10 Insane Rumours Fans Started About Movie Stars
1. Richard Gere & The Curious Case Of The Gerbil
Urban legends don't get much more insane than the Richard Gere gerbil story.
Sometime in the mid-80s, word began doing the rounds in Hollywood that Gere paid a visit to California's Cedars-Sinai Hospital in order to have a gerbil removed from his rectum, which he'd shoved up there for sexual gratification.
The rumour's spread was reportedly aided by an unknown jokester who sent a fake press release reporting on the embarrassing incident to as many fax machines in Hollywood as they could find.
It's even been theorised that the rumour may have been started by Sylvester Stallone per the actors' decades-long feud, though there's absolutely no proof of that.
This is far more likely a deranged, bafflingly disgruntled fan having some "fun" at Gere's expense, and the story's strangeness has allowed it to cling to the actor for the better part of 40 years.
Despite Gere generally refusing to discuss the matter, the story of the gerbil is still very much alive and well on social media, even though "gerbilling" is largely accepted to be a mere theoretical act in the medical community.