Friday
(0)Seamus Heffernan takes Richard Gere to task.
It has become the unfortunate reality of all things political: celebrities love to chip in with their insights and opinions on the Big Events of our time. Following Yasser Arafat's death, this weekend the Palestinians are holding elections. As a result, they have been treated to this television ad in an attempt to rouse them into voting, which starts with:
Hi, I'm Richard Gere and I'm speaking for the entire world.
Excuse me?
We're with you during this election time. It's really important. Get out and vote.
Wait - the entire world?
What is about being left-leaning and famous that makes most people so grossly overestimate not only their intelligence, but also their relevance? Does Gere really think that there are hordes of Palestinian girls out there getting all weepy over An Officer and a Gentleman?
Indeed, most Palestinians greeted the ad with a shrug.
But many voters, already struggling with the labyrinthine politics of the West Bank and Gaza, say they have never heard of the actor.
"I don't even know who the candidates are other than Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), let alone this Gere," Gaza soap factory worker Manar an-Najar told Reuters.
It is too bad that Manar is not more familiar with the Gere canon. Surely he and his fellow Palestinians would just love to take political advice from an actor perhaps most famous for his role as a degenerate, imperialistic tool of American capitalism who falls in love with a prostitute. Or perhaps he would be more interested in hearing the views of Gere's co-stars in the ad, one of whom has gone on record as saying:
[T]he Jews are destined to be persecuted, humiliated and tortured forever, and it is a Muslim duty to see to it that they reap their due. No petty arguments must be allowed to divide us. Where Hitler failed, we must succeed.
Nice work, Rich - the Dalai Lama would be proud.
(Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.)
Oh, god, that's hysterical! Spokesman for the entire world!
Well from the microscopic area of the entire world known as 'my place', I'm speaking for the entire membership of my household when I say: Richard Gere, don't get out and vote. Just get out.
Posted by Verity at January 7, 2005 06:54 PM
Emily picked this up a few days ago and while sharing the sentiment was a wee bit more blunt.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at January 7, 2005 08:09 PM
Beyond Mr Gere's peculiar cure for constipation, there is the fact that he was once married to Cindy Crawford. Think about that for a minute. Here is a man that Cindy Crawford willingly slept with and he dumped her. So not only is he a pompous dolt, he's not terribly bright as well. One can only hope that the al-Aksa brigades line the highways out of Ramallah with pictures of Gere, gerbils and Cindy Crawford and then ask the Palestinian public if they would take election advice from a man who would give up one of the world's most beautiful women for a rodent.
Posted by akaky at January 7, 2005 08:54 PM
"Where Hitler failed, we must succeed". Knowing sweet Sheikh Tamimi and the Palestinian birth rate, I think he meant : “to die single”.
Posted by Alice at January 7, 2005 09:53 PM
Methinks that the story's a spoof - but a good one at that!
Posted by Giles at January 7, 2005 11:20 PM
It does sound like something out of Viz.
Anyway, Gere once played King David in a gigantic nappy, so he won't play too well with the Pals-- unless they assume the film was so bad b/c he was trying to bring a Jewish hero into disrepute.
Gere should stick to sheltering small furry animals from harm in a dark, cosy place.
Posted by Effra at January 8, 2005 06:42 PM
What a berk. The self-importance of the twit is really rather nauseating. A shame really, I quite admired his focus on the Tibetan issue, which is a real scandal.
Posted by Johnathan at January 9, 2005 01:34 PM
I agree with Jonathan, although I think some of the focus of the reality of the Tibetan issue was deflected by Gere's celebrity, and how he reacted to the big issue, instead of the issue itself. (Obviously, this wasn't Gere's fault.) And, then, of course, the mystique surrounding Tibet means the Tibetan people as individuals aren't etched so sharply. They're seen through all this incense and chanting monks, instead of as a people whose culture and ancient traditions are being laid to waste by their deliberate dilution by the introduction of hundreds of thousands of alien Chinese who do not understand the culture, don't respect it and whose mission is to destroy it.
Posted by Verity at January 9, 2005 02:28 PM
Dalai Lama fled from totalitarians. Funny that one of his greatest fans ends up in the same bed as islamofascists.
Posted by Fredrik Lindholm at January 10, 2005 12:00 PM
