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Celebs endorsing presidential candidates

As the presidential race kicks into full gear, celebrities are backing their favorite candidates, with many of them getting out on the campaign trail. By far, Team Hillary and Team Bernie have the largest number of celebs who have come out in support of their presidential runs. But there are notable supporters on the Republican side as well, including Country music legend Loretta Lynn for Donald Trump and former NBA star Charles Barkely touting John Kasich.

Check out who your favorite celebs are rooting for...

Katy Perry

Singer Katy Perry took to the stage with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally with former President Bill Clinton, in Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 24, 2015.

Perry even took over Clinton's Instagram account to show off her Hillary 2016 nails, a post garnering over 26,000 likes, and gave Clinton a POTUS gold necklace for the candidate's birthday.

Dennis Rodman

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman tweeted his support and praised Donald Trump: "@realDonaldTrump has been a great friend for many years. We don't need another politician, we need a businessman like Mr. Trump! Trump 2016."

Phil Robertson

Reality TV's "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson (L) holds his bible as he stands on stage with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz for an endorsement during a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina, Feb. 19, 2016.

Tim Allen

Tim Allen dissed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton speaking to Fox News in 2015. He supports John Kasich and said, ""I went to see him at an L.A. town meeting, which is usually a very liberal forum ... He talked about poor people -- the underprivileged and the working poor. It was very un-Republican. He's a Republican that a Democrat could vote for."

Susan Sarandon

Actress Susan Sarandon is very politically active and has has taken to the campaign trail on behalf of Bernie Sanders. She's stumped for him in Iowa, Nevada and Maine.

Donnie Wahlberg

Actor/singer Donnie Wahlberg, who stars in CBS' "Blue Bloods," speaks on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio during a rally at the Texas Station Hotel and Casino in North Las Vegas, Feb. 21, 2016.

James Woods

Actor James Woods, best known for "White House Down" and "Once Upon a Time in America," made his stance known tweeting, "@SenTedCruz and I just spoke for 40 minutes by phone about our love of this country. This man is the real deal. I'm all in! #TedCruz #tcot"

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (L) helped Ohio Governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich (C) campaign at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, March 6, 2016.

Schwarzenegger, known for his super popular "Terminator" films, gave Kasich a jacket with "Made Especially for John Kasich Governator II" stitched on the inside.

Charles Barkley

On ESPN's "Mike & Mike Show" former NBA star Charles Barkley said of Republican John Kasich, "He's the only person that I'm really paying attention to right now, to be honest with you." Though Barkley admitted to usually voting Republican he said, "there's not a Democrat in the race that I like."

Montel Williams

Television personality Montel Williams wrote in a "USA Today" op-ed piece, "I left the Republican Party in the early 1990s to become independent, but I'm now excited about the GOP for the first time since then -- and it's because Ohio Gov. John Kasich is running for president."

Emily Ratajkowski

Model Emily Ratajkowski actively campaigned for Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, introducing the candidate during an event at the University of New Hampshire.

Referencing Gloria Steinem's controversial comments on why young women support Sanders, the 24-year-old said, "I'm here because I support Bernie Sanders... I'm not here for the boys."

Spike Lee

Politically active filmmaker Spike Lee officially endorsed Bernie Sanders Feb. 23, 2016 with a radio ad airing in South Carolina ahead of the Democratic primary.

In the ad, Lee states, "Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he is not on the take, and when Bernie gets in the White House he will do the right thing."

Sarah Silverman

Comedian/actress Sarah Silverman introduced Bernie Sanders at a large rally in Los Angeles in Aug. 2015 and headlined a fundraiser for the candidate at Hollywood's Laugh Factory in Jan. 2016.

Neil Young

Singer/songwriter Neil Young was pretty upset with Donald Trump for using his "Rockin' in the Free World" anthem without permission when he announced his candidacy. Young made it clear in a statement about the unauthorized use that he supported Bernie Sanders. To drive the point home, Young lets Sanders use that very same song on the campaign trail.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Alex Ebert, lead singer and songwriter of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros helped create a campaign song which can be heard in Bernie Sanders' video "Feel the Bern."

Simon & Garfunkel

Add Paul Simon (R) and Art Garfunkel (L) to the Bernie Sanders musical bandwagon, emphasizing the candidates' roots in the 60s protest era. The duo appeared in a Sanders TV spot, which featured their song "America."

Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow tweeted, "Bernie Sanders is pretty great. He doesn't pander, is consistent and clear on important issues."

Graham Nash & David Crosby

Musicians Graham Nash (L) and David Crosby, who were famously involved in the 1960s protest movement, support Bernie Sanders and signed their names to an endorsement letter along with fellow bandmate Neil Young.

Harry Belafonte

Entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, making the announcement in a video released on "YouTube" by the campaign.

Belafonte said, "I think he represents opportunity, I think he represents a moral imperative, I think he represents a certain kind of truth that's not often evidenced in the course of politics."

Danny DeVito

Actor Danny DeVito has expressed his support for Bernie Sanders by tweeting, "Bernie Sanders ... you're our only hope Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Dave Matthews

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Dave Matthews, who is also a Farm Aid board member, supported Barack Obama in the past.

Matthews told Rolling Stone, "When I hear someone like Bernie Sanders talking, I think there's a hope."

Will Ferrell

While Will Ferrell may have played George W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live," he leans Democratic politically.

He was, until very recently, on Bernie Sanders' celebrity endorsements list on the campaign website. However, on Feb. 20, 2016, Hillary Clinton tweeted a video of Ferrell encouraging people to vote with the message, "Will Ferrell has a message for you, Nevada: Caucus for Hillary today at 11 AM. Your location: hillaryclinton.com/nevada."

Justin Long

Actor Justin Long does a Snapchat recording with MaryAlice Parks of ABC at the Iowa campaign headquarters for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 28, 2016.

Long's name is on the Artists and Cultural Leaders for Bernie Sanders page of the Sanders campaign website.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers has lent their musical firepower to the Bernie Sanders campaign by headlining a Los Angeles concert fundraiser. All four members of the group signed an endorsement letter which was posted to the campaign's website.

Jeremy Piven

Actor Jeremy Piven posted a Bernie Sanders video on his Facebook page with the comment, "Straight talk you guys, we need it."

Mark Ruffalo

"I think Sanders has a message" actor Mark Ruffalo told The Daily Beast. "He's the one. And he's been there, man."

Ruffalo praised Sanders as a vocal critic of Wall Street.

Lee Greenwood

Musician Lee Greenwood shows his support by singing before a campaign rally for Republican Marco Rubio in Franklin, Tennessee, Feb. 21, 2016.

Rick Harrison

Rick Harrison of the PBS television show "Pawn Stars" speaks on behalf of Marco Rubio during a rally at the Texas Station Hotel and Casino in North Las Vegas, Feb. 21, 2016.

Loretta Lynn

Country music legend Loretta Lynn said she is sold on Trump, but that Ted Cruz was her second choice.

Lou Ferrigno

Though actor Lou Ferrigno of Hulk fame was fired by The Donald from "Celebrity Apprentice" he bears no ill will. Ferrigno believes Trump can keep America safe and told TMZ in July 2015 "I wish Donald the best. He's a fabulous guy. I hope he goes all the way."

Paul O'Neill

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hugs former New York Yankees MLB baseball star Paul O'Neill (R) at a press conference after primary results at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, March 8, 2016.

Trump pointed out O'Neill, who works as a broadcaster for Trump's YES Network, in the audience and asked if the former Yankee would endorse him. O'Neill responded, "I'm here."

Azealia Banks

In what can only be described as an epic political Twitter rant (read: series of tweets), Rapper Azealia Banks emphatically stated she would be voting for The Donald to "Put a piece of (expletive) in the White House." She added, "In conclusion, I think Donald trump is evil like America is evil and in order for America to keep up with itself it needs him."

Willie Robertson

Dressed in patriotic red, white and blue, television personality Willie Robertson from the show "Duck Dynasty" showed his support by introducing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Outdoor Channel and Sportsman Channel's 16th annual Outdoor Sportsman Awards at The Venetian in Las Vegas, January 2016.

Kirstie Alley

Kirstie Alley claims not to have picked a candidate yet, but has repeatedly praised Trump.

Alley had a bone to pick with Scott Pelley's interview with Donald Trump on "60 Minutes" accusing of the reporter of aggressive questioning. She made known her feelings in a round of tweets.

Mike Tyson

Speaking about Donald Trump, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson told HuffPost Live's Alex Miranda, "He should be president of the United States."

Tyson elaborated by adding "Let's try something new. Let's run America like a business, where no colors matter. Whoever can do the job, gets the job."

Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen first dissed Donald Trump and his run for office, tweeting very pointed words including, "You're a shame pile of idiocy" in July 2015. That soon followed in Aug. with a new tweet, "... If Trump will hv me I'd be his VP in a heartbeat! #TrumpSheet16."

Stephen Baldwin

Yet another actor, Stephen Baldwin, who was fired by Donald Trump on "Celebrity Apprentice" supports the candidate.

Baldwin told "CNN Tonight" host Don Lemon in July 2015, ""I think he's fantastic. I love him. I think he'd make a great president."

Kid Rock

Singer/rapper Kid Rock supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. He told Rolling Stone this time around, "I'm digging Trump."

Earlier in the campaign he was leaning in another direction and told The New York Times Magazine, "I'm very interested in the things that Ben Carson has to say."

Ted Nugent

Musician and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent wrote, "Know it, Donald Trump is the hell raiser America has needed for a very longtime." The rocker concluded, "He & Ted Cruz may be the only hope to end the criminal jihad on America by our own corrupt punk ass government, media & bigBiz goons."

Gary Busey

Referring to Donald Trump, Gary Busey told FOX411, "He's a great guy. He's sharp. He's fast. He can change the country after the last eight years."

Wayne Newton

The politically conservative "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton told Fox News that Trump tells it like it is.

Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek not only supports Clinton, but she helped launch the "Latinos for Hillary" campaign.

Magic Johnson

Former NBC star Magic Johnson supported Clinton's first run for president and is stepping up once again tweeting, "I feel @HillaryClinton will be a great President for the American people and she will make sure that everyone has a voice!"

Demi Lovato

Singer Demi Lovato joined Clinton at a campaign event in Iowa City, Jan. 21, 2016, where she sang her hit single, "Confident." The 23-year-old pop star also performed at the candidate's birthday bash.

