Richard Gere as undercover bum fools kind-hearted French tourist

New York

That’s the moral of the story after a French tourist to New York, Karine Valnais Gombeau, offered leftover pizza to what she thought was an elderly homeless man, only to learn two days later that the man was actually award-winning actor Richard Gere in costume for a new film.

Gombeau, from Paris, said she was visiting New York’s famous Little Italy neighborhood last week when she saw a man sifting through the garbage, prompting her to offer him a leftover pizza.

“I said ‘Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold,'" Gombeau told the New York Post. “He said: ‘Thank you so much. God bless you.’"

Gere plays a homeless New Yorker who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter in the new movie “Time Out of Mind.”

Gombeau wasn’t the only person fooled by Gere’s new profile. Nearby salesman Mizan Rahman told reporters that Gere “looked like a natural homeless guy. It didn’t seem like he was acting.”