The Cotton Club was a famous jazz music night club located in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City which operated from 1923 to 1940, most notably during America's Prohibition Era lasting from 1919 to 1933. The club was a white-only establishment even though it featured many of the greatest African American entertainers of the era including Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, Count Basie, Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, The Nicholas Brothers, Lottie Gee, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, and Ethel Waters. During its heyday, the Cotton Club served as a hip meeting spot featuring regular "Celebrity Nights" on Sundays which featured celebrity guests such as Jimmy Durante, George Gershwin, Sophie Tucker, Paul Robeson, Al Jolson, Mae West, Richard Rodgers, Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Langston Hughes, Judy Garland, Moss Hart, and New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker, among others.

In 1920, heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson, opened the 400-seat Club De Luxe at the corner of 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem.^[1] Owney Madden, a prominent bootlegger and gangster, took over the club in 1923 while imprisoned in Sing Sing and changed its name to the Cotton Club.^[2]) Owney Madden "used the cotton club as an outlet to sell his #1 beer to the prohibition crowd".^[3] (While the club was closed briefly in 1925 for selling liquor, it reopened without trouble from the police.^[4] The site chosen for the downtown Cotton Club was ideal. It was a big room on the top floor of a building on Broadway and Forty-eight Street, where Broadway and Seventh Avenue meet – an important midtown crossroads, and in the heart of the Great White Way, the Broadway theatre district.^[5] While Herman Stark and the clubs owners were quite certain the club would do well in its new location, however they realized alt depended on a smash-hit opening show.^[6] Stark also agreed to pay Robinson $3,500 a week, the highest salary ever paid to a black entertainer in a Broadway production, and more money than had ever been received by any individual for a night club performance.^[7]

The club reproduced the racist imagery of the times, often depicting blacks as savages in exotic jungles or as "darkies" in the plantation South. The club imposed a more subtle color bar on the chorus girls whom the club presented in skimpy outfits: they were expected to be "tall, tan, and terrific," which meant that they had to be at least 5 feet 6 inches tall, light-skinned, and under twenty-one years of age.^[8] Ellington was expected to write "jungle music" for an audience of whites. What Ellington contributed to the Cotton Club is priceless and is summed up perfectly in this 1937 New York Times excerpt: "So long may the empirical Duke and his music making roosters reign - and long may the Cotton Club continue to remember that it came down from Harlem".^[9]

Club's heyday[link]

Nonetheless, the club also helped launch the careers of Fletcher Henderson, who led the first band to play there in the year 1923, and Ellington, whose orchestra was the house band there from December 4, 1927 to June 30, 1931. The club not only gave Ellington national exposure through radio broadcasts originating there (first through WHN, then over WEAF and after September 1929 through the NBC Red Network - WEAF was the flagship station for that network - on Fridays), but enabled him to develop his repertoire while composing not only the dance tunes for the shows, but also the overtures, transitions, accompaniments, and "jungle" effects that gave him the freedom to experiment with orchestral colours and arrangements that touring bands rarely had. Ellington recorded over 100 compositions during this era, while building the group that he led for nearly fifty years. Eventually, in deference to a request by Ellington, the club slightly relaxed its policy of excluding black customers.^[10]

Cab Calloway's orchestra brought its Brown Sugar revue to the club in 1930, replacing Ellington's group after its departure in 1931; Jimmie Lunceford's band replaced Calloway's in 1934, while Ellington, Armstrong, and Calloway returned to perform at the club in later years. The most lavish revue in the Cotton Club’s thirteen-year history opened on Broadway on September 24, 1936. Robinson and Calloway headed a roster of some 130 other performers.^[11] The club was also the first show business opportunity for Lena Horne, who began there as a chorus girl at the age of sixteen. Dorothy Dandridge performed there while still one of The Dandridge Sisters, while Coleman Hawkins and Don Redman played there as part of Henderson's band. Tap dancers Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sammy Davis Jr. (as part of the Will Mastin Trio), and the Nicholas Brothers starred there as well.