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez told E! at the MTV Movie Awards, "I'm very excited by the news," a few hours after Clinton declared her candidacy.

Lena Dunham

Actress and screenwriter Lena Dunham of "Girls" fame has actively campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Here, she attended a campaign event at Eight Seven Central screen printers in Des Moines, Jan. 9, 2016.

At one stop, Dunham told those gathered, "I find her conviction very moving and her tenacity astounding."

John Legend

John Legend sang at Hillary Clinton's 68th birthday bash, with a star-studded guest list in attendance, that doubled as a fundraiser, Oct. 26, 2015.

America Ferrera & Eva Longoria

The former "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera (2nd from right) teamed up with fellow Latina Eva Longoria (L) of "Desperate Housewives" and "Telenovela" fame the night before the Nevada caucus to drum up support for Clinton at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas, Feb. 19, 2016. Here, they can be seen posing on stage with Chelsea, Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Ferrera joked in Nevada at one Clinton campaign rally, "I have a strong feeling Hillary and I could be BFFs if you'd just give me a chance." Out campaigning, Ferrera has said, "What we don't need in this country is a revolution. We need an evolution."

Beyoncé

Beyoncé appeared at a Clinton fundraiser.

Morgan Freeman

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman told CNN's Don Lemon that he was supporting Clinton. The actor, with the much recognized voice, narrated a recent Clinton campaign ad, titled "All the good," about the early part of the candidate's career right after law school.

Shonda Rhimes

Among the 17 celebrity women who came out in support of Clinton in the #ImWithHer campaign video is Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes.

Rhimes states in the video, "I'm with her because I want to maintain my freedoms," Rhimes says. "I'm with her because I want my daughters to grow up safe. And I'm with her because every child in this country deserves an equal shot at the American Dream."

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde told "The Daily Beast" that Clinton's position on healthcare reform and women's rights won her support.

Snoop Dogg

Rapper Snoop Dogg briefly flirted with the Republican side of the fence in 2012 endorsing Texas Republican Ron Paul because of his views on marijuana, before coming around to President Barack Obama's side.

Now Snoop is supporting Clinton and told Bravo TV, "I'll say that I would love to see a woman in office because I feel like we're at that stage in life to where we need a perspective other then the male's train of thought."

Richard Gere

Actor Richard Gere donated $2,700 to Clinton's campaign, "The Hill" reported.

Uzo Aduba

"Orange is the New Black" cast members Uzo Aduba (seen here) and Dascha Polanco appeared in a Clinton campaign ad explaining why they were going to vote for the candidate.

Aduba states, "This is someone who I feel goes home and thinks about us."

Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen

Actor Ted Danson and his wife, actress Mary Steenburgen, attend a "Get Out the Vote" campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Hudson, New Hampshire, Feb. 8, 2016.

Danson, who stars on "CSI: Cyber," for CBS, and Steenburgen have been friends with the Clintons for a number of years. Bill Clinton even walked Steenburgen down the aisle when the couple tied the knot in 1995. The two campaigned for Hillary Clinton in her first shot at the Democratic nomination.

Kerry Washington

"Scandal" star Kerry Washington supported President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and even spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Washington told "Entertainment Tonight," in commenting on Hillary Clinton's campaign announcement, "I'm very thrilled. I'm excited for her, and I'm sure I'll be hitting the stump trial."

Abby Wambach

Former U.S. Women's National Soccer Team captain Abby Wambach is seen here waiting to be introduced to a crowd at a Hillary Clinton campaign office on Jan. 9, 2016 in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Wambach highlighted Clinton's commitment to standing up for women and girls.

Kendall Jenner

Model Kendall Jenner showed her support for Clinton by posting a photo of herself wearing a Clinton t-shirt with the tweet, "Shirt by @themarcjacobs. History by @hillaryclinton. hrc.io/MadeForHistory #MadeForHistory #ImWithHer."

Kat Dennings

Kat Dennings of "2 Broke Girls" on CBS voiced her political preference by simply tweeting "Hillary" followed by an emoji of an American flag and a heart after Clinton's announcement she was running for president.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis took to the campaign trail in Iowa for Clinton. According to "The Des Moines Register" she told an audience in Waukee, Iowa "Hillary Cinton is the merit-based candidate in this election," adding "experience will trump everything."

Amy Poehler

Actress and comedienne Amy Poehler simply tweeted, "Yay!!" about Clinton's campaign.

Her fellow "Parks and Recreation" star Retta is Team Hillary too.

Kate McKinnon

The "Saturday Night Live" Hillary Clinton portrayer, Kate McKinnon, is a real life fan of the presidential aspirant.

Ne-Yo

American R&B singer Ne-Yo told "The Hill" Clinton is a favorite of his and he's, "Looking forward to seeing what happens to her when she gets into a position of power, so to speak."

Carole King

Songwriter Carole King actively urged voters in New Hampshire to turn out to vote for Clinton.

Though King went to high school in Brooklyn with Bernie Sanders, she's a Clinton fan. King told seacoastline.com, "Why I'm still out there, strongly supporting Hillary, is I want to make sure the right person gets the job and I think that she is the best person ... the most qualified."

Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Eisenberg is one of many celebrities who have contributed financially to the Clinton campaign, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Padma Lakshmi

"Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi called Clinton "our next president." She tweeted a Rosie the Riveter image with Clinton's face superimposed and the words "Oh yes, it will finally happen. #Hillary 2016."

Rosie O'Donnell

It's not a secret there's no love loss between actress Rosie O'Donnell and The Donald. O'Donnell showed her support for Clinton by appearing in the #ImWithHer campaign video.

Jon Bon Jovi

Though the Jersey connection did seem to play a role in Jon Bon Jovi letting Republican Gov. Chris Christie use his music at a campaign launch event, the singer lent his star power to a Clinton fundraiser hosted by him and his wife, Dorothea.

Ariana Grande

Singer Ariana Grande responded to Clinton's run for office with "yaaas @hillaryclinton" on Twitter.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson of "Modern Family" has been super active on Twitter in support of Clinton including this tweet, "I have an announcement: I'm not running for president. Yay #Hillary 2016 !"

Gina Rodriguez

"The Jane The Virgin" star Gina Rodriguez took part in the #ImWithHer video explaining she supported Clinton "because she is fighting for immigration reform and fighting to keep our families together."

First published on February 25, 2016 / 11:32 AM

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Gere caught in India's Aids dispute

Rightwingers attack the Buddhist actor for an article citing CIA statistics they claim are exaggerated

The actor Richard Gere yesterday became the latest celebrity to become embroiled in the row over the spread of HIV/Aids in India when rightwing campaigners accused him of getting his figures wrong, and of being "snide" and "insidious".

The 53-year-old Buddhist - a frequent visitor to the Indian hill station of Dharamsala, where his friend the Dalai Lama lives - visited a home for HIV/Aids patients in New Delhi yesterday.

After staff daubed a red tilak or Hindu mark on his forehead, Mr Gere announced that he was donating $50,000 (£31,000) for a new facility for HIV-positive women and children.

"This country could be destroyed in a matter of 10 years by a disease that nobody cares about," he said.

But the actor's philanthropic gesture was overshadowed by a row over an article Mr Gere wrote in last week's Times of India.

In it, he alluded to a recent CIA report, which said that between 20 million and 25 million Indians were likely to be HIV positive by 2008 - a figure at odds with the Indian government's estimates.

Indian officials claim four million Indians are HIV positive, and say the problem has "stabilised".

"We are extremely concerned at the manner in which one foreign celebrity after another is choosing to ignore Indian ground realities to highlight instead the CIA estimates of an immense Aids crisis in this country," Purushothaman Mulloli, a conservative Indian Aids campaigner said.

The actor had launched a "relentless and hysterical attack" against the Indian government's credibility and was guilty of spreading "insidious, frightening propaganda," he added, in an open letter to Mr Gere.

The row is reminiscent of the treatment that Bill Gates received in India last month. India's health minister, Shatrugan Sinha, accused Mr Gates of "spreading panic", after the Microsoft chairman gave $100m for Aids prevention in India while citing the same CIA report.

Asked by the Guardian yesterday whether he was "snide and insidious", Gere replied: "The argument over numbers is irrelevant. We are talking about large numbers of people. There is nothing snide about the suffering of our brothers and sisters."

After touring the home, Gere went to meet the Dalai Lama at a convention in New Delhi.

"Gere doesn't come across as a celebrity," Anjali Gopalan, the director of the Naz Foundation, which will run the new care home, said last night.

"He is one of the few men I have met who is really grounded and spiritual."

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Celebs endorsing presidential candidates

As the presidential race kicks into full gear, celebrities are backing their favorite candidates, with many of them getting out on the campaign trail. By far, Team Hillary and Team Bernie have the largest number of celebs who have come out in support of their presidential runs. But there are notable supporters on the Republican side as well, including Country music legend Loretta Lynn for Donald Trump and former NBA star Charles Barkely touting John Kasich.

Check out who your favorite celebs are rooting for...

Katy Perry

Singer Katy Perry took to the stage with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally with former President Bill Clinton, in Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 24, 2015.

Perry even took over Clinton's Instagram account to show off her Hillary 2016 nails, a post garnering over 26,000 likes, and gave Clinton a POTUS gold necklace for the candidate's birthday.

Dennis Rodman

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman tweeted his support and praised Donald Trump: "@realDonaldTrump has been a great friend for many years. We don't need another politician, we need a businessman like Mr. Trump! Trump 2016."

Phil Robertson

Reality TV's "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson (L) holds his bible as he stands on stage with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz for an endorsement during a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina, Feb. 19, 2016.

Tim Allen

Tim Allen dissed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton speaking to Fox News in 2015. He supports John Kasich and said, ""I went to see him at an L.A. town meeting, which is usually a very liberal forum ... He talked about poor people -- the underprivileged and the working poor. It was very un-Republican. He's a Republican that a Democrat could vote for."

Susan Sarandon

Actress Susan Sarandon is very politically active and has has taken to the campaign trail on behalf of Bernie Sanders. She's stumped for him in Iowa, Nevada and Maine.

Donnie Wahlberg

Actor/singer Donnie Wahlberg, who stars in CBS' "Blue Bloods," speaks on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio during a rally at the Texas Station Hotel and Casino in North Las Vegas, Feb. 21, 2016.

