Richard Gere Urges Olympics Boycott

World-famous actor and activist , who upset thousands in India earlier in the year with an impromptu public smooch with a Bollywood actress during an HIV prevention event, is once again sparking controversy as he calls for a general boycott on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

Gere hopes that a boycott of the Games would bring light to China's history of human rights violations. But he also realizes that he may be asking for too much. "A general boycott to me certainly has value; it's probably impractical, but emotionally absolutely makes sense," Gere, who is a practiciing Buddhist and chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet. "Why should the world reward people who are obviously so bad to their own people, so bad to other people."