Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere’s rivalry goes back many decades and gave birth to many crazy stories. According to Elton John, the famous foes almost got into a fight over none other than Princess Diana!
This story started as a mutual grudge back in 1974 when Gere and Stallone first became rivals and Sly ensured Gere’s exclusion from The Lords of Flatbush where they were supposed to act together.
No one knows what the initial reason for the conflict was, and The Lords of Flatbush is supposedly the first time anyone’s ever learned that the two stars couldn’t stand each other.
However, decades passed, and nothing changed. Stallone and Gere still hate each other’s guts, and even more stories about their rivalry keep resurfacing as time passes.
Some of them, like the one we’re talking about today, were shared by other celebrities — in this case, it was Sir Elton John who described a very peculiar, to say the least, drama that once played out during one of his famous dinner parties.
Among the other most well-known guests at the party, Richard Gere, Sly Stallone, and Princess Diana were present.
Diana and Richard were immediately taken by each other and settled down at the fireplace, talking to each other and having a great time. Not everyone was happy for them, though.
According to Sir Elton John, Sylvester Stallone was pissed off at the newly-emerged friendship. Not only did he hate Gere, but also, admittedly, he arrived with the sole purpose of picking Diana up.
Seeing all of his plans get ruined in front of him because his old rival was really messing with Sly, and the atmosphere was charged.
After everyone moved to the dining room, Sir John noticed that the infamous foes were missing. They were then discovered together in the corridor, pushing each other and getting ready to fight over Diana.
Thanks to Elton’s partner David Furnish, the fight was prevented, but after the dinner, Stallone “stormed off home.”
As soon as Sly’s car disappeared in the distance, the tension immediately vanished, too, and the guests could finally relax.
Princess Diana and Richard Gere continued their merry conversation, and until the end of the night, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the hosts were glad to put the situation behind them.
While vividly described in Sir Elton John’s memoirs, this peculiar conflict between Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere has never been mentioned by anyone else: none of the guests have recalled anything like this so far, and Sly himself labeled this story as “complete fabrication” in his Instagram.