Richard Gere wanted for kissing
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Indian courts have ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for repeatedly kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.
Video footage shows Gere merley giving Shetty playful kisses on her cheeks at an event to promote AIDS awareness in New Delhi but the gesture sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture. An Indian judge watched a video of Gere kissing Shetty and found him guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity, said the lawyer, Poonam Chand Bhandari. The order by a court in the northern city of Jaipur came in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.
Gere, 57, can be sent to jail for up to three months or fined or both. He is not in India now.
A Los Angeles-based spokesman for Gere, said the actor had no comment on the incident or the ruling.
The Hollywood star is a devout Buddhist and a vocal supporter of the Tibetan cause. He visits India frequently to meet the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India.
Shetty, the winner of the Celebrity Big Brother reality TV show in Britain this year, had said the kiss may have gone a "little overboard" but it was not obscene and the protests made India look regressive.
She said Gere was only re-enacting his moves from the film Shall We Dance? to entertain the audience at the AIDS event and communicate in a Bollywood style as he did not speak Hindi.
Many commentators subsequently expressed their unhappiness at what they said were fringe groups making a mountain of a harmless peck on the cheek.
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