Protesters burn effigies after Gere kisses Shiipa

[MrPsychic 1]

From Yahoo News with Reuters reporting

Richard Gere's repeated kisses on the cheeks of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an event to promote AIDS awareness sparked protests in India on Monday with demonstrators burning effigies of the actors.

 

Footage of the Hollywood star sweeping Shetty backwards in a dramatic embrace at the Sunday night event in New Delhi was repeatedly aired on news channels on Monday.

 

Many saw the act as an outrage against Shetty's modesty and Indian culture, though Shetty herself angrily dismissed the protests as an "over-reaction" that made India look silly.

 

Groups of men burned and kicked effigies of the actors in protests across India, including in the northern Indian cities of New Delhi, Kanpur, Meerut and Varanasi as well as in the central city of Indore.

 

Some called for the actors' deaths. Others wanted public apologies.

 

But Shetty, the winner of the "Celebrity Big Brother" reality TV show in Britain this year, said the reaction to the kiss made India look "regressive."

 

"I admit it went a little overboard but that was not the intention," she said to a crowd of journalists and protesters that had besieged her film set in Mumbai on Monday evening.

 

"He did not do anything obscene," she said of Gere, adding that they had since spoken on the phone. "He apologized to me and told me to tell the media that he apologized."

 

She said Gere was only re-enacting his moves from the film "Shall We Dance" to entertain the audience and communicate in a Bollywood style as he did not speak Hindi.

 

The clinch between the two stars had originally gone down well when it happened onstage at an event on Sunday night to encourage truckers -- seen as a high-risk group in India's fight against AIDS -- to wear condoms during sex.

 

They whooped with delight and whistled loudly as Gere swooped down on a visibly delighted Shetty to kiss her on her hand and a number of times on one side of her face.

 

"No condom, no sex," an ebullient 58-year-old Gere shouted in Hindi to thousands of truck drivers who roared his words back in unison at a dusty fairground in New Delhi.

 

Indian authorities have been focusing on high-risk groups such as truckers, who have helped spread the virus across the country as many of them have sex with prostitutes during their journeys and infect their wives back home.

Just...wow... I love how the actress he kissed defends him and just hates the protests.

[Lady Britannia 0]

He shouldn't have kissed her like that, but the reaction among some in India is absurd.

[Gummy 0]

Apparently, it was a slow news day?

[Kor37 9]

Don't these people have jobs??? :P

[Gummy 0]

Don't these people have jobs??? :P

I thought that problem was solved when our companies outsourced jobs to India?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

Actually, so many jobs - or, more accurately, job functions - have been outsourced to India that India is an outsourcer of jobs themselves, mostly to China.

[Gummy 0]

Actually, so many jobs - or, more accurately, job functions - have been outsourced to India that India is an outsourcer of jobs themselves, mostly to China.

So, in other words, it's pretty much a vicious cycle? :P

[Kor37 9]

Actually, so many jobs - or, more accurately, job functions - have been outsourced to India that India is an outsourcer of jobs themselves, mostly to China.

So, in other words, it's pretty much a vicious cycle? :P

 

Except for the fact that the American worker is nowhere in that cycle.......

[Lady Britannia 0]

Actually, so many jobs - or, more accurately, job functions - have been outsourced to India that India is an outsourcer of jobs themselves, mostly to China.

So, in other words, it's pretty much a vicious cycle? :P

 

Except for the fact that the American worker is nowhere in that cycle.......

 

Live by the market, die by the market. The United States is a capitalist nation right? Well, that's what happens in a capitalist economy. If a company can make greater profit by moving operations to an area where the workforce costs less, such as China or India, then Joe Yank is heading for unemployment.