The club also drew from white popular culture of the day. Walter Brooks, who had produced the successful Broadway show Shuffle Along, was the nominal owner. Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh, one of the most prominent songwriting teams of the era, and Harold Arlen provided the songs for the revues, one of which, "Blackbirds of 1928", starring Adelaide Hall featured the songs "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" and "Diga Diga Doo", produced by Lew Leslie on Broadway. In 1934, Adelaide Hall starred at the Cotton Club in the biggest grossing show that ever appeared at the club. Featured on the bill was the 16-year-old Lena Horne.

Closed temporarily in 1936 after the race riot in Harlem the previous year, the Cotton Club reopened later that year at Broadway and 48th Street.^[12] In fact a 1937 New York Times article writes, "The Cotton Club has climbed aboard the Broadway bandwagon, wish a show that is calculated to give the customers their money’s worth of sound and color – and it does".^[13] It closed for good in 1940, under pressure from higher rents, changing tastes and a federal investigation into tax evasion by Manhattan nightclub owners. The Latin Quarter nightclub opened in its space and the building was torn down in 1989 to make way for a hotel. All in all, the Broadway Cotton Club was a highly successful blend of old and new. The site may have been new, the décor may have been slightly different, but once a patron entered and was comfortably seated, he knew he was in a familiar place.^[14]

Jazz writer James Haskins, wrote in 1977, "Today, there is a new incarnation of the Cotton Club which sits on the most western end of the 125th Street under the massive Manhattanville viaduct. The windowless block of a building has a less dramatic display out front but seems to be popular with tourists for Sunday jazz brunches."^[15]

Other branches[link]

A Chicago branch of the Cotton Club was run by Ralph Capone and a West Coast branch of the Cotton Club existed in Culver City, California in the late 1920s and early 1930s, featuring performers from the original Cotton Club such as Armstrong, Calloway and Ellington. A newer club has opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

In popular culture[link]

The Cotton Club is a movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which offers a fictionalized history of the club in the context of race relations in the 1930s and the battles between Madden, Dutch Schultz, Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, Lucky Luciano, and Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. It is discussed in the 2001 Ken Burns PBS documentary, "Jazz."

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bruno, Joseph. "The Cotton Club." Ezinearticles. 25 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
• Haskins, James. "The Cotton Club Comes To Broadway." The Cotton Club. New York: Random House, 1977. 113-127.
• The New York Times, "Dry Padlocks Snapped on Nine Wet Doors; 'Owney' Maddens 'Club' is One of them." New York Times (1923-Current file) Jun 23 1925: 23. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008). 14 Mar. 2012.
• The New York Times, "Night Club Notes." New York Times (1923-Current file) Mar 20 1937: 22. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008). 4 Mar. 2012.
• The New York Times, "Duke Ellington, a Master of Music, Dies at 75." New York Times (1923-Current file) May 25 1974: 1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times (1851-2008). 14 Mar. 2012 .

External links[link]

• 1931 German broadcast recording of a live performance in Cotton Club, New York City
• "Harlem Jazz: Essential Recordings" by Ted Gioia

Coordinates: 40°49′08″N 73°56′13″W / 40.819°N 73.937°W / 40.819; -73.937

Diane Lane
Lane at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival (2011)
Born	(1965-01-22) January 22, 1965 (age 47) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1979–present
Spouse	Christopher Lambert (1988–1994; divorced; 1 child) Josh Brolin (2004–present)
Website
http://www.dianelane.com/ (offline)

Diane Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American film actress.

Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine. She has since appeared in several notable films, including the 2002 film Unfaithful, which earned her Academy Award, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Lane has been married to actor Josh Brolin since 2004. She was previously married to actor Christopher Lambert from 1988 to 1994.

Early life[link]

Lane was born in New York City. Her mother, Colleen Farrington, was a nightclub singer and Playboy centerfold (Miss October 1957), who was also known as "Colleen Price". Her father, Burton Eugene Lane, was a Manhattan drama coach who ran an acting workshop with John Cassavetes, worked as a cab driver, and later taught humanities at City College.^[1] When Lane was 13 months old, her parents split up. Her mother went to Mexico and obtained a divorce while retaining custody of her daughter until the child was six.^[1] Her father got custody of her after Farrington moved to Georgia. Lane and her father lived in a number of residential hotels in New York City and she would ride with him in his taxi.^[2]

