Gere Takes Travolta.s Roles

Richard Gere owes John Travolta big time for his career - Travolta was the first choice for Breathless, AN OFFICER + A GENTLEMAN, AMERICAN GIGOLO and even Chicago before the roles went to Gere.

Travolta insists he has no qualms about turning roles down that eventually go to Gere - because they're never too well presented when he takes a look.

And though Travolta would have loved to have starred in Chicago, the film he looked at three times wasn't the film that won this year's (03) Best Picture OSCAR. He explains, "I didn't want to do it. Even Richard turned it down a couple of times too. No one was presenting the vision of the film at that point.

"I'm a pilot. You want your checklist, your information, your data, you want to know where you're going and I didn't have enough of that data.

"Harvey Weinstein at Miramax offered me it three times and when I said no, there was no further seduction."