NEW DELHI – Richard Gere tried to quell the storm over a public kiss he gave a Bollywood star at an AIDS awareness event, apologizing Friday for any offense.
Gere’s embrace and kiss of actress Shilpa Shetty sparked several noisy demonstrations by hard-line Hindu groups and a flurry of legal complaints, which ended with a judge in the northwestern city of Jaipur issuing an arrest warrant for the two stars for violating obscenity laws.
“What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you,” Gere said in statement issued by the Heroes Project, an organization the 57-year-old actor co-founded to combat AIDS in India.
The embrace was a failed parody of a move from Gere’s film “Shall We Dance,” and “a naive misread of Indian customs,” he said.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – A woman who authorities say is obsessed with Sandra Bullock was arrested after she allegedly tried to run over the actress’ husband in a confrontation outside the couple’s home.
Marcia Diana Valentine, 45, of Huntington Beach tried to run over Jesse James, host of “Monster Garage,” with her silver Mercedes after Bullock asked her to leave the couple’s home on Sunday, Jim Amormino, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman, said Thursday.
“She jumped in the car, put it in reverse and accelerated in his direction,” Amormino said. “She attempted to hit him three or four times.”
James was not injured, and Valentine fled, he said.
Valentine was arrested Monday for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon. She was released after posting $25,000 bail.
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