiculous,” he said. Senior advocates Mukul Rohtagi, K T S Tulsi and Dushyant Dave felt the public peck at the AIDS awareness programme was not an act to deprave the morality of the nation. While Rohtagi felt that the magistrate was “trigger-happy”, Dave termed the order as an act of “judicial indecency”. Tulsi said,”The issuance of arrest warrant is contrary to all judicial norms. A consensual kiss between two adults can never be said to be an offence.”
Magistrate Gupta found the episode objectionable and in violation of sections 294 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code(IPC). Section 294 says:
“Whoever to the annoyance of others does any obscene act in any public place shall be punished with imprisonment of three months or with a fine or both.”
Some expert on India and its culture said that this whole thing will probably blow over fairly soon. He doubted that Gere would actually be arrested if he set foot in India again.
Also I understand that Ms. Shetty said she wasn’t offended by it at all. So what’s the big deal?
Gere is a grown-up?
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