<
p>Okay, I lowe my Yindia and all, but these are the sorts of “news” stories which make me want to smack a few hundred million people upside the head. Come ON, Eileen. Yes, it was the wrong thing to do. Yes, it was crass. Yes, Indian culture demands modesty and decorum blah blah blah. But listen, shining India— if you want the world to take you seriously, try learning methods of protesting shit which do NOT involve screaming death threats and effigy burning, aight?
Pretty please? No? Sigh. I tried. Via the BBC (Thanks, JPT):
Actor Richard Gere has sparked protests in India after kissing Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty at an Aids awareness rally in New Delhi. Demonstrators in Mumbai (Bombay) set light to effigies of the Hollywood star, while protesters in other cities shouted “death to Shilpa Shetty”.
The protesters said Gere insulted Indian culture by kissing the hand and face of the Bollywood actress.
Indian culture was later overheard stating, “Gimme a frickin’ break. There are hundreds of other things I find far more insulting– Anand Jon, for example.” ShameShameShilpa responded thusly:
Shetty downplayed the incident, saying “it was not so obscene”.
“This was not such a big thing for people to over-react in such a manner,” the actress told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“I understand people’s sentiments, but I don’t want a foreigner to take bad memories from here. I understand this is his culture, not ours,” she added.
I don’t know Shilpaji…I think the “his culture, not ours” strategery is the wrong approach; everyone already knows that his culture is all cheee! . Why not enlist the Dalai Lama’s help or something? Isn’t that the whole reason Gere is down vith the brown?
Anyroad, if India had remained in the world cup, would the media give two tattis about this? A Cricket dilettante would love to know:
The kissing scenes were regularly played on Indian TV, with some viewers commenting on Gere’s actions, while Indian newspapers carried the picture on their front pages.
Now you know why the song in my head is…in my head (and in our title!):
Protesters said his embrace of one of the country’s leading ladies had been “vulgar” and demanded an apology from the film star.
Ha! Typical blame the victim/blame the woman mentality. What next, because of that flimsy outfit and all that lipgloss, she was asking for it? Oy, my head hurts.
Thanks,Anna, for highlighting this. You said it better than anyone could have !
Stories like this and others like this make me want to hit my head too and say ,”Grow up,India!!”
Ps:I lowe my Yindia too !
Protesting in India is a job (well paying too, bonuses for burning effigy etc.) and we should not condemn them for just doing their job. 😉
hai ram, it’s not like he tongued her. what’s all the fuss, uncles?
Ya Allah!
Somebody should slap this badmash Gere for playing with the izzat of a kunvari woman!
Typical blame the victim/blame the woman mentality. What next, because of that flimsy outfit and all that lipgloss, she was asking for it?
This could have been avoided if Ms.Shetty was wearing a hijab or a Burqa.
Here’s the fuss – it was a fundraiser for AIDS, which everybody is trying to pretend doesn’t happen in India. So to bring in SEX (even a kiss on the cheek) is just too much for some people.
Can you imagine if Gere had kissed Vikram Seth?
Ennis-bhai:If Richard Gere did this to your maa-bahen, would you still be so flippant about this incident.
Oh, no Al-Mujahid-Bhai, then it would be totally different.
OMG What if she’s pregnant! Mummy said doing that with a boy is ALL it takes. :0
Paging SpoorLam!
God these cow-belters need to be wiped out.
oy vey, grow the F— up!
Hey, this is a decent woman here. It’s not like she’s an actress or anything!
I think it’s in an insult to Indian culture to have Bollywood actresses as its de-facto spokeswomen.
I read about this somewhere else and I just thought who are these idiots protesting this. It’s so weird b/c some of the videos I’ve seen her in are pretty raunchy – what’s the big fuss over this.
How about these people protest the million’s of women, who get felt up on buses every month? How about they try to find out, what make’s a group of 100 guys sexually harass ONE WOMAN, on New Year’s eve?
I wish these damn people would stop pretending like no one has sex and no one ever thinks about it. There is no other country on earth with a bigger sex probelm then India and it really pisses me off.
16 – exactly!
nahi !!!!!!!!!!!!! How could that prettywomaniserdalailamaiser Gere get to to kiss shilpus applecheeks? Gere HAI HAI…shilpa HAI HAI nahi !!!!!!!!!!
ANNA, Runa, Adi, HMF, PS, Shallowthinker! Cease all of your lies and your anti-Indian rhetoric! Effigies are being made of you as we speak! Hail Spoor Lam!
Pshaw. I say he’s a featherweight punk. Back in the days El Fidel tried this move on Indira Gandhi. At a NAM summit no less.
Thanks, SpoorLam’s saffron intern.
My lifelong ambition was to be notorious if I could not be famous !
( Wipes tears of gratitude from eyes and smiles broadly)
Some of the channels are showing an old footage of the same event, but the then host was Bipasha basu who very cleverly avoided the exact same advances from Gere and hugged this other woman who was standing beside Gere at that time on the podium. Shame on you shilpa, you didn’t pull a Bipasha on him :-p.
Great awareness tactic indeed. Which smartee came up with this act? Hate when stars and their bloody foolhardiness or greeting becomes the focus, leaving global well-being in the dust.
First the gerbils, now the unprotected kissing. Won’t Gere ever learn?
the second pic looks like he has her in a headlock. Looks mighty uncomfortable!
its a little ridiculous that he is talking about “condom nahi, sex nahin”. Maybe Shilpa should be saying “Maro nahin!”
she clearly was caught off guard with his attempt at foreplay (kissing the hands) and then reaching over and going for the push/dip transition to smooch.