When Lane was fifteen years old, she declared her independence from her father and ran away to Los Angeles for a week with actor and friend Christopher Atkins. Lane later remarked, "It was reckless behavior that comes from having too much independence too young."^[2] She returned to New York and moved in with a friend's family, paying them rent. In 1981, she enrolled in high school after taking correspondence courses. However, Lane's mother kidnapped her and took the teenager back to Georgia. Lane and her father challenged her mother in court and six weeks later she was back in New York. Lane did not speak to her mother for the subsequent three years, but they have since reconciled.^[2]

Career[link]

Early work[link]

Lane's maternal grandmother, Eleanor Scott, was a thrice-married Pentecostal preacher of the Apostolic denomination, and Lane was influenced by the theatrical quality of her grandmother's sermons.^[3][4] Lane began acting professionally at the age of six at the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York, where she appeared in a production of Medea. At 12 she had a role in Joseph Papp's production of The Cherry Orchard with Meryl Streep.^[1] Also at this time, Lane was enrolled in an accelerated program at Hunter College High School and was put on notice when her grades suffered from her busy schedule.^[1] At 13 years old, she turned down a role in Runaways on Broadway to make her feature film debut opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance.^[2] Lane won high praise from Olivier who declared her 'The New Grace Kelly'.^[5] At the same time Lane was featured on the cover of Time, which declared her one of Hollywood's "Whiz Kids."^[6][7]

In the early 1980s, Lane made a successful transition from child actor to adult roles. Her breakout performances came with back-to-back adaptations of young adult novels by S. E. Hinton, adapted and directed by Francis Ford Coppola: The Outsiders in 1982 and Rumble Fish in 1983. Both films also featured memorable performances from a number of young male actors who would go on to become leading men in the next decade (as well as members of the so-called "Brat Pack"), including Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, the late Patrick Swayze, Mickey Rourke, Nicolas Cage, and Matt Dillon.^[1] Lane's distinction among these heavily male casts advanced her career while affiliating her with this young generation of male actors. Andy Warhol proclaimed her, "the undisputed female lead of Hollywood's new rat pack."^[8]

However, the two films that could have catapulted her to star status, Streets of Fire (she turned down Splash and Risky Business for this film)^[5][9] and The Cotton Club, were both commercial and critical failures, and her career languished as a result.^[1] After The Cotton Club, Lane dropped out of the movie business and lived with her mother in Georgia.^[10] According to the actress, "I hadn't been close to my mom for a long time, so we had a lot of homework to do. We had to repair our relationship because I wanted my mother back".^[11]

Lane at the 41st Emmy Awards on September 17, 1989.

Lane returned to acting to appear in The Big Town and Lady Beware, but it was not until 1989's popular and critically acclaimed TV miniseries Lonesome Dove that Lane made another big impression on a sizable audience,^[10] and was nominated for an Emmy Award^[12] for her role. She was given positive reviews for her performance in the independent film My New Gun, which was well received at the Cannes Film Festival. She went on to appear as actress Paulette Goddard in Sir Richard Attenborough's big-budget biopic of Charles Chaplin, 1992's Chaplin.^[8] Lane won further praise for her role in 1999's A Walk on the Moon, opposite Viggo Mortensen. One reviewer wrote, "Lane, after years in post-teenaged-career limbo, is meltingly effective."^[13] The film's director, Tony Goldwyn, described Lane as having "...this potentially volcanic sexuality that is in no way self-conscious or opportunistic."^[14] Lane earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead. At this time, she was interested in making a film about actress Jean Seberg in which she would play Seberg.^[15]

Recent work[link]

In 2000, Lane had a supporting role as Mark Wahlberg's love interest in The Perfect Storm. In 2002, she starred in Unfaithful, a drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and adapted from the French film The Unfaithful Wife. Lane played a housewife who indulges in an adulterous fling with a mysterious book dealer. The film featured several sex scenes. Lyne's repeated takes for these scenes were very demanding for the actors involved, especially for Lane, who had to be emotionally and physically fit for the duration.^[16] Unfaithful received mostly mixed to negative reviews, though Lane earned widespread praise for her performance. Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman stated that "Lane, in the most urgent performance of her career, is a revelation. The play of lust, romance, degradation, and guilt on her face is the movie's real story."^[17] She followed that film up with Under the Tuscan Sun, based on the best-selling book by Frances Mayes.

