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Richard Gere was in town yesterday to promote the Japanese release of his little movie, and he spent some time bonding with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, aka “the Japanese Richard Gere.” After a bit of flirting the two broke into dance, with Richard “being the man.” I’ve seen video of this on a couple news sites, but nothing quite matches the Fuji TV footage, which adds dramatic, slow-motion sequences over romantic music such as “Up Where We Belong.” (In RealPlayer format.)

I was half expecting Richard to cradle Koizumi in his arms, then walk out of the press conference as government officials cheered and Koizumi grabbed a sailor hat off Richard’s head and put it on his own. I guess sometimes real life just isn’t as romantic as the movies.

When asked why he came to meet the prime minister, Gere shouted “I got nowhere else to go!” When asked about their hairstyle similarities, Koizumi replied: “Don’t be fooled by the locks that I got. I’m still Junichiro — Junichiro from the block.”

UPDATE (3/31): Fuji had killed the video from the story, so now the link goes straight to the Real stream. Should work now. And I added some more bad jokes.