James Woods

Actor James Woods, best known for "White House Down" and "Once Upon a Time in America," made his stance known tweeting, "@SenTedCruz and I just spoke for 40 minutes by phone about our love of this country. This man is the real deal. I'm all in! #TedCruz #tcot"

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (L) helped Ohio Governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich (C) campaign at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, March 6, 2016.

Schwarzenegger, known for his super popular "Terminator" films, gave Kasich a jacket with "Made Especially for John Kasich Governator II" stitched on the inside.

Charles Barkley

On ESPN's "Mike & Mike Show" former NBA star Charles Barkley said of Republican John Kasich, "He's the only person that I'm really paying attention to right now, to be honest with you." Though Barkley admitted to usually voting Republican he said, "there's not a Democrat in the race that I like."

Montel Williams

Television personality Montel Williams wrote in a "USA Today" op-ed piece, "I left the Republican Party in the early 1990s to become independent, but I'm now excited about the GOP for the first time since then -- and it's because Ohio Gov. John Kasich is running for president."

Emily Ratajkowski

Model Emily Ratajkowski actively campaigned for Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, introducing the candidate during an event at the University of New Hampshire.

Referencing Gloria Steinem's controversial comments on why young women support Sanders, the 24-year-old said, "I'm here because I support Bernie Sanders... I'm not here for the boys."

Spike Lee

Politically active filmmaker Spike Lee officially endorsed Bernie Sanders Feb. 23, 2016 with a radio ad airing in South Carolina ahead of the Democratic primary.

In the ad, Lee states, "Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he is not on the take, and when Bernie gets in the White House he will do the right thing."

Sarah Silverman

Comedian/actress Sarah Silverman introduced Bernie Sanders at a large rally in Los Angeles in Aug. 2015 and headlined a fundraiser for the candidate at Hollywood's Laugh Factory in Jan. 2016.

Neil Young

Singer/songwriter Neil Young was pretty upset with Donald Trump for using his "Rockin' in the Free World" anthem without permission when he announced his candidacy. Young made it clear in a statement about the unauthorized use that he supported Bernie Sanders. To drive the point home, Young lets Sanders use that very same song on the campaign trail.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Alex Ebert, lead singer and songwriter of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros helped create a campaign song which can be heard in Bernie Sanders' video "Feel the Bern."

Simon & Garfunkel

Add Paul Simon (R) and Art Garfunkel (L) to the Bernie Sanders musical bandwagon, emphasizing the candidates' roots in the 60s protest era. The duo appeared in a Sanders TV spot, which featured their song "America."

Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow tweeted, "Bernie Sanders is pretty great. He doesn't pander, is consistent and clear on important issues."

Graham Nash & David Crosby

Musicians Graham Nash (L) and David Crosby, who were famously involved in the 1960s protest movement, support Bernie Sanders and signed their names to an endorsement letter along with fellow bandmate Neil Young.

Harry Belafonte

Entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, making the announcement in a video released on "YouTube" by the campaign.

Belafonte said, "I think he represents opportunity, I think he represents a moral imperative, I think he represents a certain kind of truth that's not often evidenced in the course of politics."

Danny DeVito

Actor Danny DeVito has expressed his support for Bernie Sanders by tweeting, "Bernie Sanders ... you're our only hope Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Dave Matthews

Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Dave Matthews, who is also a Farm Aid board member, supported Barack Obama in the past.

Matthews told Rolling Stone, "When I hear someone like Bernie Sanders talking, I think there's a hope."

Will Ferrell

While Will Ferrell may have played George W. Bush on "Saturday Night Live," he leans Democratic politically.

He was, until very recently, on Bernie Sanders' celebrity endorsements list on the campaign website. However, on Feb. 20, 2016, Hillary Clinton tweeted a video of Ferrell encouraging people to vote with the message, "Will Ferrell has a message for you, Nevada: Caucus for Hillary today at 11 AM. Your location: hillaryclinton.com/nevada."

Justin Long

Actor Justin Long does a Snapchat recording with MaryAlice Parks of ABC at the Iowa campaign headquarters for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 28, 2016.

Long's name is on the Artists and Cultural Leaders for Bernie Sanders page of the Sanders campaign website.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers has lent their musical firepower to the Bernie Sanders campaign by headlining a Los Angeles concert fundraiser. All four members of the group signed an endorsement letter which was posted to the campaign's website.

Jeremy Piven

Actor Jeremy Piven posted a Bernie Sanders video on his Facebook page with the comment, "Straight talk you guys, we need it."

Mark Ruffalo

"I think Sanders has a message" actor Mark Ruffalo told The Daily Beast. "He's the one. And he's been there, man."

Ruffalo praised Sanders as a vocal critic of Wall Street.

Lee Greenwood

Musician Lee Greenwood shows his support by singing before a campaign rally for Republican Marco Rubio in Franklin, Tennessee, Feb. 21, 2016.

Rick Harrison

Rick Harrison of the PBS television show "Pawn Stars" speaks on behalf of Marco Rubio during a rally at the Texas Station Hotel and Casino in North Las Vegas, Feb. 21, 2016.

Loretta Lynn

Country music legend Loretta Lynn said she is sold on Trump, but that Ted Cruz was her second choice.

Lou Ferrigno

Though actor Lou Ferrigno of Hulk fame was fired by The Donald from "Celebrity Apprentice" he bears no ill will. Ferrigno believes Trump can keep America safe and told TMZ in July 2015 "I wish Donald the best. He's a fabulous guy. I hope he goes all the way."

Paul O'Neill

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hugs former New York Yankees MLB baseball star Paul O'Neill (R) at a press conference after primary results at his Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, March 8, 2016.

Trump pointed out O'Neill, who works as a broadcaster for Trump's YES Network, in the audience and asked if the former Yankee would endorse him. O'Neill responded, "I'm here."

Azealia Banks

In what can only be described as an epic political Twitter rant (read: series of tweets), Rapper Azealia Banks emphatically stated she would be voting for The Donald to "Put a piece of (expletive) in the White House." She added, "In conclusion, I think Donald trump is evil like America is evil and in order for America to keep up with itself it needs him."

Willie Robertson

Dressed in patriotic red, white and blue, television personality Willie Robertson from the show "Duck Dynasty" showed his support by introducing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Outdoor Channel and Sportsman Channel's 16th annual Outdoor Sportsman Awards at The Venetian in Las Vegas, January 2016.

Kirstie Alley

Kirstie Alley claims not to have picked a candidate yet, but has repeatedly praised Trump.

Alley had a bone to pick with Scott Pelley's interview with Donald Trump on "60 Minutes" accusing of the reporter of aggressive questioning. She made known her feelings in a round of tweets.

Mike Tyson

Speaking about Donald Trump, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson told HuffPost Live's Alex Miranda, "He should be president of the United States."

Tyson elaborated by adding "Let's try something new. Let's run America like a business, where no colors matter. Whoever can do the job, gets the job."

Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen first dissed Donald Trump and his run for office, tweeting very pointed words including, "You're a shame pile of idiocy" in July 2015. That soon followed in Aug. with a new tweet, "... If Trump will hv me I'd be his VP in a heartbeat! #TrumpSheet16."

Stephen Baldwin

Yet another actor, Stephen Baldwin, who was fired by Donald Trump on "Celebrity Apprentice" supports the candidate.

Baldwin told "CNN Tonight" host Don Lemon in July 2015, ""I think he's fantastic. I love him. I think he'd make a great president."

Kid Rock

Singer/rapper Kid Rock supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. He told Rolling Stone this time around, "I'm digging Trump."

Earlier in the campaign he was leaning in another direction and told The New York Times Magazine, "I'm very interested in the things that Ben Carson has to say."

Ted Nugent

Musician and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent wrote, "Know it, Donald Trump is the hell raiser America has needed for a very longtime." The rocker concluded, "He & Ted Cruz may be the only hope to end the criminal jihad on America by our own corrupt punk ass government, media & bigBiz goons."

Gary Busey

Referring to Donald Trump, Gary Busey told FOX411, "He's a great guy. He's sharp. He's fast. He can change the country after the last eight years."

Wayne Newton

The politically conservative "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton told Fox News that Trump tells it like it is.

Salma Hayek

Salma Hayek not only supports Clinton, but she helped launch the "Latinos for Hillary" campaign.

Magic Johnson

Former NBC star Magic Johnson supported Clinton's first run for president and is stepping up once again tweeting, "I feel @HillaryClinton will be a great President for the American people and she will make sure that everyone has a voice!"

Demi Lovato

Singer Demi Lovato joined Clinton at a campaign event in Iowa City, Jan. 21, 2016, where she sang her hit single, "Confident." The 23-year-old pop star also performed at the candidate's birthday bash.

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez told E! at the MTV Movie Awards, "I'm very excited by the news," a few hours after Clinton declared her candidacy.

Lena Dunham

Actress and screenwriter Lena Dunham of "Girls" fame has actively campaigned for Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Here, she attended a campaign event at Eight Seven Central screen printers in Des Moines, Jan. 9, 2016.

At one stop, Dunham told those gathered, "I find her conviction very moving and her tenacity astounding."

John Legend

John Legend sang at Hillary Clinton's 68th birthday bash, with a star-studded guest list in attendance, that doubled as a fundraiser, Oct. 26, 2015.

America Ferrera & Eva Longoria

The former "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera (2nd from right) teamed up with fellow Latina Eva Longoria (L) of "Desperate Housewives" and "Telenovela" fame the night before the Nevada caucus to drum up support for Clinton at the Clark County Government Center in Las Vegas, Feb. 19, 2016. Here, they can be seen posing on stage with Chelsea, Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Ferrera joked in Nevada at one Clinton campaign rally, "I have a strong feeling Hillary and I could be BFFs if you'd just give me a chance." Out campaigning, Ferrera has said, "What we don't need in this country is a revolution. We need an evolution."

Beyoncé

Beyoncé appeared at a Clinton fundraiser.

Morgan Freeman

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman told CNN's Don Lemon that he was supporting Clinton. The actor, with the much recognized voice, narrated a recent Clinton campaign ad, titled "All the good," about the early part of the candidate's career right after law school.

Shonda Rhimes

Among the 17 celebrity women who came out in support of Clinton in the #ImWithHer campaign video is Executive Producer Shonda Rhimes.

Rhimes states in the video, "I'm with her because I want to maintain my freedoms," Rhimes says. "I'm with her because I want my daughters to grow up safe. And I'm with her because every child in this country deserves an equal shot at the American Dream."