In 2008, Lane reunited with Richard Gere for the romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe. It is the third film Gere and Lane filmed together. The film was based on the novel of the same title by Nicholas Sparks. Lane also co-starred in Jumper, and Untraceable in the same year. She then appeared in Killshot with Mickey Rourke, which was given a limited theatrical release before being released on DVD in 2009. While promoting Nights in Rodanthe, she expressed frustration with being typecast and stated that she was "gunning for something that's not so sympathetic. I need to be a bitch, and I need to be in a comedy. I've decided. No more Miss Nice Guy."^[18] The actress has even contemplated quitting acting and spending more time with her family if she is unable to get these kinds of roles. She said in an interview, "I can't do anything official. My agents won't let me. Between you and me, I don't have anything else coming out."^[18]

In 2010, Lane starred in Secretariat, a Disney film about the relationship between the 1973 Triple Crown-winning racehorse and his owner, Penny Chenery, whom Lane portrayed.^[19] In 2011, it was announced that Lane would play Martha Kent in Zack Snyder's Superman film, " Man of Steel," that will be released in theaters on June 14th, 2013. Snyder said of her casting, "We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination."^[20]

Awards[link]

Four days before the New York Film Critics Circle's vote in 2002, Lane was given a career tribute by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. A day before that, Lyne held a dinner for the actress at the Four Seasons Hotel. Critics and award voters were invited to both.^[21] She went on to win the National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle awards and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2003, she was named ShoWest's 2003 Female Star of the Year, ^[22] and was also a co-recipient of the Women in Film Crystal Award honoring outstanding women in entertainment.^[23]

Lane ranked at #79 on VH1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars. She was ranked #45 on AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women in 2005,^[24] #85 in 2006^[25] and #98 in 2007.^[26]

Personal life[link]

Marriages and family[link]

Lane with husband Josh Brolin in December 2009.

Lane met actor Christopher Lambert in Paris while promoting The Cotton Club in 1984.^[2] They had a brief affair and split up. They met again two years later in Rome to make a film together, entitled After the Rain, and in two weeks they were a couple again. Lane and Lambert married in October 1988 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.^[2] They had a daughter, Eleanor Jasmine Lambert (born September 5, 1993), and were divorced following a prolonged separation in 1994.^[27]

Lane became engaged to actor Josh Brolin in July 2003^[28] and they were married on August 15, 2004.^[29] On December 20 of that year, she called police after an altercation with him, and he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of domestic battery. Lane declined to press charges, however, and the couple's spokesperson described the incident as a "misunderstanding."^[30]

Charity work[link]

Lane is also involved in several charities, including Heifer International, which focuses on world hunger, and Artists for Peace and Justice, a Hollywood organization that supports Haiti relief. However, she tries not to draw attention to her humanitarian efforts: "Sometimes I give with my heart. Sometimes I give financially, but there's something about [helping others] that I think ought to be anonymous. I don't want it to be a boastful thing."^[31]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca. Confidence: The Ultimate Seducer. Men's Health. Accessed March 25, 2010.
• Radziwill, Carole. Gorgeous At Any Age: Diane Lane. Glamour magazine. September 1, 2008. Accessed March 25, 2010.
• Saroyan, Strawberry. Diane Lane: a fortysomething sex symbol. Daily Telegraph. October 5, 2008. Accessed March 25, 2010.
• Robinson, Tasha. Interview: Diane Lane. The Onion A.V. Club. October 7, 2010. Accessed October 8, 2010.
• Diane Lane: Her Best Roles - Empire magazine
• Kaplan, Michael. Diane Lane: A Career with a View . Movieline. April 1, 1996. Accessed June 30, 2011.
• Rebello, Stephen. Diane Lane: Sudden Lane Changes. Movieline. October 1, 2003. Accessed June 30, 2011.
• Hensley, Dennis. Diane Lane: Lane Changes. Movieline. June 1, 2000. Accessed June 30, 2011.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Diane Lane