I think some of these folks are only happy when they have something to protest.
Ezzactly! I think Shilpa responded well. She is quite articulate.
hmmm, and we wonder why westerners look down on the subcontinent.
At least she’s not in Pakistan, the Red Mosque would issue a fatwa.
My personal mission in life is to find one of those guys who actually takes the time to make effigies and be all creative only to destroy it. I mean it’s like lovingly building a science project and having the dog eat it! And when I do find just such a creative person with the kind of time on his hands that would lead to such dedication I’m going to go all Bata chappal on him!
Exactly, as long as it has nothing to do with their own faults.
These people need to find a job, hobby, life, whatever
i wonder if all this fuss could raise some awareness regarding the original issue.
client: begum, heard about all that fuss yesterday with that american actor and that woman? begum: yes. client: hmm.. come here now begum: you’d better wear one of these, unless all you want is to give me a kiss on the the cheek.
What made me wonder is would the reaction be the same if it was an INDIAN actor who did this and not an Ameerikan?
oh great, the nut jobs have prompted condescending oration from Michelle Malkin: http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007315.htm
Only a matter of time before she calls for Indian internment too, not just the Muslims.
Someone should tell her the “fatwa” was issued by an illegal mosque that’s currently being protested by tens of thousands of Pakistani citizens and will probably be shut down by force in the near future.
First rule of wingnuttery – never let the facts get in the way of a good hate screed.
dude the shiv sena is so out of control. it makes me embarrassed that we both call ourselves hindus. troglodytes! this is truly funny, especially the phrase “kissing act”:
New Delhi, April. 16 (PTI): Delhi Shiv Sena chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal said that Gere should be arrested immediately for his kissing act with Shetty at a function on AIDS awareness here yesterday, which has led to widespread protests from several quarters.
Giving a memorandum to Delhi’s Police Commissioner in this regard, Goyal also demanded police action against Gere, Shetty and the organisers of the function.
“It is an attack on our cultural ethos. Our culture does not permit public display of such acts,” he said.
32 JPT,
This is what happens when it is an Indian -to-Indian kiss
Now, having proved that I have too much time on my hands today and an obsessive knowledge of Bollywood gossip/trivia ,I shall slink away quietly.
16, you’re so right. I mean, the general reaction is to quiet down rape victims instead of getting them acknowledgment and justice. They’re silenced. But a simple kiss on the cheek is oh-so-awful, “the Gora” must pay for it.
Can I kiss you Anna.
You would think Shilpa Shetty’s 15 seconds of fame would be up by now…
Slightly OT but I guess Richard Gere finally made the transition from Silver Fox to dirty old man, what a pity.
It’s funny this has happened now. NDTV just ran a 30-minute programme on Saturday about her doing a photo shoot in London for L’Officiel and Louis Vuitton, and they went with her to Oxford Street and the NDTV people kept asking passers-by if they knew who she was, and everyone (desi and non-desi) was able to identify her, and a variety of men (again, desi and non-desi) all commented on how good-looking she was.
Don’t imitation me! You cabal!
You think this is funny?
White man is mishandling Indian virgin on stage?
I am calling cadres in Himachal Pradesh immediately to crack Tibetans and Dalai Lama over the head with sticks for this attempted rape on stage! Their big American papa disgraces us on stage? With lips?
We’ve had sex in India for millions of years. As well as caste non-system. Another squeeze of our saffron balls like this and we are ready to explode.
Death to Dalai Lama!
Death to Officer and Gentleman!
Hail Mogambo!
ROFLMAO Spoorlam you da man!
filmiholic writes:>>It’s funny this has happened now.
It’s makes complete sense that this has happened now.
The bulk of the protests are in UP(Meerut, Varanasi etc) where the elections are around the corner. This gives the political parties something to harp on. The BJP has sent its cadres to protest, the Congress has sent Muslims to protest(yes!) and Samajwadi party has goaded both to protest.
M. Nam
this is on yahoo news. top stories. how silly.
That’s what made me check out the video clip, where it doesn’t seem quite as bad, though it’s still clear she’s taken aback, and even the handholding seems to have gone on longer than she expected or wanted it to… So the soundtrack in the BBC video clip seems quite apropos – “main kya karoon Ram, mujhe buDDha mil gayaa” – he is 57 after all, she’s 31! It really appears that he went for her because he wanted to and could – the wrongest message anyone could be sending – even if it’s only a kiss. And since that’s become the story, also drowning out any positive AIDS-awareness message there might have been. I am impressed, however, with Shilpa’s extempore Hindi speaking, which is far better than Aishwarya’s, for example.
No! Shut up!
It’s spontaneous mutiny and ejaculation of provoked saffron balls in outrage as white Buddhist rapes Hindu virgin on stage!
What next? Steven Seagal french kissing Raveena Tandon?
Death to the work and teachings of Mingyur Rinpoche!
Hail Mogambo!
Janeofalltrades, you seem like a great and powerful woman with some strength in your arms and potentially against anti-nationals and cabals. Please help me, using your feminine Hindu skills, to make an effigy of the following man. I am going to organise a burning of it outside the American embassy in New York to protest against Kissing Imperialism under guise of Tibetan support.
Hail Mogambo!
Meanwhile, members of the Shilpa Shetty fan club expressed their indignation by burning Richard Gere effigies in between screenings of top 10 Shilpa Shetty rain songs and top 100 Shilpa Shetty pelvic thrusts.
What a bumbling fool. He should stick to gerbils. Am I the only one outraged by the demise of the art of the stolen kiss?
Hey, I wanna be abused by SpoorLam. Where were you when my defamations of Hindutva were up for discussion?