Talk:Richard Gere/Archive 2

Photo included
I have included a photo per the previous message in article. The photo is from a united states government website.

URL: http://www.usaid.gov/in/images/richard_gere2.jpg

.WacoJacko 04:04, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks. That's a great photo.  -Jmh123 04:15, 6 July 2007 (UTC)


 * thanks!WacoJacko 20:29, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

The "Henry" issue
There seems to be a lot of back and forth about whether or not Gere actually has a half-brother named Henry Januszewski, born in Germany. I have not been able to locate the hypothetical article being used as a reference by some editors; however, I went at it from a different angle, researching Gere's mother - she is well documented as a Mayflower descendant. The available records show her to have had only one marriage, to Homer Gere. There is no mention of her having a son Henry. In fairness, there are discrepancies in these records, as they have different dates/locations of birth for her, and many do not list all of Richard Gere's siblings. Nonetheless, the one thing they are consistent about is that she has had only one marriage.

Like many, I suspect that Henry's name had been in the article when we first read it, and we did not think to question it at the time. Having done a bit more research, I would suggest that there are valid questions as to any relationship between Richard Gere and Henry Januszewski, and until there are multiple sources tying the two together, we should omit the line about Henry.

Does anyone else have other suggestions? Risker 15:07, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I wrote the Biography channel to ask them if the reference to their magazine is correct, but so far I have received no response. There is a Biography magazine, but it isn't in any of my local libraries.  If anyone could find that issue, that would be one way to check.  I agree that the line should be omitted until confirmed. -Jmh123 16:03, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I'd say to also semi-protect this article until we have some confirmation of whether this Mr. Januszewski is actually related to Gere. According to a German Wikipedia user who mistakenly posted on WP:AIV, Januszewski (or somebody affiliated with him) was repeatedly adding this "information" to the Gere article on de:wiki until that article was protected, and is now doing the same to the English article (this one). I checked the history of the German article, and it seems the IP adding this information haapens to be in the same IP range as the user adding it to the German article - to me, this looks like somebody trying to further this bit of information whether it's true or not. NeoChaosX (talk, walk) 18:08, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * This is simply a dodgy claim, we have no reliable sources so we should just remove it without comment whenever it's placed into the article, until such time as reliable references ever do materialize. --Tony Sidaway 10:31, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

August 2007
Our IP editor friend is back adding this statement, and has provided the source "Biography Magazine, Summer 2004, p.14" as the reliable source. Now, there was indeed an article about Gere in the magazine; however, I've been unsuccessful in locating the magazine, and Jmh123 has not apparently received a response to his request for verification direct to the publisher. So far, nobody else has been able to locate the article so I am having a hard time considering this information "verifiable" at this point. I've also taken a quick look at a couple of Gere biographies, some of which mention his family; the name Henry Jauszewski did not appear in any of them. I will remove the claim again, pending an additional verifiable source that is actually accessible to people. Risker 12:32, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Vogue cover information.
Hi, I just came across the interesting piece of trivia in IMDB.com that Richard Gere was the first man to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine (with wife Cindy Crawford) and George Clooney was the second. Wikipedia carries the same information. I thought that this would be a very useful fact for quizzes and so on. I also reckoned that if Richard had appeared with with Cindy, then that might mean that George was the first man to appear solo on the cover; another equally useful bit of trivia, so I set about verifying this.

However, it turns out that in July 1970, Helmut Berger was the first man to appear on the cover (with Marisa Berenson.) See http://www.vogue.co.uk/CoverArchive/Inside.aspx?Year=&Model=Helmut+Berger&Photographer=&Issue=1970%20July for details. The Vogue Cover Archive, which doesn't actually have all the covers, allows you to search by Year, Photographer or Model but neither Richard or George are included in the drop-down list. It does list Bono with Christy Turlington (Dec 1992), Robbie Williams with Giselle (Oct 2000), P.Diddy with Naomi Campbell (Oct 2001) and Elton John with Elizabeth Hurley (Dec 2002).

