Richard Gere puts his money where his mouth is, and he’s consistent.
One of the last great movie stars, Gere is underwriting appearances later this month by exiled (since 1959) Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. Gere is producing a weekend of lectures by His Holiness at Radio City Music Hall.
Unlike Kabbalah or Scientology, studying with the Dalai Lama is pretty much a cheap ticket. The average price is between $40 and $60. According to an aide working for The Gere Foundation, originally one of the classes was a six parter with each segment costing sixty bucks.
But now they’re considering breaking it down so “students” can pick and choose the classes individually.
“The Gere Foundation sponsored the Dalai Lama — who lives in northern India–in Central Park, which was free,” said the aide. “But it costs to take Radio City.”
What’s even cooler: you don’t have to buy special books or ribbons or get e-metered And you can download the basic literature now for free from dalailamany.org in advance of the May 21 start date.
By the way the Gere Foundation is a nice little operation. Gere gives away around $250,000 to worthy causes, many of which are Tibet-related. But he also sends a hefty check to the Motion Picture TV Fund, which is now under siege over attempting to close its long term care facility. The irony is, I don’t think Gere has ever gone to the swanky pre-Oscar party for the Fund. He just writes the check.
