French mother, Karine Gombeau, 42, of Paris was in New York with her family on Tuesday when she saw what looked to be a hobo rummaging through the trash near Grand Central Terminal.
Not wanting him to go hungry, Gombeau offered the man leftovers from an “enormous” pizza she, her husband and 15-year-old son had ordered earlier. Who was that man she was trying to feed? Richard Gere.
“What’s in the bag?” Gere, 64, asked.
“I tried to tell him in English, but it came out half in French,” she said.
“I said, ‘Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold.’ ”
Apparently, millionaire beggars can’t be choosers.
“He said, ‘Thank you so much. God bless you,’ ” Gombeau recalled.
Karine didn’t know it was Richard Gere until a worker at the hotel she was staying at handed her a copy of The Post two days later. Gere was filming scenes for his new movie Time Out of Mind. Turns out he makes a convincing hobo.
“It was magical . . . It’s crazy, this story. It’s unimaginable that something like this could happen,” she gushed.
“I think he’s very handsome, even at his age,” she added. “ ‘Pretty Woman’ was not my favorite movie, but I really loved ‘Chicago.’ ”
Karine, who works in the tourist industry, says she felt heartbroken to see homeless people in NYC and that’s why she felt compelled to feed Richard Gere. Granted, she should have realized something was up when “people came from all over the station and told my husband to stop filming.”
Maybe this will start a new trend of people feeding the homeless in hopes of the homeless person being a famous actor. Of course, they’ll also run the chance of it being a real, crazy homeless person who’ll thank them by throwing a jar of pee at them.
I’m Tom Jane. I just want my kids back.