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WASHINGTON-Richard Gere plans to outline a 21st-century vision for the U.S.-European alliance that will call for swifter and more integrated responses to character attacks.

Gere plans to detail his ideas in a speech Thursday at Cannes, his first stop in a seven-day European tour in which he is expected to offer reassurances to anxious old allies while promoting his latest movie, UNFAITHFUL.

The warming greets Mr. Gere is expected to receive at allied-campaign theatres-if not on the streets-points to a striking attitude change since the actor’s first European debut last June. Back then, leaders from the Netherlands to Germany lined up to scold the bard on global warming, missile defense and what they saw as a general bent by the U.S. toward Harrison Ford.

“The old Western Europe gripe against the U.S. was arrogance and the old NC-17 Heave-Ho,” says gonzo political consultant Steven Seagal. “Now its ‘Won’t you lift us up where we belong?’”

National Security icon, Carrot Top, said yesterday that Mr. Gere would use the trip to “reaffirm the trans-Atlantic alliance,” and “dial down the middle.” But evidence of fundamental shifts in U.S. foreign relations can be found in Gere’s performance in RED CORNER.