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I know we brought you a story from contactmusic.com only yesterday, but they're back with another cracking celebrity/disability crossover story: . Boo! Hiss!

It seems that the star of Pretty Woman and An Officer and a Gentleman was attending a charity dinner in Washington DC last weekend, when he was approached by a couple of teenage wheelchair users who wanted to have their photo taken with the Hollywood actor, but he refused their request. (You can say "Boo! Hiss!" again now, if you like).

So far so unremarkable. You're probably thinking along the same lines as Crippled Monkey: "Yeah, but why should Richard Gere immediately consent to getting his picture taken with a couple of teenagers just because they're - shock horror - wheelchair users?"

Unfortunately, the ever-so-smooth Mr Gere then had to take it a bit too far, didn't he? When told how upset the star-spotting teens were, he apparently replied: "I'm hard of hearing and I have a bad hip. We all have problems".

That's it, then. You heard it here first (well, second). Richard Gere is officially disabled! Sort of. Admittedly he'd kept it rather quiet up 'til now, but now that he's announced it to the world, Ouch says: welcome to the club, Richard! Ahem.