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde told "The Daily Beast" that Clinton's position on healthcare reform and women's rights won her support.

Snoop Dogg

Rapper Snoop Dogg briefly flirted with the Republican side of the fence in 2012 endorsing Texas Republican Ron Paul because of his views on marijuana, before coming around to President Barack Obama's side.

Now Snoop is supporting Clinton and told Bravo TV, "I'll say that I would love to see a woman in office because I feel like we're at that stage in life to where we need a perspective other then the male's train of thought."

Richard Gere

Actor Richard Gere donated $2,700 to Clinton's campaign, "The Hill" reported.

Uzo Aduba

"Orange is the New Black" cast members Uzo Aduba (seen here) and Dascha Polanco appeared in a Clinton campaign ad explaining why they were going to vote for the candidate.

Aduba states, "This is someone who I feel goes home and thinks about us."

Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen

Actor Ted Danson and his wife, actress Mary Steenburgen, attend a "Get Out the Vote" campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Hudson, New Hampshire, Feb. 8, 2016.

Danson, who stars on "CSI: Cyber," for CBS, and Steenburgen have been friends with the Clintons for a number of years. Bill Clinton even walked Steenburgen down the aisle when the couple tied the knot in 1995. The two campaigned for Hillary Clinton in her first shot at the Democratic nomination.

Kerry Washington

"Scandal" star Kerry Washington supported President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and even spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Washington told "Entertainment Tonight," in commenting on Hillary Clinton's campaign announcement, "I'm very thrilled. I'm excited for her, and I'm sure I'll be hitting the stump trial."

Abby Wambach

Former U.S. Women's National Soccer Team captain Abby Wambach is seen here waiting to be introduced to a crowd at a Hillary Clinton campaign office on Jan. 9, 2016 in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Wambach highlighted Clinton's commitment to standing up for women and girls.

Kendall Jenner

Model Kendall Jenner showed her support for Clinton by posting a photo of herself wearing a Clinton t-shirt with the tweet, "Shirt by @themarcjacobs. History by @hillaryclinton. hrc.io/MadeForHistory #MadeForHistory #ImWithHer."

Kat Dennings

Kat Dennings of "2 Broke Girls" on CBS voiced her political preference by simply tweeting "Hillary" followed by an emoji of an American flag and a heart after Clinton's announcement she was running for president.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis took to the campaign trail in Iowa for Clinton. According to "The Des Moines Register" she told an audience in Waukee, Iowa "Hillary Cinton is the merit-based candidate in this election," adding "experience will trump everything."

Amy Poehler

Actress and comedienne Amy Poehler simply tweeted, "Yay!!" about Clinton's campaign.

Her fellow "Parks and Recreation" star Retta is Team Hillary too.

Kate McKinnon

The "Saturday Night Live" Hillary Clinton portrayer, Kate McKinnon, is a real life fan of the presidential aspirant.

Ne-Yo

American R&B singer Ne-Yo told "The Hill" Clinton is a favorite of his and he's, "Looking forward to seeing what happens to her when she gets into a position of power, so to speak."

Carole King

Songwriter Carole King actively urged voters in New Hampshire to turn out to vote for Clinton.

Though King went to high school in Brooklyn with Bernie Sanders, she's a Clinton fan. King told seacoastline.com, "Why I'm still out there, strongly supporting Hillary, is I want to make sure the right person gets the job and I think that she is the best person ... the most qualified."

Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Eisenberg is one of many celebrities who have contributed financially to the Clinton campaign, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Padma Lakshmi

"Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi called Clinton "our next president." She tweeted a Rosie the Riveter image with Clinton's face superimposed and the words "Oh yes, it will finally happen. #Hillary 2016."

Rosie O'Donnell

It's not a secret there's no love loss between actress Rosie O'Donnell and The Donald. O'Donnell showed her support for Clinton by appearing in the #ImWithHer campaign video.

Jon Bon Jovi

Though the Jersey connection did seem to play a role in Jon Bon Jovi letting Republican Gov. Chris Christie use his music at a campaign launch event, the singer lent his star power to a Clinton fundraiser hosted by him and his wife, Dorothea.

Ariana Grande

Singer Ariana Grande responded to Clinton's run for office with "yaaas @hillaryclinton" on Twitter.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson of "Modern Family" has been super active on Twitter in support of Clinton including this tweet, "I have an announcement: I'm not running for president. Yay #Hillary 2016 !"

Gina Rodriguez

"The Jane The Virgin" star Gina Rodriguez took part in the #ImWithHer video explaining she supported Clinton "because she is fighting for immigration reform and fighting to keep our families together."

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Gere caught in India's Aids dispute

Rightwingers attack the Buddhist actor for an article citing CIA statistics they claim are exaggerated

The actor Richard Gere yesterday became the latest celebrity to become embroiled in the row over the spread of HIV/Aids in India when rightwing campaigners accused him of getting his figures wrong, and of being "snide" and "insidious".

The 53-year-old Buddhist - a frequent visitor to the Indian hill station of Dharamsala, where his friend the Dalai Lama lives - visited a home for HIV/Aids patients in New Delhi yesterday.

After staff daubed a red tilak or Hindu mark on his forehead, Mr Gere announced that he was donating $50,000 (£31,000) for a new facility for HIV-positive women and children.

"This country could be destroyed in a matter of 10 years by a disease that nobody cares about," he said.

But the actor's philanthropic gesture was overshadowed by a row over an article Mr Gere wrote in last week's Times of India.

In it, he alluded to a recent CIA report, which said that between 20 million and 25 million Indians were likely to be HIV positive by 2008 - a figure at odds with the Indian government's estimates.

Indian officials claim four million Indians are HIV positive, and say the problem has "stabilised".

"We are extremely concerned at the manner in which one foreign celebrity after another is choosing to ignore Indian ground realities to highlight instead the CIA estimates of an immense Aids crisis in this country," Purushothaman Mulloli, a conservative Indian Aids campaigner said.

The actor had launched a "relentless and hysterical attack" against the Indian government's credibility and was guilty of spreading "insidious, frightening propaganda," he added, in an open letter to Mr Gere.

The row is reminiscent of the treatment that Bill Gates received in India last month. India's health minister, Shatrugan Sinha, accused Mr Gates of "spreading panic", after the Microsoft chairman gave $100m for Aids prevention in India while citing the same CIA report.

Asked by the Guardian yesterday whether he was "snide and insidious", Gere replied: "The argument over numbers is irrelevant. We are talking about large numbers of people. There is nothing snide about the suffering of our brothers and sisters."

After touring the home, Gere went to meet the Dalai Lama at a convention in New Delhi.

"Gere doesn't come across as a celebrity," Anjali Gopalan, the director of the Naz Foundation, which will run the new care home, said last night.

"He is one of the few men I have met who is really grounded and spiritual."

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A Supreme Being

ACTRESS JILL HENNESSY IS THE first to admit that the time she spent filming Autumn in New York this fall didn’t exactly constitute hard labor. Sure, she had to scramble down a ladder while dressed in heels and a full-length evening gown. But this was one gig with great benefits—and we’re not talking 401 (k). Richard Gere, as her playboy ex-boyfriend, was positioned directly above her. “There was a moment where I’m looking up at him from a rather low perspective,” says Hennessy. “And I had, shall we say, an exceptional view. I’m thinking I really have to thank God for this moment. How lucky am I? I would have paid them to work in this movie.”

Who wouldn’t? Certainly not the devoted fans who mob the set daily. “He was being filmed inside a taxi,” marvels Joan Chen, who is directing the romance, due next fall, “and all at once these women began to yell, ‘It’s Richard Gere!’ Some were just squeezing their hands and holding their heads and trying to get a better look. You see it every day.”

Actually, Gere has seen it for decades. From his career-making role as the brooding stud-for-hire who showed us his buff stuff in 1980’s American Gigolo to his crowd-pleasing performance as the rakish reporter who had us screaming “Wrong way!” at a fleeing Julia Roberts in last summer’s Runaway Bride, the 5’10” actor has had a hypnotic effect on women. “It happens everywhere,” says his close friend and 1986 Power costar Kate Capshaw. “At restaurants, walking down the street, they’re passing notes to the table, they’re sending flowers.”

A remarkably fit 50, Gere appeals to females who weren’t even born when he launched his career in 1969. What’s more: He knows it. “It’s not that far-fetched,” he told Women’s Wear Daily with characteristic cockiness when asked about the 22-year age difference between him and his Autumn costar Winona Ryder, 28. “No one would say anything if I was involved with a woman that age.”

It is exactly that swaggering confidence that has kept fans in his thrall for more than 20 years. It’s true that the tresses have silvered. And the once-angry young man is now a devout Buddhist who meditates regularly and campaigns tirelessly to free Tibet from China. His close relationship with the Dalai Lama, whom he reportedly met through his friend, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, in 1983, has added another dimension to his character. But within this mellow fellow is the soul of a rebel. Free-spirited and dangerously charming, Gere is the bad boy women love to love—even though he’s bound to break a few hearts. “Richard is kind of like a Persian cat,” says his 1995 First Knight costar Julia Or-mond. “You want the cat to give you its attention, and the cat is very independent. But when the cat wants it from you, it’s irresistible.”

Just ask Gere’s ex-wife Cindy Crawford, who, on the brink of her betrothal to Rande Gerber, admitted that she still couldn’t imagine talking to Gere on the phone. “It’s hard,” she told Redbook in August 1997. “It’s kind of like, I don’t want to fall back in love with him.”

Crawford’s loss has been Carey Lowell’s gain. The 3 8-year-old former Law & Order actress is expecting Gere’s baby early next year. “[It’s] one of the real joys in my life right now,” the actor told Larry King in August. But if Gere has found his soulmate, he is also holding on to his freedom. The relationship succeeds, says pal Sharon Simonaire, a New York City interior designer, because “Carey lets him be who he is and loves him for it. She doesn’t want him to change.”

The fact that Gere can’t be tamed is what drives women wild. When actress Brooke Adams, who would later work with him on 1978’s Days of Heaven, first encountered Gere at a downtown Manhattan party in the early 1970s, “he was surly, mysterious, angry,” she recalls. “He was my friend’s boyfriend, but I thought he was the sexiest man alive. When he puts his attention on you, you feel like you’re in this huge spotlight.”

