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I found this news article about Gorgeous Richard

Gere kiss sparks Indian lawsuit
Wednesday Apr 18 18:48 AEST
AP - Three lawyers have filed complaints in Indian courts against Hollywood actor Richard Gere and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty for kissing at a public function, a news report said.

In his complaint, attorney Poonal Chandra Bhandari accused the actors of committing "an obscene act" in a public place, which India's conservative society cannot tolerate, PTI said.

Two other lawyers filed another complaint in a court in Ghaziabad, a town on the outskirts of New Delhi, against Shetty and private television channels for showing videos of the kissing incident, the news agency added.

Such cases against celebrities - often filed by publicity seekers - are common in ultra-conservative India. They add to a backlog of legal cases in the country that has nearly crippled the judicial system.




The complaints filed on Tuesday came a day after angry crowds in several Indian cities burned effigies of Gere after he wrapped Shetty in his arms and kissed her several times on her cheeks during an AIDS awareness event in the Indian capital.

On Tuesday, Magistrate Dinesh Chandra Gupta, in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur, ordered private television news channel NDTV to provide the original videotape of the incident by next week, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Reena Chaudhry said she would hear that complaint on April 18.

Photographs of Gere, 57, embracing Shetty, 31, and kissing her on the cheek were splashed across front pages of newspapers in India - a country where public displays of affection are largely taboo.

Shetty tried to end the controversy by saying that the hug and the kiss were not obscene and that the public was overreacting.

On Wednesday, her representative, Dale Bhagwagar, declined comment on the court complaints but said Shetty was paying a price for being an international celebrity.

"The media should concentrate on the promotion of the cause of AIDS awareness rather than making an issue out of kisses," Bhagwagar told The Associated Press.


©AAP 2007

Aren't these the same people who wrote the Karma Sutra
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Lol, I thought the exact same thing when I started reading this post...

If you've ever seen a Bollywood film you'll know how hypocritical that reaction is, they're filled with eroticism and sexual tension you could cut through with a knife, but a kiss is considered lascivious behavior.



The People's Republic of Clogher
You can't blame the alleged hamster-botherer for planting one on the delectable Miss Shetty, no matter what the circumstances.

As to Bollywood films being erotic - so's Jane Austin to that extent...



...and you'd never have caught the Victorians getting up to such crazed depravity in public, the swines!
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Standing in the Sunlight, Laughing
I'm shocked at the knowledge someone is named "Poonal".

As for the PDA, it seems silly to us, but in their culture it's obviously dead serious, and part of travelling is learning the customs so you don't step on toes. It doesn't seem to have been a widespread offense, in this case. The people complaining appear to be a vocal minority.



not too sure why shetty is getting hasseled - Gere did all the kissing
Yes but she allowed it



Sammy, I know what you mean about respecting other peoples customs, I didn't know you weren't allowed to kiss in public I just thought it was funny coming from a country that produced the "Karma Sutra" I also read that Liz Hurley and her Husband are going to be prosecuted for kissing at their Wedding



Standing in the Sunlight, Laughing
Sammy, I know what you mean about respecting other peoples customs, I didn't know you weren't allowed to kiss in public I just thought it was funny coming from a country that produced the "Karma Sutra" I also read that Liz Hurley and her Husband are going to be prosecuted for kissing at their Wedding
Is there kissing in the Kama Sutra?



not too sure why shetty is getting hasseled - Gere did all the kissing

and she really doesn't look too happy about the situation to me....
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The People's Republic of Clogher
Just so that non-BritFos can place the background of Shilpa Shetty in some sort of context, the poor girl seems to be a magnet for effigy-burning controversy in her homeland.

A few months ago she was at the centre of a tabliod witch hunt during the filming of Celebrity Big Brother when she became the target of alleged racist bullying by 3 of the other hoursmates - ie, a trio of thick, jealous chavs isolated her and talked behind her back in less than complimentary terms, often making reference to her accent and upbringing.

Questions were raised in Parliament, the show received a record number of complaints from enraged Guardian-readers and teenage girls from Big Brother message boards and images of the three 'bullies' were burned by an in-no-way-egged-on-by-the-TV-cameras-oh-no enraged crowd in an Indian city.

Car crash TV, in other words, with Shilpa (a Bollywood actress who's star was definitely on the wane prior the filming of Big Brother) emerging as some sort of heroine for the chattering classes because of the way she delt with the abuse from some truly stupid examples of British society.

She won the thing and her profile was now higher than ever in not one but two countries. Now, the cynic in me would suggest that Ms Shetty hasn't been gracing the front pages of the tabloids for a few months now...





I'd buy a paper with her on the front page.



I read about that. I think she handled it really well saying she was being consider to his culture. But Gere's handlers should have given him a cultural run down on do's and don't in India. He should be respecting their culture, since he's a visitor.
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