Why the Oscars banned Richard Gere for 20 years: “Outrageous, distasteful and dishonest”
It’s been almost 100 years since the Oscars were first held, and only a handful of people have been banned from attending the industry’s most important awards ceremony, with Richard Gere eventually allowed back in after he was slapped with a 20-year exile. Well, sort of.
For the most part, somebody has to do something seriously wrong to be permanently forbidden from showing up, which has usually been the case. Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Adam Kimmel and Bill Cosby are on the list for obvious reasons, while the actor Carmine Caridi was the first person booted in 2004 after pirating screeners.
The most recent was, of course, Will Smith, who buttressed Chris Rock across the chops in front of a live audience, before returning to the stage shortly afterwards to collect his ‘Best Actor’ prize. He was given a 10-year ban for slapping the host, whereas Gere’s sentence was twice as long for daring to voice his political views on a live telecast.
At the 65th Oscars in 1993, the Pretty Woman and An Officer and a Gentleman star was presenting the award for ‘Best Art Direction’ when he decided to go off-script and draw attention to the “horrendous human rights situation there is in China,” which didn’t sit too well with the people in charge of the broadcast.
When the dust had settled, producer Gil Cates issued a scathing statement on the presenters going into business for themselves. “For someone who I invite to present an award to use that time to postulate a personal political belief, I think, is not only outrageous, it’s distasteful and dishonest,” he declared.
Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon had gotten in on the act, too, using their time to shine a light on the treatment of Haitian nationals being quarantined in Cuba, having tested HIV positive, diverting the focus away from the ‘Best Editing’ gong, but it was Gere who made the biggest impression on Cates.
Later, Gere’s comments about human rights abuses in China took Cates by surprise. “Does anyone care about Richard Gere’s comments about China? It’s arrogant,” he said. This being Hollywood, where most bygones are allowed to be bygones eventually, the actor was back on the podium halfway through his ban.
Even though he was the only one of the five main cast members who wasn’t nominated for their acting, which may or may not have been because of his persona non grata status, Gere was allowed into the building to share the spoils when Rob Marshall’s Chicago was named ‘Best Picture’ at the 2003 Oscars, even if it was another decade before he made his next triumphant return.
Ahead of presenting ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Original Song’ alongside Chicago colleagues Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zelwegger, and Queen Latifah, in 2013, Gere poked fun at his ban, telling The Huffington Post that “apparently, I’ve been rehabilitated,” adding that “it seems if you stay around long enough, they forget they’ve banned you.”
