The Celebrity Truth

Until recently, Hollywood actor Richard Gere was facing obscenity charges in India for publicly kissing a Bollywood star – which Gere described on Tuesday as being a badge of courage.

Gere made headlines when he flamboyantly dipped Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, winner of the British reality television show ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, and kissed her several times on the cheek, at an anti-AIDS show in New Delhi last year.

"It’s a badge of somewhat insane courage," Gere told Reuters during a visit to San Francisco on Tuesday (April 8).

"It is a very complex society."

In March, India’s Supreme Court suspended the legal proceedings and granted Gere permission to again travel to and from India.

Gere was visiting San Francisco to attend a pro-Tibet rally, ahead of the running of the Olympic torch in the city on Wednesday.

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Photo courtesy of Screen Gems.