Carey Lowell and Richard Gere

A bevy of stars .ocked to The Waldorf for the “American Museum of the Moving Image Salute to Richard Gere.” Scenes from such Gere movies as Chicago (for which he won a 2003 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy), An Officer and a Gentleman, and Primal Fear were interspersed with speeches by Rochelle Slovin, director of the Museum, Denzel Washington, and other celebrity friends. Throughout the festivities, an animated Gere frequently interrupted from the audience as friends and co-stars offered amusing anecdotes.

The 19th annual black-tie tribute, which bene.ts the Museum (of television, film, and digital media), honors a personality whose career has “propelled the medium of the moving image, and has had a profound effect on industry and audience alike.” The tone throughout the evening was upbeat and lighthearted, until the closing sentence of Gere’s remarks. The actor soberly commented on the meaning of trust, and his lack of it, in anyone (even the President) holding the belief that he or she has God exclusively on his or her side.

The evening’s only other source of angst was generated during the remarks of Louis Gossett Jr., who starred in 1982 with Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman. “We never had a cross word or a tense moment,” Gossett said of Gere. “Debra Winger took care of that!”

Stars in the flow included: wife Carey Lowell, Sharon Stone, Laura Linney, Matthew and Cari Modine, Marisa Berenson, Hector Elizondo, Kim Cattrall, Tim Robbins, Winona Ryder, Marty Richards, Ali Larter, Liam Neeson, Valentina de Angelis, and Michael Dempsey.

Gere debuted in 1978 in Days of Heaven (for which he won Italy’s David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor), and starred in American Gigolo, The Cotton Club, Pretty Woman, Internal Affairs, Final Analysis, Mr. Jones, First Knight, The Jackal, Runaway Bride, Autumn in New York, and Unfaithful. Shall We Dance? (with Jennifer Lopez and Susan Sarandon) will be released this year. Thanks to the man of the hour, for all of the enjoyable hours that he has brought to the film-going public!


Kim Cattrall, Liam Neeson

Sharon Stone

Ali Larter

Lou Gossett Jr.

George and Mariana Kaufman

Ninah and Michael Lynne, Andrew Tisch

Armani’s Wilfredo Rosado, RCA Music Group’s Donna Clower, BMG’s Chris Chambers
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