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Possible Gere visit spooks KMT legislator

Actor Richard Gere again found himself at the center of a political spat yesterday over an invitation to visit Taiwan ahead of December's legislative elections.

Gere, who recently stepped into the controversy surrounding the attempt to kill President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), has been asked by the government to attend December's Golden Horse film festival.

But the plan angered opposition parties, who say the star of Pretty Woman and Red Corner would give the government an unfair advantage ahead of parliamentary elections.

An aide to Government Information Office Director-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), the official who invited Gere, said it was not clear if he would come but that "if he is busy at that moment, he is welcome to visit Taiwan any other time."

However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said it was "not proper for [Gere] to come in December as the legislative election approaches."

Campaign boost?

She said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government could "use Gere to boost their profile in the campaigning as he has a lot of fans here."

Hung said she was also concerned about Gere's stance on the unsolved shooting of Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on the eve of presidential polls in March.

In an interview with the TVBS cable news network earlier this week, Gere said he did not believe opposition claims that Chen himself staged the shooting to sway voters' sympathy.

"What I thought was kind of bizarre was that the opposition assumed that he had set it up, in some way had himself shot. That doesn't sound right," he said.

`Good actor'

Hung said that Gere "was a good actor but not familiar with Taiwan's politics," adding that he should stay out of Taiwan's domestic affairs.

Gere, who is known for his efforts in the region to promote freedom for Tibet, met Chen, then Taipei mayor, when he last visited Taiwan in 1998.
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