Those Tricky Animal Metaphors

Richard Gere’s odd serenity leads me to believe he either knows a lot more or a lot less than most of the rest of us. Maybe it’s less:

Actor Richard Gere’s animal magnetism has won him the unwelcome accolade of being declared the year’s worst celebrity waffler by Britain’s Plain English Campaign.

Once voted the World’s Sexiest Man, Gere Wednesday carried off the campaign’s Foot in Mouth award for 2002’s most baffling celebrity quote after comparing himself to a giraffe in a newspaper interview.

“I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe, and someone said I was a snake, I’d think, no, actually I’m a giraffe,” he told Britain’s Guardian newspaper in June. [Reuters]

Hey, stand up for your giraffe-ness Richard. (I won’t say anyting about gerbils – swear) I don’t recall hearing about anyone mistaking a giraffe for a snake, but then Oliver Sacks had a patient who mistook his wife for a hat, so you never know.