• Diane Lane at the Internet Movie Database
• Diane Lane at AllRovi
• Diane Lane at Yahoo! Movies
• Diane Lane at Film Reference
• Diane Lane at Emmys.com

Richard Gere
Gere in Venice, 2007
Born	Richard Tiffany Gere (1949-08-31) August 31, 1949 (age 62) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present
Notable work(s)	Pretty Woman, Dr. T & the Women, Chicago, Primal Fear, First Knight
Religion	Buddhist
Spouse	Cindy Crawford (1991–1995) Carey Lowell (2002–present)
Children	Son

Richard Tiffany Gere^[1] ( /ˈɡɪər/ GEER; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol. He went on to star in several hit films including An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, and Chicago, for which he won a Golden Globe Award as Best Actor, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award as part of the Best Cast.

Early life[link]

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gere is a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims Francis Eaton, John Billington, George Soule, Richard Warren, Degory Priest, William Brewster, and Francis Cooke.^[1] His paternal great-grandfather had changed the spelling of the surname from "Geer".^[1] Gere's mother, Doris Ann (née Tiffany, born 1924),^[1] was a homemaker, and his father, Homer George Gere (born 1922),^[1] was an insurance agent for the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and had originally intended to become a minister.^[2] Gere is their eldest son and second child.^[1] In 1967, he graduated from North Syracuse Central High School, where he excelled at gymnastics and music, playing the trumpet.^[2] He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a gymnastics scholarship, majoring in philosophy, but did not graduate, leaving after two years.^[2][3]

Career[link]

Gere first worked professionally at the Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in 1971 where he starred in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. His first major acting role was in the original London stage version of Grease in 1973.^[2] He began appearing in Hollywood films in the mid 1970s, co-starring in the thriller Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and playing the leading role in director Terrence Malick's well-reviewed 1978 film, Days of Heaven.^[2] In 1980, Gere appeared in the Broadway production of Bent. He became a major star that year with the film American Gigolo, followed by the romantic drama An Officer and a Gentleman, which grossed almost $130 million in 1982.^[4]

After 1982, Gere's career experienced several box office failures^[5][6] until it strengthened with the release of both Internal Affairs and Pretty Woman in 1990. Gere's status as a leading man solidified and he went on to star in several successful films throughout the 1990s, including Sommersby (1993), Primal Fear (1996), and Runaway Bride (1999) which reunited him with his Pretty Woman co-star Julia Roberts.^[5] Richard also took a leading role in the 1997 action movie The Jackal, playing Declan Mulqueen.

People magazine named Gere the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1999. In 2002, he appeared in three major releases: the horror thriller The Mothman Prophecies, the drama Unfaithful, and the Academy Award-winning film version of Chicago,^[2] for which he won a Golden Globe as "Best Actor – Comedy or Musical". Gere's 2004 ballroom dancing drama Shall We Dance? was also a solid performer that grossed $170 million worldwide^[7] though his next film, 2005's Bee Season, was a commercial failure.^[8]

Gere was Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals' "Man of the Year" for 2006. In 2007, he co-starred with Jesse Eisenberg and Terrence Howard in The Hunting Party, a comic thriller in which he played a journalist in Bosnia. The same year he also starred with Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Cate Blanchett in Todd Haynes' semi-biographical film about Bob Dylan, I'm Not There.

Gere co-starred with Diane Lane in the romantic drama Nights in Rodanthe, released in 2008. The film was widely panned by critics^[9] (even making #74 on The Times Worst Films of 2008 list),^[10] but grossed over $84 million worldwide.^[11]

In December 2010, Gere was honored for his lifetime achievement from the 34th Cairo International Film Festival.^[12]

In 2012, Gere was the 67th recipient of The George Eastman Award for distinguished contribution to the art of film for his distinguished acting career as well as his global humanitarian leadership.

