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Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty Kiss and Burn

by BBelew57 on April 23rd, 2007

I am not a Bollywood fan or a Hollywood fan for that matter. And Chollywood doesn't particularly do anything for me either.

But, somehow Hollywood's Richard Gere and Bollywood's Shilpa Shetty got tangled up…at Gere's expense.

The man was no gentleman when he kissed her hand, then cheek, then Hollywood kissed her in a full embrace.

Shetty called it "a bit too much."

What's a bit too much is that angry crowds in several Indian cities are burning effigies of Richard Gere.

In Mumbai, the burning effigies were beat with a stick and a fire was set to glamarous shots of Shetty.

In another city "Down with Shilpa Shetty!"

Indian culture does not encourage public displays of affection…and these towns want Gere to know.

Shetty spoke out, "I understand this is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such manner. I understand people's sentiments, but I don't want a foreigner to take bad memories from here,"

I am sure Gere has a pretty happy memory of the embrace.

What he really needed was to be a bit more sensitive to the difference between cultures….something we all should be?

What other differences in culture are there between India and the United States?

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POSTED IN: india