When I noticed that Mario Testino had shot two of the covers, I clicked on his link to find that the last three were all shot by Mario Testino and also noticed among his 35 covers another one of "Razorlight frontman, Johnny Borrell, on the cover making history as the seventh man to have taken fashions's top spot (alongside Natalia Vodianov...)" (my italics) in May 2007. I can't find any details on the missing 'sixth' - or rather second - man to be featured (probably Richard Gere in 1982). It also seems that no man has ever been featured unaccompanied by a woman. George Clooney did feature on the first issue cover of Men's Vogue, but there have been many other men on that particular cover, so it's not such a big deal. SuperiorPics.com and Squidoo are also carying the incorrect info about the cover.

Hope you find this interesting and helpful. It started out simply enough then turned into something of a quest. VirKoto 04:07, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Criticisms/parodies
Rumors regarding his personal life and criticisms of his political activism belong in this article to render it neutral. The following quoation, for instance, is from a Gere critic:

Please do not remove my post; that borders on censorship.

Bancroft EIR (talk) 04:43, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I can and will remove your content as per WP:BLP. I'll quote "Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons — whether the material is negative, positive, or just questionable — should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion, from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space."  I left your "source" so people can check it out.  I consider your source poor.  It is simply an odd rant from  Lyndon LaRouche....Asher196 (talk) 02:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
 * BLP does not apply to the talk page. Do not censor. Keep my comments for the record so that other editors can judge for themselves. Your input is not the last word here. Bancroft EIR (talk) 03:50, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
 * OF course WP:BLP applies to the talk page. I just quoted from it above where it specifically says "should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion, from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space"....Asher196 (talk) 13:33, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Typographical Error
The sentence

A prototypical leading man of romantic and dramatic films, he first became famous during the 1980s, and has since managed to retained his status.

should be changed. The word "retained" should be "retain."
 * Done. Thincat (talk) 11:00, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Kiss in India
"grabbed and pecked Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty three times on the cheek." I beg to differ. There's video online of the kiss, where he appears to grab her, dip her in a mock-passionate kiss pose. She looked somewhat embarrassed, but that's my view. In a later interview, he dismissed the whole thing, since they and the other celebrities went to a dinner together and parted amicably. He blamed a small right-wing party in India for agitating the issue. Is there a better way to describe this in the article? BrotherSulayman (talk) 08:38, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Could you add IPA on how you pronounce Gere? I heard several pronunciations. --Error 18:38, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

The only two fairly reliable sources I was able to find disagree: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=richard%20gere http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/d1118/Richard_Gere --Espoo (talk) 08:18, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I have reclosed the RfC
There is some befuddlement because a suppsoedly involved admin closed the RfC - I have reclosed it here. The effect is the same, but my close is slightly more descriptive - please address comments and questions (I'm always open to them) about this to my talk page, since I won't be watchlisting this page for replies. Best wishes, Fritzpoll (talk) 09:11, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

Adpublitzing
In the end of the personal life and activism section were the issue with the Fiat commercial and thibet is mentioned, the word adpublitzing is used. As far as I can tell this word does not exist. I have searched several dictionaries and it is not mentioned. I think it should be replaced.Sgv 6618 (talk) 18:12, 4 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Right. What he said!  Let's go back to vocabulary of English before Shakespeare coined all those new words!  Of course, Sgv might want to learn the proper spelling of "thibet."  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.176.171 (talk) 14:57, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

When did he become famous?
There seem to be two contradictory statements in this article:

1. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol.

and

2. In 1979 Gere was one of the first big-name Hollywood actors to play gay, starring as a homosexual Holocaust victim in the Broadway production of Bent. Gere won a Theatre World Award for his performance

So was he a big-name in 1979 or not?

