Today host scolds Richard Gere for performing ‘obscene gesture’ live on TV

This US TV host was left scrambling after Hollywood actor Richard Gere performed a rude gesture live on the “family morning show”.

Richard Gere shocked US Today host Savannah Guthrie when he kicked off their interview by performing an “obscene gesture” on live TV.

After playing the trailer for the actor’s upcoming show The Agency, the camera switched to the studio where Gere was sitting opposite Guthrie, abruptly flipping the bird in her direction.

“You just did an obscene gesture on this family morning show!” Guthrie, 52, said to 75-year-old Gere.

She held papers up to hide his hand from the audience and added, “I’m bleeping you!”

Richard Gere flipped the bird on live TV, prompting Today host Savannah Guthrie to scold him on-air.

It seemed out of character for the Pretty Woman star.

But Gere argued he was doing a scene from the series which the breakfast program had cut off, so he took it upon himself to finish the scene.

“You didn’t show but that’s what I did in the piece!” Gere explained. “That’s what the clip was!”

Guthrie countered, “That’s what the clip was, but we cut that part out. But then you did it live!”

Gere defended himself by saying, “I could see that but it didn’t make any sense without that.”

Guthrie told him Today was a “family morning show”.

Gere argued he was finishing the scene from his upcoming show, The Agency.

He later joked, “My hand did that, I have no control!”

Gere isn’t the only big star to behave badly on Today this week. Cher recently appeared on the show and dropped a profanity, which Guthrie pointed out during her chat with the Hollywood actor.

“You know, Cher was on here doing an F-bomb yesterday, so I don’t know what’s happening,” she continued.

The previous day, Cher, 78, indeed said “f**k” on-air while discussing her divorce from her late ex-husband Sonny Bono.

Cher, who just released her new memoir, talked to co-host Hoda Kotb about how she sought advice from Lucille Ball while wrestling with the idea of leaving Bono amid their marital issues.

When Kotb, 60, asked what Ball told her, Cher replied, “I can’t say it on TV. Do you wanna bleep it?”

Cher dropped the F-bomb on the morning program earlier this week.

When Kotb assured her they would bleep it, Cher continued, “I’d known her when I was little. I said, ‘Lucy, I’m calling you because to my knowledge there’s never been a situation besides me like yours,’” Cher explained, noting that Ball famously left Desi Arnaz in 1960.

“She said, ‘F**k him, you’re the one with the talent,’” Cher said.

Kotb and other members of the Today team behind the camera audibly gasped and laughed in response to Cher dropping the word.

“Okay, we didn’t get the seven second, but we will get it for the next feed,” Kotb said.

“Well you said I could!” Cher pointed out.

“I should’ve bleeped it myself,” Kotb said with a laugh. “Bleep!”

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission