Did he really do it? If he did, did the medical facility that treated him get sued for breach of privacy? Or is it all just a bunch of you-know-what?
Cecil could not find any authenticated “gerbil stories” involving any persons, famous or not, according to Is it true what they say about gerbils?.
This column originally appeared in More of the Straight Dope. You do own a full set of Unca Cecil’s books, don’t you?
Patently false, and really abhorrent (this from a queer, no less). Uncle Cecil says it, as does www.snopes.com and www.urbanlegends.com.
Esprix
And P.S. Jayne Mansfield was not decapitated, Lupe Velez did not drown in her toilet, and Catherine the Great did not die during a romantic encounter with a horse.
Oh, yeah, Marie Antoinette never said “Let them eat cake.” Anything else?
Thanks
But they said that on Frazier! OK, so what’s the true story for Lupe?
[sigh]
Yeah, they said it on The Simpsons, too. It was made up by Kenneth Anger for his Hollywood Babylon book—doesn’t appear anywhere in print before him. Lupe died from an overdose of sleeping pills (she was unmarried, pregnant and Catholic—not a good combination).
If you think for a few minutes, you’ll realize it is impossible to drown in a toilet unless you have someone holding you by the ankles and dunking you—gravity would pull you out once you lost consciousness.
Poor Lupe, like she didn’t have enough problems, this SOB Anger has to make this her legacy! Everybody go out and rent one of her films, she was a pretty good dramatic actress and a bang-up comedienne, as well as a real looker. She turns up a lot on AMC, check if any of her movies are on this week!
I wonder if Kenneth Anger is related to Ed Anger, who writes a column for the “Weekly World News.”
I read “TV Babylon,” by someone whose name I forget. The writer really had a way with words, though.
In referring to Dick York’s back pain, and how his role was lessened during his tenure on “Bewitched,” it said something like “He seemed to be all right, but that was only the way he looked on TV–the medium of lies.”
(And, let’s not forget Fatty Arbuckles trial by press.)
Sorry, don’t have cable. I remember seeing Lupe in a movie called “The Mexican Girl” or something like that, a funny comedy about her being discovered by some Hollywood talent scout. She was hot!
This is true. My friend Jill goes to a doctor in LA who keeps the gerbil, yes that famous Gere one, in a bottle. He is the doctor who took it out. So there.
What, is he waiting to sell it as a movie novelty or as a blackmail attempt?
Ed Anger is, or at least was, a guy named Rafe Klinger, who doesn’t believe word one of what he writes. This according to John Waters’ book “Crackpot.”
Well that makes me pig biting mad 
Yea, and my brother’s girlfriend’s cousin’ sister saw Ferris pass out at 31 flavors. I think it’s serious.
DON PEDRO: Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.
BEATRICE: No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. -Much Ado About Nothing, Act II, Sc: i
Actually, SR, it goes:
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
handy wrote:
Even if this hypothetical doctor exists, s/he would not have told your friend Jill about the incident, because it would be a violation of physician-patient confidentiality. I suspect the doctor may have made a wisecrack about having Richard Gere’s gerbil, and your friend didn’t understand that the doctor was joking.
Either that, or your friend’s a big ol’ liar!
‘Either that, or your friend’s a big ol’ liar!’
No, it’s the gerbil in the jar. Really. I haven’t known her to lie much. She sees him once a year for about 12 years now.
Well, this was one of those times, handy. It can be found on www.snopes.com and it’s definately an Urban Legend.
Coldfire
Voted Poster Most Likely To Post Drunk
"You know how complex women are"
- Neil Peart, Rush (1993)
Richard Gere and a gerbil? Geez, that’s not the way I heard it. I thought it was Whoopi Goldberg and a ferret. Or was it Sharon Stone and an iguana? Shit. Yer gettin’ me all mixed up here . . .
Dr. Watson
“How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
handy-
I wasn’t trying to insult your friend. Just yanking your chain. 
Can you (or your friend) give more detail? Who is the doctor? I still think maybe the doctor was kidding around with her.