Full respect to the just announced Best Actor nominees. I was hoping Gere would land one as well but looks like he will have to wait longer.
I believe he deserved a Best Actor nomination for Chicago 10 years ago, especially when you consider the fact that almost everybody in that movie's cast, including John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah got acting noms.
Yes, he was banned. In 1993, during the Oscar ceremony, Gere was invited upon the stage to give away an award. He went up there and started talking about the audience, commenting that there's a lot of people in attendance and it's time to give out a strong message. Using wild gestures, he went on to speak about China's illegal occupation of Tibet.
The honchos at the Oscars weren't pleased at all. He was immediately banned as a presenter at the Oscars and was never invited again. This indirectly meant he would be overlooked for nominations as well.
They call me Eraserhead.