Richard Gere got scolded after him raised his middle finger Unpleasant Today host Savannah Guthrie live on air Wednesday.

Suffice to say, Guthrie was shocked.

“You just made an obscene gesture on this family morning show,” the wide-eyed NBC host told Gere as she tried to hide his hand with a stack of papers. “I’ll beep you.”

The attacking move was uncharacteristic of the usually sophisticated players Beautiful woman star. But in his defense, he explained that he was just finishing up the clip the morning show had just played from his upcoming spy thriller series, The Agency.

Apparently the preview was cut right before Gere’s character flipped the bird.

“You didn’t show up, but I did in the play,” the actor said. “That was the clip.”

“That was the clip, but we cut that part out,” Guthrie replied. “But then you did it live.”

“I could see that, but without it it wouldn’t make any sense,” Gere fired back.

As Guthrie noted, it’s the second time in as many days that a celebrity has been a guest Today has stunned a host with obscenity.

“You know, Cher was here yesterday with an F-bomb, so I don’t know what’s going on,” Guthrie exclaimed to Gere as both laughed.

The pop legend had dropped the expletive that she shared with Today‘s viewers’ advice from actress Lucille Ball on how to deal with her divorce from her romantic and professional partner, Sonny Bono, in 1975.

Cher had warned host Hoda Kotb that the response was inappropriate, but Kotb assured her that they would “bleep it out.”

So Cher revealed Ball’s opinion: “F— him. You are the one with the talent.”

The only problem? The broadcast did not have a seven-second delay, so the expletive went unfiltered to the show’s viewers.

Kotb – and the rest of the studio staff, who burst out laughing – immediately realized the mistake, and the presenter apologized to the program’s audience.

Cher, meanwhile, insisted it wasn’t her fault, simply saying, “Well, you said I could do it.”