Marchino61 (talk) 10:10, 7 August 2014 (UTC)


 * I think you are misreading those statements a bit. Admittedly, they are not worded very well, either.  They are not as contradictory as they may seem at first glance.  I think your #2 statement (1979's Bent) indicates that he was a "big name" (but not necessarily considered a sex symbol).  I think the #1 statement (1980's American Gigolo) indicates that he then started to become known as a sex symbol (due to his role in that film).  Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 00:32, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Running for US president
Any news if he will really run for president of the United States? Any way we can encourage him to be the next US president? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.53.46.146 (talk) 19:55, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

AD
"The commercial was reported in Chinese newspapers, and Fiat apologized to the PRC.[citation needed]" - First, how could he drive from North American to Asia? Second, there is no indication of why China felt Fiat should apologize. (Is it because Tibet is "different", i.e., not part of China? That is the only thing I can see, but to me, it is a stretch. . . and certainly not obvious enough that it need not be mentioned!64.53.191.77 (talk) 10:18, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

NBC News on Gerbil Rumor
Scroll down to "Gere and the gerbil"

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/countdown/16177615#16177615

I don't know if Ain't It Cool News is a reliable tertiary source, but two mentions by NBC News, one by the Today Show, the other on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, indicates that reliable secondary sources are at least making mention of it.

It doesn't go into detail (just a reference to "that gerbil rumor"), so it's probably not enough to add to the article, but could be used as back up if another reliable source goes into detail. Holdek (talk) 22:29, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

It's a fabricated story. According to snopes (http://www.snopes.com/risque/homosex/gerbil.asp), not only is it unsubstantiated...but there has never been any documented medical or personal record of an event like this ever occurring, nor has there been any credible documentation of the practice from the homosexual community. Most likely, the story was created to slander homosexuals by using fake eye witness accounts of the depravity of their sexual practices. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.88.228 (talk) 05:39, 28 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Same could be said for Saint Patrick banishing all snakes from Ireland. It almost certainly didn't happen and makes snakes look like the bad guys. But it made for a good story and spread across the world. Survives to this day, as a pure story. Same with this legend.


 * Judging from the talk page, even mentioning the story (with any number of synonyms for FAKE), will be strongly opposed. The entire rest of the Internet has heard it, so omitting it here isn't exactly the harmful kind of censorship. Just a bit odd. InedibleHulk (talk) 11:14, 13 January 2014 (UTC)
 * There are three differences between the St Patrick thing and the urban legend in question:
 * St Patrick isn't alive, and thus not covered by BLP.
 * It's not an issue of true or false; there are people who really believe the St Patrick story; thus far, there's no evidence that anyone actually believes the urban legend. A few notes debunking it, and maybe one or two implying that others might believe it, but not a single source pretending to believe it.
 * The snake story helps the reader understand the cultural significance of St Patrick; the urban legend doesn't improve understanding of Gere's biography.
 * In other words, it isn't censorship at all. It's called writing an good and informative article.
 * (just as a final note: there are plenty of articles that mention false rumours when they're pertinent. For example, Steven Hatfill's article mentions the attention he received surrounding the 2001 anthrax attacks. That one was also false. However, there were specific people who believed he could have been guilty and those events were inextricably linked to his life's story. Does that really sound like the same thing here?) 75.119.253.55 (talk) 06:57, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Sort of. But it's all good. InedibleHulk (talk) 15:55, 3 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Actually, I'd favor including it, phrased in a neutral way.
 * 1. I don't see any BLP issues if we clearly say that the rumor is false.
 * 2. That's not really relevant. Wikipedia articles rely on secondary sources, not primary ones. A source pretending to believe it would probably be an unreliable primary source.
 * 3. I do think that the story is pervasive enough to merit mention.
 * In fact, it could be argued that we are acting in the spirit of BLP by debunking this rumor here, as opposed to letting readers wonder if its true or not.VR talk  05:43, 14 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Weird. First time checking here in around two years, and there's a recent comment. I didn't see this on my watchlist and already can't remember why I came. Was I magically summoned? In any case, I'm still on board with laying it out in a straightforward manner. InedibleHulk (talk) 06:00, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Richard Gere's father, and whether he is alive
Richard Gere was just on Jimmy Kimmel Live, on April 11, 2017, and he stated that his father was 95 years old, thus, alive. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY9DiYWqdRY. I looked in the edit history and someone insists that he died in 1999 because of this Find-A-Grave link: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=165407227, which shows that a man named Homer George Gere died in 1999. Well, I'm not sure who that Homer Gere is, but it's not Richard's father. Also, here is Richard's mother's 2016 obituary, which states that "Doris Gere is survived by her husband of more than 70 years..." Link here: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2016/07/actor_richard_geres_mother_a_syracuse-area_resident_has_died.html