Time has not diminished his charms. “He listens to you,” says Laura Linney, his costar in 1996’s Primal Fear. “Right off, he is interested in who you are and how you got there.”

Bai Ling, who starred with Gere in 1997’s Red Corner, was taken by “the light that comes out of his smile.” At their first meeting, “Richard gave me a very tight, warm hug that took all my stress away,” she recalls. Later he subjected her to tickling attacks that ruined at least a few takes. He even introduced her to his folks. On the evening of Red Corner‘s Manhattan premiere, Ling sat at the piano in the actor’s Greenwich Village pad and accompanied them on a chorus of “Home on the Range.”

It was only 200 miles away in Syracuse that Homer Gere, 77, a retired insurance salesman, and Doris, 75, a homemaker, raised their five children. Second-born Richard was on North Syracuse Central High School’s gymnastics, lacrosse and ski teams and played trumpet in the band. “He was a phenomenal gymnast, but you wouldn’t call him a jock; he had a lot of friends, but he wasn’t into being superpopular,” recalls classmate Chuck Parry, now a Syracuse minister, who used to play Bob Dylan songs on guitar with Gere after school.

Girls were drawn to the self-assured idealist who favored jeans and Army surplus jackets. Gere dated only the brightest ones, like steady Diane Fredericks. “We went to the movies a lot,” Fredericks, now married and living in New Hampshire, told PEOPLE in 1984. “It was always old films and monster movies. People tend to think of him as a sex object. I never thought of him that way. He was too intelligent for that.” After graduating in 1967, Gere accepted a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he majored in philosophy. But he fell in love with acting and dropped out in 1969 to pursue the profession full-time.

Though he spent a few years in New York City as the proverbial starving artist, he was never starved for attention. When actress Penelope Milford met Gere on the set of an Off-Broadway musical in 1971, she says, “he had already dated all the girls in the cast,” including costar and future disco-diva Vicki Sue Robinson. “Vicki Sue said to me, ‘Watch out. He’ll love you and leave you,’ ” recalls Milford, who dated Gere for seven years. “I was like, ‘Not me.’ But he was real nice to me, then all of a sudden he started acting aloof, and that was the hook.”

The women kept coming. Actress Sally Kirkland recalls the still-unknown Gere crashing a star-studded party she was throwing for Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the mid-1970s. “Joni Mitchell was there, and Donovan. Mick Jagger crashed too. But as Richard walked in, I just stopped. I was supposed to be greeting people but I couldn’t. I was just mesmerized.” So was fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg when she met Gere at a Thanksgiving party a few years later. “He walked like a biker, and that attracted me,” she says. “I knew I was going to get my hands on him. I seduced him.”

Brazilian artist Sylvia Martins, who came under Gere’s spell in the 1980s, says their romance thrived for seven years because “we’re both very independent and we loved to explore.” Together they traveled to such exotic locales as the jungles of Borneo, where they crash-landed in a helicopter among native tribes, and the island of Bali, where Gere went off to meditate alone on a volcano. “That’s the kind of thing we used to do and find it totally normal,” Martins says. But the attention that Gere attracted from other women was hard for Martins to handle. “I felt hurt and sad when women started throwing themselves at him,” she says.

Gere’s onscreen sexuality was also combustible. His full-frontal nude scenes in 1980’s Gigolo were among the first in mainstream cinema. Yet Gere brushed off America’s shock. “In Europe,” he later told Cosmopolitan, “this is pretty parochial stuff.” His coinciding Broadway appearance as a homosexual Holocaust victim in Martin Sherman’s Bent was equally risky, prompting rumors that Gere was gay. At the time, the actor refused to respond. It was only years later, when the gossip extended to his marriage to Crawford, that he defended their hetero-sexuality in an ad that he placed in The Times of London.

Inevitably, some risks didn’t pay off. After confirming his place in heartthrob history with An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Gere turned down the leads in Die Hard and Wall Street and wound up appearing in a string of flops like King David and Miles from Home. But he came bounding back in 1990’s Pretty Woman with his surprisingly whimsical turn in the role of a corporate raider bummed-out in Beverly Hills. The film eventually earned more than $460 million worldwide, made a star of Julia Roberts and confirmed a sea change in her leading man: Richard Gere had lightened up. In fact, he was so eager to get the part that “he jumped up and danced on the table,” recalls one of the film’s producers, Arnon Milchan. “He actually danced.”

Shortly thereafter, Gere landed his own pretty woman: supermodel Crawford. They married in a Las Vegas chapel in 1991. “I didn’t want to lose [her],” he said at the time. But it was not to last. “Richard was very torn up after his marriage broke up, just devastated,” says his friend Sharon Simonaire, who blames the 1994 split on their age difference (he was 45, she 28) and Crawford’s impatience with Gere’s Buddhist causes, which Crawford, a nonpracticing Protestant, didn’t share. “Cindy had problems with his going off to India and being away,” Simonaire says.

Then, in the fall of 1995, Simonaire introduced Gere to her friend Lowell at a Manhattan restaurant and saw the sparks ignite. After the pair spent a weekend together, says Simonaire, “Carey called and said, ‘He’s so damn funny. He pulled his sweatpants up to his chest and walked around kind of scratching himself.’ It reminded her of how her father used to joke around the house.”

Four years later, Gere has settled in with Lowell and Hannah, her 9-year-old daughter with ex-husband actor-director Griffin Dunne. The three share a spacious Greenwich Village town-house decorated with an eclectic mix of 1940s French furniture, Eastern artwork that Gere has collected from his travels and his own acclaimed black-and-white photography. Gere showers his leading lady with gifts of rubies, pearls and shawls from his Indian sojourns. She spoils him too. In September she threw a 50th-birthday party for him on a rented rooftop overlooking the Hudson River. Buddhist monks chanted, more than 100 guests feasted on Asian food, and Lowell presented a specially made video containing clips from Gere’s old TV interviews and birthday wishes from his friends. At the end, recounts party guest Bai Ling, “Carey came on and said, ‘There’s somebody else who wants to say “Hi.” ‘ She opened her shirt to reveal a face painted on her [pregnant] belly. Richard was crying, he was so moved.”

As soon as his tears were dry, though, the twinkle no doubt returned to his eyes. After all, this is not a man who is made of mush. When he reads this story, says Simonaire, “I don’t know how he’ll be to live with. He may be strutting around the house like the Sexiest Man Alive.”

Anne-Marie O’Neill Sue Miller in New York City and Pamela Warrick in Los Angeles

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Richard Gere: There Is 'No Defense' of Israel's Occupation or 'Illegal' Settlements

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Actor Richard Gere condemned Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and the West Bank on Sunday, saying there was no justification for its military occupation of the Palestinian people and its continued settlement building.

Gere, of Pretty Woman and Chicago fame, had traveled to Jerusalem to promote his new film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer despite calls for him from anti-Israel activists to boycott the trip. He said close Israeli friends also told him to reconsider visiting as "the bad guys will use you… bad guys meaning the policy-makers of this government."

Ultimately, he decided to travel to the country but criticize Israeli policy in an interview with newspaper Haaretz.

"Obviously, this occupation is destroying everyone," he said of Israel's control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War but that Palestinians have earmarked for any future Palestinian state.

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"There's no defense of this occupation. Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal—and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on Gere's remarks.

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Dalila Di Lazzaro: “Ho perso mio figlio, poi la carriera con un incidente aereo e per una buca sono stata costretta a letto per anni”

Lei, che ha conquistato il cuore di Richard Gere e Jack Nicholson, ha rivelato a Caterina Balivo di aver vissuto momenti molto difficilidi F. Q.

 | 5 MARZO 2019

Dalila Di Lazzaro ha raccontato a Caterina Balivo, in diretta a “Vieni da Me“, le tragedie che hanno segnato la sua vita. Lei, che ha conquistato il cuore di Richard Gere e Jack Nicholson, ha rivelato di aver vissuto momenti molto difficili. Come come quando si trovava negli Stati Uniti e, per partecipare a una festa alle Bahamas, decise di prendere un jet privato. Il velivolo però, ebbe un incidente durante il volo e lei rimase sette ore in acqua prima di essere soccorsa. “Sentivo l’aereo sprofondare e da allora non ho voluto più volare. Mi avevano scelto per fare la bond girl, dovevo essere al posto di Kim Basinger, ma non riuscivo a prendere l’aereo. Un’attrice non può avere paura di prenderlo. Io avevo seminato all’estero più che in Italia, così sono rimasta qua, a nulla sono serviti anni di analisi. Da quel momento la mia carriera è finita“, ha rivelato a Caterina Balivo.

Poi, nel momento della “cassettiera”, Dalila Di Lazzaro ha parlato della perdita del figlio: “In un incidente stradale ho perso mio figlio, la mia vita, e poi dopo sono stata costretta a letto per anni dopo un incidente in scooter per una buca. Quello mi ha portato a trasferirmi a Milano. Roma mi ha dato e mi ha tolto tutto, però è la vita. Bisogna accettare, capire, sorridere e dire sempre ‘ti amo’ a chi ci è vicino”.

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A Supreme Being

By Anne-Marie O'Neil 

Published on November 15, 1999 12:00PM EST

ACTRESS JILL HENNESSY IS THE first to admit that the time she spent filming Autumn in New York this fall didn’t exactly constitute hard labor. Sure, she had to scramble down a ladder while dressed in heels and a full-length evening gown. But this was one gig with great benefits—and we’re not talking 401 (k). Richard Gere, as her playboy ex-boyfriend, was positioned directly above her. “There was a moment where I’m looking up at him from a rather low perspective,” says Hennessy. “And I had, shall we say, an exceptional view. I’m thinking I really have to thank God for this moment. How lucky am I? I would have paid them to work in this movie.”

Who wouldn’t? Certainly not the devoted fans who mob the set daily. “He was being filmed inside a taxi,” marvels Joan Chen, who is directing the romance, due next fall, “and all at once these women began to yell, ‘It’s Richard Gere!’ Some were just squeezing their hands and holding their heads and trying to get a better look. You see it every day.”

Actually, Gere has seen it for decades. From his career-making role as the brooding stud-for-hire who showed us his buff stuff in 1980’s American Gigolo to his crowd-pleasing performance as the rakish reporter who had us screaming “Wrong way!” at a fleeing Julia Roberts in last summer’s Runaway Bride, the 5’10” actor has had a hypnotic effect on women. “It happens everywhere,” says his close friend and 1986 Power costar Kate Capshaw. “At restaurants, walking down the street, they’re passing notes to the table, they’re sending flowers.”

