Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere are two of the biggest names in Hollywood in their respective genres. While Stallone is known for his portrayal of iconic action heroes in projects like Rocky and Rambo, the latter is renowned as a prominent rom-com star. But unfortunately, these two stars also share a history of feud among themselves which also led to physical altercations at times.
Interestingly, the feud between Sylvester Stallone and the Pretty Woman actor is also linked to Princess Diana. According to the popular British singer and composer Elton John, the disturbance between the stars even reached a party organized by him. Reportedly, it was Richard Gere’s closeness with Princess Diana that led to the trouble.
Sylvester Stallone wanted Richard Gere to stay away from Princess Diana
In his autobiography, the famous British singer Elton John revealed the incident between Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere. In Me, the 76-year-old Musical legend stated that at a party hosted by him for the former Walt Disney chairman, the two actors got engaged in a fistfight.
In the 2019 memoir, John revealed that the closing affinity between Princess Diana and Gere was not a pleasant scene for the Rocky fame.
“The most peculiar scene developed. Straight away, Richard Gere and Diana seemed very taken with each other. As the rest of us chatted, I couldn’t help notice a strange atmosphere in the room. Judging by the kind of looks he kept shooting them, Diana and Richard Gere’s newly blossoming friendship was not going down well with Sylvester Stallone at all.”
The composer of The Lion King(1994) added that he thought Sylvester Stallone came to his party with “the intention of picking Diana up” who just separated from Prince Charles then. Further, the situation grew more serious as he found the two stars absent from the dinner. The duo was spotted outside by Elton John’s present husband David Furnish who interrupted the clash from getting out of hand.
“He came back with both of them, but he was wearing a fairly ashen expression. It transpired that he’d discovered Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere in the corridor, squaring up to each other, apparently about to settle their differences over Diana by having a fistfight.”
After the dinner, when Diana and Gere resumed their conversation again, Stallone couldn’t control himself anymore and left the party hurling profanities at The Cotton Club actor. It must be noted that the Rambo actor never had a gentle relationship with Richard Gere. Before this incident, the duo was also spotted against each other during the making of The Lords of Flatbush.
What happened on the set of The Lords of Flatbush?
Originally Richard Gere was to share the screen with Sylvester Stallone in 1973’s The Lords of Flatbush before the former star was replaced with Perry King.
According to an interview, the 76-year-old actor was sitting at the back of his car enjoying his lunch when Gere came and dropped a mustard-dripped chicken on Stallone’s thigh. This led to a physical altercation which led to ultimately Gere getting fired from the movie.
“The original part of Chico, which was played by Perry King, was originally supposed to be played by Richard Gere, but we never hit it off…I elbowed him in the side of the head and basically pushed him out of the car. The director had to make a choice: one of us had to go, and one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me.”
Till now, the actors have never been spotted together again following their heated meet-up at Elton John’s party and it is doubtful to happen now. As per their projects, Gere is expected to be seen again in Longing while Stallone is expected to be seen in The Expendables 4 which is set to release later this year.
Source: People
