Talk:Richard Gere
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[edit] Idiotic paragraph removed
Removed the following:
- Richard Gere is the most common subject of a popular urban myth which involves the forcing of a gerbil into the anus for pleasure and its later embarrassing removal at hospital. This myth, and its association with Gere, is referred to onstage by the comedian Ricky Gervais in his Fame stage show. A reference to the rumours is also made in British sitcom The Vicar of Dibly, with a hamster substituted for the more common gerbil and on the British comedy show This Morning With Richard Not Judy. The gerbil 'myth' with regards to Gere is also referenced in Family Guy, season 5, episode 3. However, as verified by snopes.com these rumours have no basis in fact.[10]
Reason: if these idiotic 'anal allegations' have no factual basis whatsoever and contribute nothing of significant importance to the article, I think it is fair to remove them despite the passage was 'sourced'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.76.21.104 (talk) 10:57, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
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- Iraq turned out to actually not have WMD, but does that mean the fact that it was rumored to shouldn't be in the article about the war there? Metsfanmax (talk) 20:37, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
- How about if we stick to WP:BLP and not put stupid rumors regarding urban myths in a persons biography.Asher196 (talk) 21:49, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
- I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here, but said policy indicates that if an incident is documented, notable and relevant, it should be included. The fact that it is untrue is irrelevant; clearly it has had an impact on society, as indicated by the creation of two different television episodes based on this, as well as a comedy routine, and at least one song. As I said, Iraq having WMD turned out to be a 'myth,' but clearly it belongs in the article about the Iraq War. If you do not feel that this is relevant enough to the article, that is one thing; but please do not dismiss this simply because it's an "urban myth." Metsfanmax (talk) 01:47, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
- How about if we stick to WP:BLP and not put stupid rumors regarding urban myths in a persons biography.Asher196 (talk) 21:49, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
- Iraq turned out to actually not have WMD, but does that mean the fact that it was rumored to shouldn't be in the article about the war there? Metsfanmax (talk) 20:37, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
Your analogy is false because the standards for WP:BLP are higher. Just because a rumor, myth, or whatever you want to call it can be documented doesn't mean it should be part of a person's biography. I'll quote from the WP:BLP, "An important rule of thumb when writing biographical material about living persons is "do no harm"." "Editors should avoid repeating gossip. Ask yourself whether the source is reliable; whether the material is being presented as true; and whether, even if true, it is relevant to an encyclopedia article about the subject"....Asher196 (talk) 02:17, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
And this is exactly why I said there's a difference between the fact that it's an urban legend and how relevant it is. We could have a discussion on just how high the standards for BLP are; but, as I said, the fact that this rumor exists and has caused other people to take (relatively) important actions means it might be documented. The policy you're referring to is specifically discussing the myriad situations where an unfounded rumor goes around about a celebrity (like falsely describing them as pregnant), and then dies the next month. However, this particular 'urban legend' has survived for quite a few years and has had relevant cultural impact. The only real question is whether or not this is relevant to the article on Richard Gere specifically, and if you have reasons why you believe it is not, I'd be glad to listen to them, but I disagree with your interpretation of the BLP standards. Metsfanmax (talk) 04:28, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
The Richard Gere hamster/gerbil rumour is more famous and renowned than several of the Richard Gere movies mentioned in the article. It has had a significant impact on popular culture and is something that the curious may wish to find out more about. Why shouldn't Wikipedia verify the truth about this, one of the most enduring aspects of Gere's celebrity? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.9.188.22 (talk) 14:39, 10 May 2008 (UTC)
- surely reporting a false rumour, and of course clearly stating it is false, is not just repeating gossip (as fact) if the false rumour is itself notable. notability is the issue here, not whether the rumour is true--Mongreilf (talk) 13:45, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
[edit] The "Henry" issue
There seems to be a lot of back and forth about whether or not Gere actually has a half-brother named Henry Gerbilzewski, born in Germany. I have not been able to locate the hypothetical article being used as a reference by some editors; however, I went at it from a different angle, researching Gere's mother - she is well documented as a Mayflower descendant. The available records show her to have had only one marriage, to Homer Gere. There is no mention of her having a son Henry. In fairness, there are discrepancies in these records, as they have different dates/locations of birth for her, and many do not list all of Richard Gere's siblings. Nonetheless, the one thing they are consistent about is that she has had only one marriage.
