"That's rude" — Internet reacts to Richard Gere flipping off Today host Savannah Guthrie on air

On Wednesday, November 20, Richard Gere was invited to NBC's Today show, where the actor appeared to be flipping off the hostess, Savannah Guthrie. The video of Gere's "obscene gesture" has since gone viral on the internet, with several netizens reacting to it.

Many of them have linked the gesture to the long-standing gerbil rumor associated with Richard Gere.

Some X users comically pointed out that gerbils controlled his actions,

"Does he still have that gerbil up his a**?" - wrote one X user.

"I’d be chippy and on edge too if I had a live gerbil up my bu*t." - commented a second one.

Many others joked about the actor learning that Guthrie hated rodents.

"The gerbils controlling him" - posted a third one.

"He heard that she hates rodents." - replied a fourth X user.

"The only thing I picture when I see Richard Gete is a gerbil" - added another one.

For the unversed, the legend of Richard Gere and gerbils - which claimed that the actor had once been taken to a hospital's emergency room to get a gerbil removed from his rectum - caught fire in the 1980s and has since clung to the 75-year-old. However, Snopes has reported that the rumor has no truth attached to it.

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Richard Gere's "obscene gesture" was an attempt at finishing a scene from his upcoming show

Just before Richard Gere's "obscene gesture" was caught on camera, Guthrie had played a clip from his upcoming espionage thriller series, The Agency. As Gere featured in the clip, the host cut it off right before his character was about to make that gesture on-screen.

In an attempt to conclude his scene properly, Gere raised his middle finger, which elicited a shocked response from Savannah, who said:

"You just did an obscene gesture on this family morning show!"

Trying to hide the Pretty Woman actor's hand with a stack of papers in her hand, Guthrie added: "I'm bleeping you!"

The American Gigolo actor defended his actions by clarifying:

"You didn't show but that's what I did in the piece! That's what the clip was!"

When Guthrie responded by saying that the part was cut out intentionally, Gere said:

"I could see that but it didn't make any sense without that!"

Later insisting on not having any such intention, Richard also joked saying his hand did that, and that he had "no control".

Meanwhile, the Today show host brought up Tuesday's episode, where Cher had arrived as a guest and dropped "the F-bomb" on air, adding that she didn't know what was happening anymore.

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Gere plays the CIA's London bureau chief in The Agency

Richard Gere was on the NBC show to promote his upcoming thriller series, The Agency. The 10-episode thriller espionage series, which will air on Paramount+/Showtime, is based on the critically acclaimed French series, Le Bureau des Légendes, or The Bureau. The latter aired on Canal+ between 2015-2020, and had five seasons, making it likely for Gere's upcoming show to have just as many seasons.

hard plays the character of Bosko in the series, who is a former undercover CIA agent and now heads the London Bureau division. The show features Martian - played by Michael Fassbender - a CIA agent involved in deep undercover duty for six years, as he gets called back into a local office. Having returned, Martian struggles to relearn how to operate under the conventional chain of command as his undercover catches up to him, with an old romance resurfacing alongside new threats.

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The first trailer of The Agency was launched three weeks ago, on October 24, with the show's release date revealed to be November 29, 2024.