Maybe this can be put to rest now? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.4.80.182 (talk) 04:05, 13 April 2017 (UTC)

Japanese grandmother
I've read several times on the internet that Gere had a Japanese grandmother, but there seems to be no evidence for it. Is this just an "urban myth"? JoshuSasori (talk) 01:52, 29 April 2012 (UTC)
 * His ancestry is largely if not exclusively British Isles. All of his grandparents were American-born, and so were most of his extended family (his grandparents were Albert William Gere (1889-1967), Hazel Marjorie Snover, William Stanton Tiffany, and Anna Rebecca Stevens). Much of his ancestry is explored here. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, "no", definitely no Japanese ancestors. I read a similar rumor about Chad Michael Murray, which is more plausible simply because I haven't seen his ancestry traced in any detail. Maybe the Chinese started this rumor since they seem to dislike Gere? Only joking. All Hallow&#39;s Wraith (talk) 00:19, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

I can honestly say that I've only seen a very limited amount of Gere, but I came to this wiki page for the sole purpose of looking at his ancestry for any people of Asian origin. Though he's obviously white, he also looks a little Asian, in my opinion. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that he has a Japanese grandmother, or at least some Asian ancestor. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.54.87.200 (talk) 05:59, 27 July 2012 (UTC)


 * The traits may be that of Native American (which is Mongoloid), which is more likely than Japanese or other Asian groups. 81.158.205.35 (talk) 23:29, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

The internet discussion probably rises from confusion about a role Gere played in Akira Kurosawa's 1991 film, RHAPSODY IN AUGUST. Gere portrayed an American who had both white and Japanese ancestors. For this role, he was given an Asian appearance, complete with darkened skin and slanted eyes. Also, in Gere's young days, he sometimes claimed to have native American ancestors. Younggoldchip (talk) 00:28, 27 March 2019 (UTC)

Red corner
Why is the movie red corner not on his list of movies ? Could this be because China doesn’t like that or does China 🇨🇳 hackers continue to edit/ vandalize this site. ? Scopes77 (talk) 17:25, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Perhaps it was fixed after 8 May 2020. I see Red Corner in the list.Shajure (talk) 17:28, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Gerbil
Come on, everyone is looking for it... Article should discuss the gerbil rumor. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.240.67.41 (talk) 01:47, 24 August 2022 (UTC)


 * I know I, for one, came here looking for the gerbil rumor. -cspan02 (talk) 04:27, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
 * It's not there, because this is an encyclopedia, not a tabloid. See WP:BLP if you have any questions. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 13:35, 11 October 2022 (UTC)
 * True, but it's a noteworthy part of this person's history. It's not like it was a one-time publication in a tabloid and never heard about again. As unappealing and ridiculous as it may be, it did get spread around enough to become a part of our culture. I think it at least deserves a sentence. Artartartart (talk) 14:57, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
 * No, see WP:BLP. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 16:06, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes, I've read that page. However, there are sections of articles and even entire articles dedicated to allegations made against people. The Gerbil story would definitely be considered an allegation by today's standards. The Gerbiling article even mentions Gere by name and links to his article: "A common version of the story involves the actor Richard Gere..." Artartartart (talk) 18:05, 28 October 2023 (UTC)
 * If after reading WP:BLP and you still think that it's okay to put those rumors in here, then you either don't understand that policy or you're just willfully ignoring it. Jauerbackdude?/dude. 20:45, 28 October 2023 (UTC)
 * You need the gerbil rumor included. It's a rumor and urban legend but it's what people know him for… 2600:6C56:6900:9BF:E96A:FDE9:9DAD:DEB9 (talk) 02:52, 17 December 2023 (UTC)