There’s this confusing article about Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere in today’s MSNBC scoop column, but I think I get the gist of it after reading it several times.

Slyvester Stallone says he doesn’t get along with Richard Gere and had him fired from a film they were working on together in 1974. Gere dripped some food grease on Stallone kind of on purpose, which pissed off Rocky and prompted him to elbow Gere. He then arranged to get Gere dropped from the film. Oh and he also says that Gere probably considers him responsible for starting that crazy gerbil urban legend. He says he’s not, though, but he’s sure to get some much-needed publicity for his latest remake of Rocky by mentioning it:

Did Sylvester Stallone start that bizarre urban myth about Richard Gere and a gerbil?The “Rocky” star says Gere thinks he does. As Stallone tells it, he and Gere had a falling-out on the set of the 1974 flick “The Lords of Flatbush.”

According to Stallone, Gere was supposed to have the role played by Perry King, but he and Gere “never hit it off” and Rocky got so mad at Gere that he elbowed him in the head over a greasy chicken.

“[Gere] would strut around in his oversized motorcycle jacket like he was the baddest knight at the round table,” Stallone told AintItCoolNews.com.

He says that one time during a fight scene things got a little too real, and at another point, things got physical during a lunch when Stallone went into a Toyota to eat lunch.

“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,” said Stallone. “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.”

Gere’s spokesman wasn’t available for comment, but according to Stallone: “Richard was given his walking papers and to this day seriously dislikes me. He even thinks I’m the individual responsible for the gerbil rumor. Not true, but that’s the rumor.”

[via GossipRocks]

It’s unknown why these guys had to eat in a car on the set of a film, but whatever. All I really heard was Richard Gere gerbil. According to the urban legends expert at About.com, that’s the top rumor that people ask him about when they hear what he does for a living. He says it has all the earmarks of an urban legend and that of course it’s not true. It makes me chuckle self-consciously and think of that South Park episode where the gerbil escaped from Mr. Slave or whatever that guy’s name was. (That episode was terribly wrong on so many levels, and I was really kind of amazed that they would dare make an episode that was so offensive and shocking. It was also funny in a sick way.)

Header image is of a Halloween costume picture found at NatronBomb.com.