American Gigolo the only role that Travolta has turned down only to be taken by Gere: it had previously happened with "Days of Heaven" (1978) and occurred again when Travolta was offered the lead in both "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) and "Chicago" (2002). Paul Schrader had threatened to sue Travolta if Richard Gere wasn't cast in the film knowing full well that Travolta had his eye on the script of another Paramount production "Urban Cowboy" (1980). Gere's very brief nude scenes marked the first time a major Hollywood actor was frontally nude in a film. According to Gere, the nudity
Just a Gigolo (1978 film) film "all show and no substance" and considered Bowie "completely miscast", while "Time Out" advised its readers to simply "overlook it". In an interview with "NME" in September 1980, Bowie was quoted as saying: Bowie's biographers have labelled the film "an active pain", "an unadulterated flop", and a "debacle". Its reputation among mainstream critics generally remains low, Halliwell's calling it an "international misadventure... interminable... clumsily made", while Leonard Maltin describes it as a "weird melodrama". Allmovie's Hal Erickson has nevertheless given the film a 3-star rating. "Just a Gigolo" was released to DVD in 2004. Just a Gigolo (1978 film)