Hilary Swank and Richard Gere on first day of filming “Amelia”. A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.

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Richard Gere has signed up to join Hilary Swank in the much-delayed Amelia Earhart biopic.

Aussie director Philip Noyce quit the project at Christmas, due to ongoing filming delays and has been replaced by Mira Nair.

Now, with Gere on board, the flying film, titled Amelia, will take off later this month, when shooting begins in Canada and South Africa.

Double Oscar winner Swank will play the fabled aviator and Gere will portray her publisher husband George Putnam.

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WENN

Richard Gere is proud of the obscenity charges he faced in India after publicly kissing Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty – claiming he wears his legal woes like a “badge of courage”.

The Pretty Woman star fell foul of Indian officials after he locked lips with Shetty and fixed her in a passionate embrace at an AIDS benefit in the country’s capital, New Delhi, last year.
However, India’s Supreme Court decided to drop all charges against Gere last month, telling the star he is more than welcome to travel to the country again.

Gere isn’t angry at the country’s strict public affection clauses, admitting he went a step too far – branding his amorous actions “insane”, but brave nonetheless.

He says, “It’s a badge of somewhat insane courage. It is a very complex society.”

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Looks like Richard Gere can go back to India, after all. After almost a year of facing charges should he return to the country following his scandalous sweeping kiss of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a public AIDS awareness event, the charges have been suspended.

India’s top court, led by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R. V. Raveendran, indefinitely stayed the arrest warrant issued against the actor last April in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur.

“Gere is allowed to come and leave,” said Shilpa’s attorney, Anil Grover, “He can’t be arrested.”

At the AIDS awareness event last April 15, the Pretty Woman star hugged and kissed the Bollywood actress on her cheek, leading Hindu hard-liners to charge that the pair had offended the sensibilities of India’s traditionally conservative culture. The charges, however, have really inspired little more than indifference among the Indian population, leading to them being stayed, though Gere — a frequent visitor to the country and a champion of human rights in neighboring Tibet — did apologize profusely after the incident.