A remarkably fit 50, Gere appeals to females who weren’t even born when he launched his career in 1969. What’s more: He knows it. “It’s not that far-fetched,” he told Women’s Wear Daily with characteristic cockiness when asked about the 22-year age difference between him and his Autumn costar Winona Ryder, 28. “No one would say anything if I was involved with a woman that age.”

It is exactly that swaggering confidence that has kept fans in his thrall for more than 20 years. It’s true that the tresses have silvered. And the once-angry young man is now a devout Buddhist who meditates regularly and campaigns tirelessly to free Tibet from China. His close relationship with the Dalai Lama, whom he reportedly met through his friend, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, in 1983, has added another dimension to his character. But within this mellow fellow is the soul of a rebel. Free-spirited and dangerously charming, Gere is the bad boy women love to love—even though he’s bound to break a few hearts. “Richard is kind of like a Persian cat,” says his 1995 First Knight costar Julia Or-mond. “You want the cat to give you its attention, and the cat is very independent. But when the cat wants it from you, it’s irresistible.”

Just ask Gere’s ex-wife Cindy Crawford, who, on the brink of her betrothal to Rande Gerber, admitted that she still couldn’t imagine talking to Gere on the phone. “It’s hard,” she told Redbook in August 1997. “It’s kind of like, I don’t want to fall back in love with him.”

Crawford’s loss has been Carey Lowell’s gain. The 3 8-year-old former Law & Order actress is expecting Gere’s baby early next year. “[It’s] one of the real joys in my life right now,” the actor told Larry King in August. But if Gere has found his soulmate, he is also holding on to his freedom. The relationship succeeds, says pal Sharon Simonaire, a New York City interior designer, because “Carey lets him be who he is and loves him for it. She doesn’t want him to change.”

The fact that Gere can’t be tamed is what drives women wild. When actress Brooke Adams, who would later work with him on 1978’s Days of Heaven, first encountered Gere at a downtown Manhattan party in the early 1970s, “he was surly, mysterious, angry,” she recalls. “He was my friend’s boyfriend, but I thought he was the sexiest man alive. When he puts his attention on you, you feel like you’re in this huge spotlight.”

Time has not diminished his charms. “He listens to you,” says Laura Linney, his costar in 1996’s Primal Fear. “Right off, he is interested in who you are and how you got there.”

Bai Ling, who starred with Gere in 1997’s Red Corner, was taken by “the light that comes out of his smile.” At their first meeting, “Richard gave me a very tight, warm hug that took all my stress away,” she recalls. Later he subjected her to tickling attacks that ruined at least a few takes. He even introduced her to his folks. On the evening of Red Corner‘s Manhattan premiere, Ling sat at the piano in the actor’s Greenwich Village pad and accompanied them on a chorus of “Home on the Range.”

It was only 200 miles away in Syracuse that Homer Gere, 77, a retired insurance salesman, and Doris, 75, a homemaker, raised their five children. Second-born Richard was on North Syracuse Central High School’s gymnastics, lacrosse and ski teams and played trumpet in the band. “He was a phenomenal gymnast, but you wouldn’t call him a jock; he had a lot of friends, but he wasn’t into being superpopular,” recalls classmate Chuck Parry, now a Syracuse minister, who used to play Bob Dylan songs on guitar with Gere after school.

Girls were drawn to the self-assured idealist who favored jeans and Army surplus jackets. Gere dated only the brightest ones, like steady Diane Fredericks. “We went to the movies a lot,” Fredericks, now married and living in New Hampshire, told PEOPLE in 1984. “It was always old films and monster movies. People tend to think of him as a sex object. I never thought of him that way. He was too intelligent for that.” After graduating in 1967, Gere accepted a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he majored in philosophy. But he fell in love with acting and dropped out in 1969 to pursue the profession full-time.

Though he spent a few years in New York City as the proverbial starving artist, he was never starved for attention. When actress Penelope Milford met Gere on the set of an Off-Broadway musical in 1971, she says, “he had already dated all the girls in the cast,” including costar and future disco-diva Vicki Sue Robinson. “Vicki Sue said to me, ‘Watch out. He’ll love you and leave you,’ ” recalls Milford, who dated Gere for seven years. “I was like, ‘Not me.’ But he was real nice to me, then all of a sudden he started acting aloof, and that was the hook.”

The women kept coming. Actress Sally Kirkland recalls the still-unknown Gere crashing a star-studded party she was throwing for Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the mid-1970s. “Joni Mitchell was there, and Donovan. Mick Jagger crashed too. But as Richard walked in, I just stopped. I was supposed to be greeting people but I couldn’t. I was just mesmerized.” So was fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg when she met Gere at a Thanksgiving party a few years later. “He walked like a biker, and that attracted me,” she says. “I knew I was going to get my hands on him. I seduced him.”

Brazilian artist Sylvia Martins, who came under Gere’s spell in the 1980s, says their romance thrived for seven years because “we’re both very independent and we loved to explore.” Together they traveled to such exotic locales as the jungles of Borneo, where they crash-landed in a helicopter among native tribes, and the island of Bali, where Gere went off to meditate alone on a volcano. “That’s the kind of thing we used to do and find it totally normal,” Martins says. But the attention that Gere attracted from other women was hard for Martins to handle. “I felt hurt and sad when women started throwing themselves at him,” she says.

Gere’s onscreen sexuality was also combustible. His full-frontal nude scenes in 1980’s Gigolo were among the first in mainstream cinema. Yet Gere brushed off America’s shock. “In Europe,” he later told Cosmopolitan, “this is pretty parochial stuff.” His coinciding Broadway appearance as a homosexual Holocaust victim in Martin Sherman’s Bent was equally risky, prompting rumors that Gere was gay. At the time, the actor refused to respond. It was only years later, when the gossip extended to his marriage to Crawford, that he defended their hetero-sexuality in an ad that he placed in The Times of London.

Inevitably, some risks didn’t pay off. After confirming his place in heartthrob history with An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Gere turned down the leads in Die Hard and Wall Street and wound up appearing in a string of flops like King David and Miles from Home. But he came bounding back in 1990’s Pretty Woman with his surprisingly whimsical turn in the role of a corporate raider bummed-out in Beverly Hills. The film eventually earned more than $460 million worldwide, made a star of Julia Roberts and confirmed a sea change in her leading man: Richard Gere had lightened up. In fact, he was so eager to get the part that “he jumped up and danced on the table,” recalls one of the film’s producers, Arnon Milchan. “He actually danced.”

Shortly thereafter, Gere landed his own pretty woman: supermodel Crawford. They married in a Las Vegas chapel in 1991. “I didn’t want to lose [her],” he said at the time. But it was not to last. “Richard was very torn up after his marriage broke up, just devastated,” says his friend Sharon Simonaire, who blames the 1994 split on their age difference (he was 45, she 28) and Crawford’s impatience with Gere’s Buddhist causes, which Crawford, a nonpracticing Protestant, didn’t share. “Cindy had problems with his going off to India and being away,” Simonaire says.

Then, in the fall of 1995, Simonaire introduced Gere to her friend Lowell at a Manhattan restaurant and saw the sparks ignite. After the pair spent a weekend together, says Simonaire, “Carey called and said, ‘He’s so damn funny. He pulled his sweatpants up to his chest and walked around kind of scratching himself.’ It reminded her of how her father used to joke around the house.”

Four years later, Gere has settled in with Lowell and Hannah, her 9-year-old daughter with ex-husband actor-director Griffin Dunne. The three share a spacious Greenwich Village town-house decorated with an eclectic mix of 1940s French furniture, Eastern artwork that Gere has collected from his travels and his own acclaimed black-and-white photography. Gere showers his leading lady with gifts of rubies, pearls and shawls from his Indian sojourns. She spoils him too. In September she threw a 50th-birthday party for him on a rented rooftop overlooking the Hudson River. Buddhist monks chanted, more than 100 guests feasted on Asian food, and Lowell presented a specially made video containing clips from Gere’s old TV interviews and birthday wishes from his friends. At the end, recounts party guest Bai Ling, “Carey came on and said, ‘There’s somebody else who wants to say “Hi.” ‘ She opened her shirt to reveal a face painted on her [pregnant] belly. Richard was crying, he was so moved.”

As soon as his tears were dry, though, the twinkle no doubt returned to his eyes. After all, this is not a man who is made of mush. When he reads this story, says Simonaire, “I don’t know how he’ll be to live with. He may be strutting around the house like the Sexiest Man Alive.”

Anne-Marie O’Neill Sue Miller in New York City and Pamela Warrick in Los Angeles

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Richard Gere: There Is 'No Defense' of Israel's Occupation or 'Illegal' Settlements

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Actor Richard Gere condemned Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and the West Bank on Sunday, saying there was no justification for its military occupation of the Palestinian people and its continued settlement building.

Gere, of Pretty Woman and Chicago fame, had traveled to Jerusalem to promote his new film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer despite calls for him from anti-Israel activists to boycott the trip. He said close Israeli friends also told him to reconsider visiting as "the bad guys will use you… bad guys meaning the policy-makers of this government."

Ultimately, he decided to travel to the country but criticize Israeli policy in an interview with newspaper Haaretz.

"Obviously, this occupation is destroying everyone," he said of Israel's control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War but that Palestinians have earmarked for any future Palestinian state.

"There's no defense of this occupation. Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal—and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on Gere's remarks.

Gere said he opposed violence on "all sides" of the conflict, and used his trip to meet with two inter-faith organizations that promote coexistence. "Israelis should feel secure. But Palestinians should not feel desperate," he said.

The actor criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attacks against Breaking The Silence. The NGO has used anonymous testimonies from Israeli soldiers to highlight military violations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where Israel has fought three wars against militant group Hamas since 2008.

Read more: Israel moves ahead with settlements after U.N. vote

He also appeared to criticize the comments of U.S. President Donald Trump's far-right ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who once described left-wing U.S. Jews opposed to the Israeli government as "kapos," a derogatory term used to denote Jews who collaborated with the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

"It is all so counter to what I know of Jewish culture," Gere says. "Questioning authority makes you a kapo? To question authority makes you a traitor? If you question bad policies you are a self-hating Jew? That is insane. And, of course, it's the last resort of tyrants."

