Richard Gere visits migrants stuck at sea in Mediterranean

ABOARD THE OPEN ARMS ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA >> Actor Richard Gere is visiting rescued migrants on board a humanitarian ship that has been stuck in the Mediterranean Sea for over a week.

The Hollywood star took food and supplies by boat Friday to 121 people aboard the Open Arms, a rescue ship floating in international waters near the Italian island of Lampedusa after being blocked from entering ports in Italy and Malta.

The 69-year-old actor carried fruit boxes on board and spoke to several migrants who had fled war-torn Libya on unseaworthy smuggling boats before being rescued. Gere urged the world to “please support us here on Open Arms and help these people, our brothers and sisters.”

Other European countries have yet to respond to the aid group’s request for a solution to the impasse over the rescue ship.

Dascha Polanco’s back in the acting hustle after ‘Orange’

NEW YORK >> Agencies, writers, producers: The time is now for Hollywood to do more in terms of diversity behind the scenes, Dascha Polanco said.

In front of the cameras, the “Orange is the New Black” co-star said the industry must stop thinking of her and so many of her co-stars on the recently wrapped Netflix series as non-traditional Hollywood types based on size, looks, race, age or sexual orientation.

“We are the tradition. We are the reality,” Polanco told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “Hollywood has been very exclusive in who they consider an actor, who they want to depict on screens.”

Polanco said diversity on screen is slowly lurching forward, but it’s equally important to do the same off camera. Her struggles finding work are not without emotional scars. She struggles daily over “self-love, self-acceptance, self-care.”

“A lot of my life as a young girl and