Many of us at the Arbitrage press conference on Friday morning were somewhat bemused when Richard Gere (who, truth be told, looked a bit on the tired side), got up halfway through the proceedings in a very un-press conferency type of way, walked to a curtain on the left of the stage and handed someone his china cup. Was there something wrong with his tea? Was there a fly floating on top? Was the cup chipped? We (or maybe just I) had thousands of questions buzzing around our heads.
As it turns out, there was nothing wrong with his tea, he just wanted more of the stuff. According to a source close the star (yes, I've always wanted to write that), Gere "inhales green tea" and likes to have a steaming cup of the stuff with him at all times. Apparently, Gere actually brought one of his mugs of green with him on the Arbitrage set and it ended up making it into the film (the bit in the plane at the beginning, so we hear). And, funnily enough, he's not into the posh stuff infused with this, that or the other either. Lipton will do just fine.
So, there you have it. One of the biggest mysteries of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2012 so far has just been unravelled.