In the first weeks of Trump's administration, the Israeli government has gone further in its West Bank policies than in the same period under recent U.S. administrations. It has approved thousands of settlement units in the West Bank and the construction of the first settlement for two decades, and passed a law approving Jewish West Bank outposts built illegally on private Palestinian land.

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Richard Gere cleared of obscenity

Shilpa Shetty was accused of not resisting the kiss

The kiss

India's Supreme Court has described a legal case in which Hollywood actor Richard Gere is accused of obscene behaviour as "frivolous".

The court judge said "this is the end of the matter" and that Gere was free to enter India.

Last year, arrest warrants were issued for Gere after he embraced and kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during a public appearance.

Kissing in public is widely considered taboo in India.

Gere plans to visit India soon and his lawyer had appealed to the court to stop the arrest warrants against him.

In 2007, a court in the western state of Rajasthan ordered the arrest of Gere for sweeping Shetty into his arms at an Aids awareness event in Delhi.

It also wanted the actress to appear in court over charges that she did not resist Gere's advances. Two other similar cases were filed.

The Hollywood actor initially dismissed the row as "nothing", but later apologised for causing any offence.

'Cheap publicity'

"Richard Gere is free to enter the country. This is the end of the matter," a two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, said.

The judges said the court believed that such complaints (against celebrities) were "frivolous" and filed for "cheap publicity".

The complainants "have brought a bad name to the country", the court said.

It suspended the arrest warrants. Correspondents say that the cases now have no chance of succeeding if the litigants try to pursue them in lower courts.

Shetty shot into the global limelight after being the victim of alleged racist bullying and insults on the UK's Celebrity Big Brother. She went on to win the contest.

Gere, a practising Buddhist, is a frequent visitor to India and has met the Dalai Lama several times. He has also become involved in the fight against Aids/HIV.

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Richard Gere cleared of obscenityIndia's Supreme Court has described a legal case in which Hollywood actor Richard Gere is accused of obscene behaviour as "frivolous".

The court judge said "this is the end of the matter" and that Gere was free to enter India.

Last year, arrest warrants were issued for Gere after he embraced and kissed Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty during a public appearance.

Kissing in public is widely considered taboo in India.

Gere plans to visit India soon and his lawyer had appealed to the court to stop the arrest warrants against him.

In 2007, a court in the western state of Rajasthan ordered the arrest of Gere for sweeping Shetty into his arms at an Aids awareness event in Delhi.

It also wanted the actress to appear in court over charges that she did not resist Gere's advances. Two other similar cases were filed.

The Hollywood actor initially dismissed the row as "nothing", but later apologised for causing any offence.

'Cheap publicity'

"Richard Gere is free to enter the country. This is the end of the matter," a two-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, said.

The judges said the court believed that such complaints (against celebrities) were "frivolous" and filed for "cheap publicity".

The complainants "have brought a bad name to the country", the court said.

It suspended the arrest warrants. Correspondents say that the cases now have no chance of succeeding if the litigants try to pursue them in lower courts.

Shetty shot into the global limelight after being the victim of alleged racist bullying and insults on the UK's Celebrity Big Brother. She went on to win the contest.

Gere, a practising Buddhist, is a frequent visitor to India and has met the Dalai Lama several times. He has also become involved in the fight against Aids/HIV.

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Dalila Di Lazzaro: “Ho perso mio figlio, poi la carriera con un incidente aereo e per una buca sono stata costretta a letto per anni”

Dalila Di Lazzaro ha raccontato a Caterina Balivo, in diretta a “Vieni da Me“, le tragedie che hanno segnato la sua vita. Lei, che ha conquistato il cuore di Richard Gere e Jack Nicholson, ha rivelato di aver vissuto momenti molto difficili. Come come quando si trovava negli Stati Uniti e, per partecipare a una festa alle Bahamas, decise di prendere un jet privato. Il velivolo però, ebbe un incidente durante il volo e lei rimase sette ore in acqua prima di essere soccorsa. “Sentivo l’aereo sprofondare e da allora non ho voluto più volare. Mi avevano scelto per fare la bond girl, dovevo essere al posto di Kim Basinger, ma non riuscivo a prendere l’aereo. Un’attrice non può avere paura di prenderlo. Io avevo seminato all’estero più che in Italia, così sono rimasta qua, a nulla sono serviti anni di analisi. Da quel momento la mia carriera è finita“, ha rivelato a Caterina Balivo.

Poi, nel momento della “cassettiera”, Dalila Di Lazzaro ha parlato della perdita del figlio: “In un incidente stradale ho perso mio figlio, la mia vita, e poi dopo sono stata costretta a letto per anni dopo un incidente in scooter per una buca. Quello mi ha portato a trasferirmi a Milano. Roma mi ha dato e mi ha tolto tutto, però è la vita. Bisogna accettare, capire, sorridere e dire sempre ‘ti amo’ a chi ci è vicino”.

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A Supreme Being

ACTRESS JILL HENNESSY IS THE first to admit that the time she spent filming Autumn in New York this fall didn’t exactly constitute hard labor. Sure, she had to scramble down a ladder while dressed in heels and a full-length evening gown. But this was one gig with great benefits—and we’re not talking 401 (k). Richard Gere, as her playboy ex-boyfriend, was positioned directly above her. “There was a moment where I’m looking up at him from a rather low perspective,” says Hennessy. “And I had, shall we say, an exceptional view. I’m thinking I really have to thank God for this moment. How lucky am I? I would have paid them to work in this movie.”

Who wouldn’t? Certainly not the devoted fans who mob the set daily. “He was being filmed inside a taxi,” marvels Joan Chen, who is directing the romance, due next fall, “and all at once these women began to yell, ‘It’s Richard Gere!’ Some were just squeezing their hands and holding their heads and trying to get a better look. You see it every day.”

Actually, Gere has seen it for decades. From his career-making role as the brooding stud-for-hire who showed us his buff stuff in 1980’s American Gigolo to his crowd-pleasing performance as the rakish reporter who had us screaming “Wrong way!” at a fleeing Julia Roberts in last summer’s Runaway Bride, the 5’10” actor has had a hypnotic effect on women. “It happens everywhere,” says his close friend and 1986 Power costar Kate Capshaw. “At restaurants, walking down the street, they’re passing notes to the table, they’re sending flowers.”

A remarkably fit 50, Gere appeals to females who weren’t even born when he launched his career in 1969. What’s more: He knows it. “It’s not that far-fetched,” he told Women’s Wear Daily with characteristic cockiness when asked about the 22-year age difference between him and his Autumn costar Winona Ryder, 28. “No one would say anything if I was involved with a woman that age.”

It is exactly that swaggering confidence that has kept fans in his thrall for more than 20 years. It’s true that the tresses have silvered. And the once-angry young man is now a devout Buddhist who meditates regularly and campaigns tirelessly to free Tibet from China. His close relationship with the Dalai Lama, whom he reportedly met through his friend, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, in 1983, has added another dimension to his character. But within this mellow fellow is the soul of a rebel. Free-spirited and dangerously charming, Gere is the bad boy women love to love—even though he’s bound to break a few hearts. “Richard is kind of like a Persian cat,” says his 1995 First Knight costar Julia Or-mond. “You want the cat to give you its attention, and the cat is very independent. But when the cat wants it from you, it’s irresistible.”

Just ask Gere’s ex-wife Cindy Crawford, who, on the brink of her betrothal to Rande Gerber, admitted that she still couldn’t imagine talking to Gere on the phone. “It’s hard,” she told Redbook in August 1997. “It’s kind of like, I don’t want to fall back in love with him.”

Crawford’s loss has been Carey Lowell’s gain. The 3 8-year-old former Law & Order actress is expecting Gere’s baby early next year. “[It’s] one of the real joys in my life right now,” the actor told Larry King in August. But if Gere has found his soulmate, he is also holding on to his freedom. The relationship succeeds, says pal Sharon Simonaire, a New York City interior designer, because “Carey lets him be who he is and loves him for it. She doesn’t want him to change.”

The fact that Gere can’t be tamed is what drives women wild. When actress Brooke Adams, who would later work with him on 1978’s Days of Heaven, first encountered Gere at a downtown Manhattan party in the early 1970s, “he was surly, mysterious, angry,” she recalls. “He was my friend’s boyfriend, but I thought he was the sexiest man alive. When he puts his attention on you, you feel like you’re in this huge spotlight.”

Time has not diminished his charms. “He listens to you,” says Laura Linney, his costar in 1996’s Primal Fear. “Right off, he is interested in who you are and how you got there.”

Bai Ling, who starred with Gere in 1997’s Red Corner, was taken by “the light that comes out of his smile.” At their first meeting, “Richard gave me a very tight, warm hug that took all my stress away,” she recalls. Later he subjected her to tickling attacks that ruined at least a few takes. He even introduced her to his folks. On the evening of Red Corner‘s Manhattan premiere, Ling sat at the piano in the actor’s Greenwich Village pad and accompanied them on a chorus of “Home on the Range.”

It was only 200 miles away in Syracuse that Homer Gere, 77, a retired insurance salesman, and Doris, 75, a homemaker, raised their five children. Second-born Richard was on North Syracuse Central High School’s gymnastics, lacrosse and ski teams and played trumpet in the band. “He was a phenomenal gymnast, but you wouldn’t call him a jock; he had a lot of friends, but he wasn’t into being superpopular,” recalls classmate Chuck Parry, now a Syracuse minister, who used to play Bob Dylan songs on guitar with Gere after school.

Girls were drawn to the self-assured idealist who favored jeans and Army surplus jackets. Gere dated only the brightest ones, like steady Diane Fredericks. “We went to the movies a lot,” Fredericks, now married and living in New Hampshire, told PEOPLE in 1984. “It was always old films and monster movies. People tend to think of him as a sex object. I never thought of him that way. He was too intelligent for that.” After graduating in 1967, Gere accepted a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he majored in philosophy. But he fell in love with acting and dropped out in 1969 to pursue the profession full-time.

Though he spent a few years in New York City as the proverbial starving artist, he was never starved for attention. When actress Penelope Milford met Gere on the set of an Off-Broadway musical in 1971, she says, “he had already dated all the girls in the cast,” including costar and future disco-diva Vicki Sue Robinson. “Vicki Sue said to me, ‘Watch out. He’ll love you and leave you,’ ” recalls Milford, who dated Gere for seven years. “I was like, ‘Not me.’ But he was real nice to me, then all of a sudden he started acting aloof, and that was the hook.”

