Elton John Says He Once Hosted a Dinner Party Where Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere Fought Over Princess Diana

No, I did not simply plug names into a ’90s headline generator. According to Sir Elton John, Rambo and Edward Lewis once nearly engaged in fisticuffs over the heart of the people’s princess.

This story gets even more delightfully ’90s when you factor in the fact that it was a party given by John and David Furnish for Disney chief Jeffrey Katzenberg who had recently commissioned Elton John to write the music for The Lion King. In Sir Elton’s new memoir, Me, he writes that Gere had recently split from Cindy Crawford and Princess Diana was newly rid of the blight that is Prince Charles. The two were in deep conversation by the fireplace while Stallone looked on jealously. When the rest of the fancy folk came through for dinner, Gere and Stallone remained behind, apparently to settle their differences the playground way, according to Page Six:

“As the dinner guests moved into the dining room, Stallone and Gere were nowhere to be found, John writes. Furnish discovered them squaring off in the corridor ‘apparently about to settle their differences over Diana by having a fist-fight,’ the excerpt reads.

After dinner, Diana and Gere resumed their flirting, prompting Stallone to storm out.

‘I never would have come,’ he snapped, as David and I showed him to the door, ‘if I’d known Prince f—in’ Charming was gonna be here.’ Then he added: ‘If I’d wanted her, I would’ve taken her!’ John writes.”

For her part, Princess Diana did not seem to care much about men being boys: “‘Maybe she hadn’t realised [sic] what was happening. Or maybe stuff like that happened all the time and she was used to it,’ John writes.”

As much as I want to believe that this is standard fare for a John/Furnish dinner party and not that I would ever doubt the good word of Sir Elton Hercules John, it is very difficult to imagine hardcore Buddhist Richard Gere fistfighting in a tuxedo over a woman he had just met. Though I am fully ready to believe Stallone has actually fought and lost over even dumber grievances.