Sly Stallone said Richard Gere thought he started gerbil up bum rumour amid feud

This week marks 47 years since the release of the movie meant to springboard the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere.

The Lords of Flatbush, which came out in May 1974, was supposed to be Gere’s first feature film and Stallone’s major breakthrough.

It didn’t turn out that way – mainly because only one of the pair ended up being in it.

Gere was booted off the cast after a now infamous altercation with Stallone.

Stallone is on record as saying he and Richard Gere didn’t “hit it off”.

In fact, almost half a decade after their feud began, the two Hollywood megastars have yet to bury the hatchet.

Macho man Stallone has spoken openly about their rocky relationship and what sparked the bad blood, while pop star Elton John has also commented on why the two men didn’t like each other.

Gere, though, has remained tight-lipped on their supposed beef.

So what exactly is supposed to have gone on between the two screen legends?

Speaking to Ain’t It Cool in 2006, Stallone said he took an almost immediate dislike to Gere, adding: “He would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table.

“One day, during an improv, he grabbed me (we were simulating a fight scene) and got a little carried away.”

But a now infamous on-set incident that got Gere fired from the film apparently happened during a lunch break.

Stallone continued: “Then we were rehearsing at Coney Island and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota.

“I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminium wrapper. I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it’.

In the interview, Stallone claimed he told Gere that, “If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.”

Gere is said to have bitten into the chicken meal and the greasy mustard sauce landed on Stallone’s thigh.

Stallone said: “I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me.

“He even thinks I’m the individual responsible for the gerbil rumour. Not true… but that’s the rumour.”

But the feud between the two men appeared to escalate when a rumour began circulating, claiming that Gere had been rushed to hospital to have a live gerbil removed from his rectum.

The rumour even went as far as claiming that after the furry creature died in his body, and a team of surgeons had to remove it.

At one point the bizarre urban myth became so embedded in pop culture that it was referenced on US comedy show Saturday Night Live and even in Wes Craven’s original Scream movie.

Once named the ‘sexiest man in the world’, Gere has always brushed off the rumour that he had a rodent stuck up his bum.

In 2008, Gere eventually addressed the wild rumour, telling the Metro: “I stopped reading the press a long time ago. Lots of crazy things came up about me at first, especially from the tabloids.

“There is an infamous ‘Gere stuck a hamster up his bum’ urban myth.”

Talk of the feud doesn’t end there, though.

In 2019, Elton John, writing in his autobiography Me claimed the two actors had clashed over Princess Diana.

He said the incident happened at a dinner party he hosted, with guests including George Michael, Richard Curtis, Gere and Stallone.

Describing the “most peculiar scene”, he said Gere and Princess Diana, another of his guests, seemed “very taken with each other”.

But Stallone, he said, was not so keen on their blossoming friendship.

He wrote: “I think he (Stallone) may have turned up to the party with the express intention of picking Diana up, only to find his plans for the evening ruined.”

The singer went on to claim his husband David Furnish had to come between the men.

“It transpired that he’d discovered Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere in the corridor, squaring up to each other, apparently about to settle their differences over Diana by having a fist fight,” he said.

He claimed Stallone “stormed off home” after the meal.

According to the Your Song singer, Stallone snapped: “I never would have come if I’d known Prince f****n’ Charming was gonna be here. If I’d wanted her, I would’ve taken her!”

Responding to a fan on Instagram, Stallone dismissed the tale as “complete fabrication.”

Only Gere and Stallone know what truly happened between them, but what’s certain is that they have never worked together in more than 40 years in Hollywood.

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk