Because it started witha Philadelphia newscaster named Jerry penacoli. As it spread it may have whisper-changed to Richard Gere as everyone in the country wouldn’t have recognized penacolis name. But penacoli had to have a gerbil removed from his ass in the emergency room. They couldn’t keep that under wraps at all, and he left newscasting and Philly.
From various local mags:
URBAN MYTH: JERRY PENACOLI AND THE GERBIL VS. TEDDY PENDERGRASS AND THE TRANSVESTITE
WINNER: JERRY AND THE GERBIL, 40 PERCENT TO 25 PERCENT. Not a shred of truth, but the rumor seemed to run the KYW TV newscaster out of town and birthed a new verb: gerbilling.
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newscaster gerbil debacle
I live near Philadelphia, so in our town many people watch the Philadelphia news channels. The evening news anchor for NBC in the late-80s reportedly was taken to the emergency room one night and had to have a gerbil extracted from his anal/colon area. Obviously such a predicament could only be the result of some bizarre sex act. Shortly thereafter, the guy left the station and began working for some national enterainment news show.