The women kept coming. Actress Sally Kirkland recalls the still-unknown Gere crashing a star-studded party she was throwing for Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the mid-1970s. “Joni Mitchell was there, and Donovan. Mick Jagger crashed too. But as Richard walked in, I just stopped. I was supposed to be greeting people but I couldn’t. I was just mesmerized.” So was fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg when she met Gere at a Thanksgiving party a few years later. “He walked like a biker, and that attracted me,” she says. “I knew I was going to get my hands on him. I seduced him.”

Brazilian artist Sylvia Martins, who came under Gere’s spell in the 1980s, says their romance thrived for seven years because “we’re both very independent and we loved to explore.” Together they traveled to such exotic locales as the jungles of Borneo, where they crash-landed in a helicopter among native tribes, and the island of Bali, where Gere went off to meditate alone on a volcano. “That’s the kind of thing we used to do and find it totally normal,” Martins says. But the attention that Gere attracted from other women was hard for Martins to handle. “I felt hurt and sad when women started throwing themselves at him,” she says.

Gere’s onscreen sexuality was also combustible. His full-frontal nude scenes in 1980’s Gigolo were among the first in mainstream cinema. Yet Gere brushed off America’s shock. “In Europe,” he later told Cosmopolitan, “this is pretty parochial stuff.” His coinciding Broadway appearance as a homosexual Holocaust victim in Martin Sherman’s Bent was equally risky, prompting rumors that Gere was gay. At the time, the actor refused to respond. It was only years later, when the gossip extended to his marriage to Crawford, that he defended their hetero-sexuality in an ad that he placed in The Times of London.

Inevitably, some risks didn’t pay off. After confirming his place in heartthrob history with An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Gere turned down the leads in Die Hard and Wall Street and wound up appearing in a string of flops like King David and Miles from Home. But he came bounding back in 1990’s Pretty Woman with his surprisingly whimsical turn in the role of a corporate raider bummed-out in Beverly Hills. The film eventually earned more than $460 million worldwide, made a star of Julia Roberts and confirmed a sea change in her leading man: Richard Gere had lightened up. In fact, he was so eager to get the part that “he jumped up and danced on the table,” recalls one of the film’s producers, Arnon Milchan. “He actually danced.”

Shortly thereafter, Gere landed his own pretty woman: supermodel Crawford. They married in a Las Vegas chapel in 1991. “I didn’t want to lose [her],” he said at the time. But it was not to last. “Richard was very torn up after his marriage broke up, just devastated,” says his friend Sharon Simonaire, who blames the 1994 split on their age difference (he was 45, she 28) and Crawford’s impatience with Gere’s Buddhist causes, which Crawford, a nonpracticing Protestant, didn’t share. “Cindy had problems with his going off to India and being away,” Simonaire says.

Then, in the fall of 1995, Simonaire introduced Gere to her friend Lowell at a Manhattan restaurant and saw the sparks ignite. After the pair spent a weekend together, says Simonaire, “Carey called and said, ‘He’s so damn funny. He pulled his sweatpants up to his chest and walked around kind of scratching himself.’ It reminded her of how her father used to joke around the house.”

Four years later, Gere has settled in with Lowell and Hannah, her 9-year-old daughter with ex-husband actor-director Griffin Dunne. The three share a spacious Greenwich Village town-house decorated with an eclectic mix of 1940s French furniture, Eastern artwork that Gere has collected from his travels and his own acclaimed black-and-white photography. Gere showers his leading lady with gifts of rubies, pearls and shawls from his Indian sojourns. She spoils him too. In September she threw a 50th-birthday party for him on a rented rooftop overlooking the Hudson River. Buddhist monks chanted, more than 100 guests feasted on Asian food, and Lowell presented a specially made video containing clips from Gere’s old TV interviews and birthday wishes from his friends. At the end, recounts party guest Bai Ling, “Carey came on and said, ‘There’s somebody else who wants to say “Hi.” ‘ She opened her shirt to reveal a face painted on her [pregnant] belly. Richard was crying, he was so moved.”

As soon as his tears were dry, though, the twinkle no doubt returned to his eyes. After all, this is not a man who is made of mush. When he reads this story, says Simonaire, “I don’t know how he’ll be to live with. He may be strutting around the house like the Sexiest Man Alive.”

Anne-Marie O’Neill Sue Miller in New York City and Pamela Warrick in Los Angeles

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Richard Gere: There Is 'No Defense' of Israel's Occupation or 'Illegal' Settlements

Actor Richard Gere condemned Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and the West Bank on Sunday, saying there was no justification for its military occupation of the Palestinian people and its continued settlement building.

Gere, of Pretty Woman and Chicago fame, had traveled to Jerusalem to promote his new film Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer despite calls for him from anti-Israel activists to boycott the trip. He said close Israeli friends also told him to reconsider visiting as "the bad guys will use you… bad guys meaning the policy-makers of this government."

Ultimately, he decided to travel to the country but criticize Israeli policy in an interview with newspaper Haaretz.

"Obviously, this occupation is destroying everyone," he said of Israel's control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War but that Palestinians have earmarked for any future Palestinian state.

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"There's no defense of this occupation. Settlements are such an absurd provocation and, certainly in the international sense, completely illegal—and they are certainly not part of the program of someone who wants a genuine peace process."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on Gere's remarks.

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理查·基尔被洗清罪名

法院法官表示“事情到此结束”，基尔可以自由进入印度。

去年，基尔在公开露面时拥抱并亲吻宝莱坞女演员希尔帕·谢蒂后，对他发出了逮捕令。

在印度，公共场合接吻被广泛认为是禁忌。

基尔计划很快访问印度，他的律师已向法院上诉，要求停止对他发出逮捕令。

2007年，西部拉贾斯坦邦的一家法院下令逮捕基尔，因为基尔在德里举行的艾滋病宣传活动中将谢蒂揽入怀中。

它还希望这位女演员出庭，因为她被指控没有抵抗基尔的求爱。另外还提​​起了两起类似案件。

这位好莱坞演员最初认为这场争吵“没什么”，但后来为造成任何冒犯而道歉。

“廉价宣传”

由印度首席大法官 KG Balakrishnan 领导的两名法官表示：“理查·基尔可以自由进入该国。事情到此结束。”

法官们表示，法院认为此类（针对名人的）投诉是“无聊的”，并以“廉价宣传”为由提起诉讼。

法院表示，申诉人“给国家带来了坏名声”。

它暂停了逮捕令。记者表示，如果当事人试图在下级法院提起诉讼，这些案件现在没有胜诉的机会。

谢蒂因成为英国名人老大哥涉嫌种族主义欺凌和侮辱的受害者而成为全球关注的焦点。她继续赢得了比赛。

基尔是一名佛教徒，经常前往印度，并曾多次会见达赖喇嘛。他还参与了抗击艾滋病/艾滋病毒的斗争。

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达利拉·迪·拉扎罗 (Dalila Di Lazzaro)：“我失去了我的儿子，然后又因飞机失事失去了我的职业生涯，而且由于坑洞，我卧床不起多年”

达利拉·迪·拉扎罗 (Dalila Di Lazzaro)在“ Come to Me ”节目中告诉卡特琳娜·巴利沃 (Caterina Balivo)，这些悲剧标志着她的一生。她赢得了理查·基尔和杰克·尼科尔森的心，她透露自己经历了非常困难的时刻。就像他在美国时，为了参加巴哈马的聚会，他决定乘坐私人飞机。然而飞机在飞行过程中发生事故，她在水中滞留了七个小时才获救。“我感觉到飞机正在下沉，从那以后我就不想再坐飞机了。他们选择我作为邦德女郎，我本来应该代替金·贝辛格，但我无法上飞机。女演员不能害怕接受它。我在国外播种的次数比在意大利播种的次数多，所以我留在这里，多年的分析毫无用处。从那一刻起，我的职业生涯就结束了”，他向卡特琳娜·巴利沃透露。

然后，在“抽屉”的那一刻，达利拉·迪·拉扎罗谈到了失去儿子的事情：“在一次交通事故中，我失去了我的儿子，我的生命，然后在一场摩托车事故后，我在床上躺了好几年。一洞。这导致我搬到了米兰。罗马给予了我一切，又夺走了我的一切，但这就是生活。我们必须接受、理解、微笑并始终对我们身边的人说‘我爱你’”。

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名人支持总统候选人

随着总统竞选如火如荼地进行，名人纷纷支持他们最喜欢的候选人，其中许多人开始参加竞选活动。到目前为止，希拉里团队和伯尼团队拥有最多的名人支持他们的总统竞选。但共和党方面也有著名的支持者，包括支持唐纳德·特朗普的乡村音乐传奇人物洛雷塔·林恩和力捧约翰·卡西奇的前 NBA 球星查尔斯·巴克利。

看看你最喜欢的名人支持谁......

2015 年 10 月 24 日，歌手凯蒂·佩里 (Katy Perry) 在爱荷华州得梅因与前总统比尔·克林顿 (Bill Clinton) 举行的竞选集会上与民主党总统候选人希拉里·克林顿 (Hillary Clinton) 一起登台。

佩里甚至接管了克林顿的Instagram 账户，展示她 2016 年希拉里的指甲，该帖子获得了超过 26,000 个赞，并赠送了克林顿一条美国总统金项链作为这位候选人的生日礼物。

前NBA球星丹尼斯·罗德曼在推特上表示支持并赞扬唐纳德·特朗普：“@realDonaldTrump多年来一直是我的好朋友。我们不需要另一位政客，我们需要像特朗普先生这样的商人！特朗普

2016 年 2 月 19 日，在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿举行的竞选集会上，真人秀《鸭子王朝》明星菲尔·罗伯逊（左）与共和党总统候选人特德·克鲁兹一起站在台上寻求支持。

2015 年，蒂姆·艾伦 (Tim Allen) 在接受福克斯新闻采访时对唐纳德·特朗普 (Donald Trump) 和希拉里·克林顿 (Hillary Clinton) 表示不满。他支持约翰·卡西奇 (John Kasich)，并表示：“我去洛杉矶的一次城镇会议上见了他，这通常是一个非常自由的论坛……他谈到了穷人——弱势群体和贫困劳动者。这是非常不共和党的。他是一名共和党人，民主党人可以投票给他。”