Like many, I suspect that Henry's name had been in the article when we first read it, and we did not think to question it at the time. Having done a bit more research, I would suggest that there are valid questions as to any relationship between Richard Gere and Henry Gerbilzewkski, and until there are multiple sources tying the two together, we should omit the line about Henry.
Does anyone else have other suggestions? Risker 15:07, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
- I wrote the Biography channel to ask them if the reference to their magazine is correct, but so far I have received no response. There is a Biography magazine, but it isn't in any of my local libraries. If anyone could find that issue, that would be one way to check. I agree that the line should be omitted until confirmed. -Jmh123 16:03, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
- I'd say to also semi-protect this article until we have some confirmation of whether this Mr. Januszewski is actually related to Gere. According to a German Wikipedia user who mistakenly posted on WP:AIV, Januszewski (or somebody affiliated with him) was repeatedly adding this "information" to the Gere article on de:wiki until that article was protected, and is now doing the same to the English article (this one). I checked the history of the German article, and it seems the IP adding this information haapens to be in the same IP range as the user adding it to the German article - to me, this looks like somebody trying to further this bit of information whether it's true or not. NeoChaosX (talk, walk) 18:08, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
- This is simply a dodgy claim, we have no reliable sources so we should just remove it without comment whenever it's placed into the article, until such time as reliable references ever do materialize. --Tony Sidaway 10:31, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] August 2007
Our IP editor friend is back adding this statement, and has provided the source "Biography Magazine, Summer 2004, p.14" as the reliable source. Now, there was indeed an article about Gere in the magazine; however, I've been unsuccessful in locating the magazine, and Jmh123 has not apparently received a response to his request for verification direct to the publisher. So far, nobody else has been able to locate the article so I am having a hard time considering this information "verifiable" at this point. I've also taken a quick look at a couple of Gere biographies, some of which mention his family; the name Henry Jauszewski did not appear in any of them. I will remove the claim again, pending an additional verifiable source that is actually accessible to people. Risker 12:32, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Photo included
I have included a photo per the previous message in article. The photo is from a united states government website.
URL: http://www.usaid.gov/in/images/richard_gere2.jpg
.WacoJacko 04:04, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
- Thanks. That's a great photo. -Jmh123 04:15, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
- thanks!WacoJacko 20:29, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Gere
Could you add IPA on how you pronounce Gere? I heard several pronunciations. --Error 18:38, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] WackoJacko
This is the very definite of a gerbil wheel. The arguments have all been made before, nothing has changed. There's been an RfC. It's all in the archives. I have to leave now, but when I get back I'll report this to the BLP/I and let them handle it. The discussion itself was removed from this talk page previously as a BLP violation and the discussions in the archives were purged of the word. -Jmh123 14:34, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
- I am not exacty sure why this is directed at me, as I made exaclty one revert to the talk page out of prinicipal. I still feel strongly that this is censorship. I made one revert to basicly add myself to the record that I am against the DISCUSSION page being censored. WacoJacko 11:35, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
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- Sorry for the delay. Family issues. My comment was directed at you because you reverted the archiving of the talk page material. The previous reverts were done by a known vandal IP who has been blocked, and blocked again. According to WP:BLP policy: "Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material — whether negative, positive, or just questionable — about living persons should be removed immediately and without discussion from Wikipedia articles,[1] talk pages, user pages, and project space." This subject has been discussed numerous times, and no further discussion is going to change anything unless Gere himself addresses it. I'm going to delete the discussion now; I see it remains in the archive. -Jmh123 17:51, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
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- No problem with the delay, family comes first.
WacoJacko 21:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Vogue cover information.
Hi, I just came across the interesting piece of trivia in IMDB.com that Richard Gere was the first man to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine (with wife Cindy Crawford) and George Clooney was the second. Wikipedia carries the same information. I thought that this would be a very useful fact for quizzes and so on. I also reckoned that if Richard had appeared with with Cindy, then that might mean that George was the first man to appear solo on the cover; another equally useful bit of trivia, so I set about verifying this.
