This permanent A list mostly movie actor who is an Oscar winner/nominee finally has confessed that his publicist at the time was the one who first spread the rumor about the other A list actor and a gerbil.

Sylvester Stallone

Richard Gere

How That Gerbil Story Really Started

Sylvester Stallone thinks that Richard Gere’s still mad at him for starting that whole gerbil-in-the, well, you know, story.

Stallone tells AintItCoolNews.com (via Rush & Molloy) that Gere continues to harbor a grudge (if not a rodent) because Gere believes it was Sly who started that ridiculous urban legend about Gere and the gerbil. Here’s the deal: Gere and Stallone were on the set of 1974’s “The Lords of Flatbush” and the two actors got into a tiff over lunch one day — something about chicken grease, Sly’s thigh, and a hot dog — whereupon Stallone elbowed him in the side of the head.

The tension between the two actors became so fevered that Gere got kicked off the film, which still angers him today, apparently: “To this day [he] seriously dislikes me,” says Sly, who adds, for the record, that he did not start the rodent rumor. Gere’s rep had no comment. – Source

Where Richard Gere And Sylvester Stallone’s Infamous Feud Started

Richard Gere and Sylvester Stallone’s contentious relationship began years ago, when the two actors were set to star in 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush. Gere was set to play protagonist Chico Tyrell– a part eventually played by actor Perry King. But Stallone and Gere didn’t get off well, with one onset incident resulting in Gere getting fired from the movie.

Sylvester Stallone actually opened up about the Lord of Flatbush drama in an interview with Aint It Cool, revealing that the incident actually involved Richard Gere’s lunch, and one particular moment that royally pissed off Sly. As he told it,

He would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table. One day, during an improv, he grabbed me (we were simulating a fight scene) and got a little carried away. I told him in a gentle fashion to lighten up, but he was completely in character and impossible to deal with. Then we were rehearsing at Coney Island and it was lunchtime, so we decided to take a break, and the only place that was warm was in the backseat of a Toyota. I was eating a hotdog and he climbs in with a half a chicken covered in mustard with grease nearly dripping out of the aluminum wrapper. I said, ‘That thing is going to drip all over the place.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘If it gets on my pants you’re gonna know about it.’ He proceeds to bite into the chicken and a small, greasy river of mustard lands on my thigh. 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, one of us had to stay. Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me.

While it may seem a bit silly that Richard Gere’s departure from the movie was about a mustard stain, it seems it was the principle of it all that really bothered Sylvester Stallone. While Gere would ultimately have a long and prosperous career in Hollywood, it doesn’t look like he and Stallone ever made up.

In fact, the feud goes a step further, as some have speculated that Sylvester Stallone may have been responsible for the infamous Richard Gere gerbil rumor.

Richard Gere is best known for his performances in movies like Chicago and Pretty Woman, although he’s also had a bizarre and NSFW scandal following him for many years. In both the 1980s and 90s, a rumor swirled around that Gere was rushed into emergency surgery after inserting a living gerbil into his rectum. The rumor indicates that he went to the ER after the creature died in his body, resulting in a team of surgeons removing it. It’s a pretty insane rumor that has become so embedded in pop culture that its been referenced in Saturday Night Live and Wes Craven’s original Scream.

While rumors have indicated that Sylvester Stallone made up the story, he also probably didn’t have much of a reason to start the gerbil rumor. He didn’t end up losing his job, so it’s not like he had extra reason to be angry with Richard Gere. Still, it’s clear that Gere’s attitude on the set of The Lords of Flatbush has stuck with the Rocky actor. – Source