Personal life and activism[link]

Gere presented with a Khata by the 14th Dalai Lama

Gere was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995. In 2002, he married model and actress Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in 2000 and is named after Gere's father.^[2]

Gere was raised by Methodist parents;^[13] his interest in Buddhism began when in his twenties.^[14] Gere first studied Zen Buddhism^[14] under Kyozan Joshu Sasaki.^[14] After having studied Zen for five or six years,^[14] Gere traveled to Nepal in 1978 with the Brazilian painter, Sylvia Martins^[15] where he met many Tibetan monks and lamas.^[15] He then met the 14th Dalai Lama in India^[14] and became a practicing Buddhist of the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism^[14] and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.^[2] Gere visits Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile, regularly.^[16]

Gere is also a persistent advocate for human rights in Tibet; he is a co-founder of the Tibet House, creator of The Gere Foundation, and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Campaign for Tibet. Because he strongly supports the Tibetan Independence Movement, he is permanently banned from entering the People's Republic of China.^[17][18] Gere was banned as an Academy Award presenter in 1993 after he denounced the Chinese government in his capacity as presenter.^[19][20] In September 2007, Gere called for the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to put pressure on China to make Tibet independent. He starred in Free Tibet-themed Lancia commercial featuring the Lancia Delta.^[21] On June 27, 2011 Richard Gere meditated in Borobudur temple.^[22]

Gere Visits USAID HIV / AIDS "Operation Lighthouse" Project In Mumbai, as part of USAID.

Richard Gere actively supports Survival International, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and lands of tribal peoples throughout the world.^[15] He contributed some of his writing for the book, We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009.^[23] Richard Gere discusses the persecution and loss of land of the Jummas, as an example of a tragic story that repeats itself in different continents of the world. He calls attention to the crime against their peaceful culture and how it reflects on our own relationship with nature and capacity to survive.^[24] The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organization, Survival International.

Gere campaigns for ecological causes and AIDS awareness. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Healing the Divide, an organization that supports global initiatives to promote peace, justice and understanding.^[25] He helped to establish the AIDS Care Home, a residential facility in India for women and children with AIDS, and also supports campaigns for AIDS awareness and education that country. In 1999, he created the Gere Foundation India Trust to support a variety of humanitarian programs in India.^[26]

On April 15, 2007, Gere appeared at an AIDS awareness rally in Jaipur, India. During a live news conference to promote condom use among truck drivers, he embraced Bollywood superstar Shilpa Shetty, dipped her, and kissed her several times on the cheek.^[27] As a result of that gesture, a local court ordered the arrest of Gere and Shetty, finding them in violation "public obscenity" laws. Gere, who quickly fled the country, has said the controversy was "manufactured by a small hard-line political party." About a month later, a two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, described the case as "frivolous" and believed that such complaints (against celebrities) were filed for "cheap publicity" and have brought a bad name to the country. They ruled that "Richard Gere is free to enter the country. This is the end of the matter."^[28]

In June 2008, Gere appeared in a Fiat commercial for the European market, driving a new Lancia Delta from Hollywood to Tibet. The commercial concluded with a tagline of "New Lancia Delta: the power to be different". The commercial was reported in Chinese newspapers, and Fiat apologized to the PRC.^[29] Branding expert John Tantillo argued that Fiat had foreseen the controversy the ad would cause and hoped to benefit from press coverage it would receive, labeling it "adpublitizing".^[30]

Honours and awards[link]

On 17 May 2012 Albanian President, Bamir Topi awarded with the "Medal of Gratitude" Mr. Richard Gere with citation: "With gratitude and honor outstanding personality of the world art, great humanist and activist for the protection of human rights, which unmasked and the American public made ​​known, and further, inhuman crimes, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, in 1999, the Serbian military machine against the Albanian civilian population living in its land".^[31]

Political views[link]

Invasion of Iraq[link]

Gere has stated that the decision to go to war in Iraq was one that the American people were not in support of and that the administration at the time “bullied” Americans into the decision. He blamed the situation on a very “poor president”.^[32]

“I'm very sorry about what the U.S. has done in Iraq. This war has been a tragedy for everyone. I hope that the people of Iraq can rebuild their country," Richard Gere said in a press conference, held on the sidelines of the 34th Cairo International Film Festival.^[33]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Richard Gere

• Richard Gere at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Gere at the Internet Broadway Database
• Richard Gere at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Defended India's nuclear tests
• The Gere Foundation
• The Druk White Lotus School (external link) of which Gere is an Honorary Patron.
• Shambhala Sun Interview