However, it turns out that in July 1970, Helmut Berger was the first man to appear on the cover (with Marisa Berenson.) See http://www.vogue.co.uk/CoverArchive/Inside.aspx?Year=&Model=Helmut+Berger&Photographer=&Issue=1970%20July for details. The Vogue Cover Archive, which doesn't actually have all the covers, allows you to search by Year, Photographer or Model but neither Richard or George are included in the drop-down list. It does list Bono with Christy Turlington (Dec 1992), Robbie Williams with Giselle (Oct 2000), P.Diddy with Naomi Campbell (Oct 2001) and Elton John with Elizabeth Hurley (Dec 2002).
When I noticed that Mario Testino had shot two of the covers, I clicked on his link to find that the last three were all shot by Mario Testino and also noticed among his 35 covers another one of "Razorlight frontman, Johnny Borrell, on the cover making history as the seventh man to have taken fashions's top spot (alongside Natalia Vodianov...)" (my italics) in May 2007. I can't find any details on the missing 'sixth' - or rather second - man to be featured (probably Richard Gere in 1982). It also seems that no man has ever been featured unaccompanied by a woman. George Clooney did feature on the first issue cover of Men's Vogue, but there have been many other men on that particular cover, so it's not such a big deal. SuperiorPics.com and Squidoo are also carying the incorrect info about the cover.
Hope you find this interesting and helpful. It started out simply enough then turned into something of a quest. VirKoto 04:07, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Rumours
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- Err, roughly speaking, various rumours about Gere's sexuality routinely show up in here, essentially sourced to a bunch of guys I knew when I was twelve, which fails the two aforementioned policies. The point is, that if anyone favours including anything, they really need to show such material goes past those two policies, or stop arguing for its inclusion. Not merely "But dude - my friend Robby totally told me how true it is!!!" WilyD 12:41, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
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- no worries, I just didn't know who or what you were responding to.
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On the subject of rumours, I just undid an edit by 128.220.181.223 in which Gere's spouse was renamed "Gerbil". Hilarious I'm sure, but I hope y'all agree with me that it was vandalism. - Mawkish1983 (talk) 13:09, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
- Yeah, this happens every day. No worries. WilyD 13:27, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
We don't need the rumors on the talk page either....Asher196 (talk) 00:31, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Criticisms/parodies
Rumors regarding his personal life and criticisms of his political activism belong in this article to render it neutral. The following quoation, for instance, is from a Gere critic:
Please do not remove my post; that borders on censorship.
Bancroft EIR (talk) 04:43, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
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- I can and will remove your content as per WP:BLP. I'll quote "Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons — whether the material is negative, positive, or just questionable — should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion, from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space." I left your "source" so people can check it out. I consider your source poor. It is simply an odd rant from Lyndon LaRouche....Asher196 (talk) 02:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
- BLP does not apply to the talk page. Do not censor. Keep my comments for the record so that other editors can judge for themselves. Your input is not the last word here. Bancroft EIR (talk) 03:50, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
- I can and will remove your content as per WP:BLP. I'll quote "Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons — whether the material is negative, positive, or just questionable — should be removed immediately and without waiting for discussion, from Wikipedia articles, talk pages, user pages, and project space." I left your "source" so people can check it out. I consider your source poor. It is simply an odd rant from Lyndon LaRouche....Asher196 (talk) 02:10, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Typographical Error
The sentence
A prototypical leading man of romantic and dramatic films, he first became famous during the 1980s, and has since managed to retained his status.
should be changed. The word "retained" should be "retain."
[edit] Kiss in India
"grabbed and pecked Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty three times on the cheek." I beg to differ. There's video online of the kiss, where he appears to grab her, dip her in a mock-passionate kiss pose. She looked somewhat embarrassed, but that's my view. In a later interview, he dismissed the whole thing, since they and the other celebrities went to a dinner together and parted amicably. He blamed a small right-wing party in India for agitating the issue. Is there a better way to describe this in the article? BrotherSulayman (talk) 08:38, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
- I added the video as reference and rewrote the account. He actually kissed her at least six times, not three.Asher196 (talk) 14:19, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
