PHOTOS Woman gives homeless man her leftover pizza only to realize it was RICHARD GERE acting a movie

 A 42 year-old French tourist was simply acting from the kindness of her heart when she gave what appeared to be a homeless man her leftover pizza. 

However, she later learned that the man was far from destitute, and was instead Hollywood icon Richard Gere.

The tourist, who revealed herself on Saturday as Karine Gombeau, from Paris, saw Gere standing outside of Grand Central Station at approximately 5:45pm on Tuesday. According to Gombeau, who had just left a pizzeria in Little Italy, he was digging through a trash bin and drinking a beer from a brown paper bag

'I said "Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold"' Gombeau told the NY post, who approached the 62 year-old actor with the remnants of an 'enormous' pizza her family had shared but was unable to finish. The pizza was carried in a plastic 'I Love NY' bag.

'He said "Thank you so much. God bless you."' recalled Gombeau. 

She did not know until she saw herself in a newspaper two days later that the man she extended her generosity to was Gere, the star of such blockbusters as 'Pretty Woman' and 'An Officer and a Gentleman.'  He is reportedly worth $100 million.

Gere was in Manhattan filming for his next movie, 'Time Out of Mind', which he stars in with Jena Malone and Kyra Sedgwick. Both Gere and Sedgwick were spotted in the city last week, staying in character as vagrants.

Gombeau was not the only passerby that Gere fooled that day. Another, Mizan Rahman, a salesman, told the NY Post that Gere 'looked like a natural homeless guy. ... It didn't seem like he was acting.'

Gombeau said that she is emotionally affected by seeing others scrounging in the trash to find food.

'It leaves me really sad to know we waste food and they have nothing,' she said. 'It really moves me.'

Reportedly, Gere was filmed by cameras positioned far away from him, allowing him to wander through Grand Central Station without people realizing that a shoot was in progress. However, Gombeau said that there was a detail that, in retrospect, gave away the secret that her and her family were walking through a movie set.

'People came from all over the station and told my husband to stop filming,' said Gombeau, whose family was traveling with their own handheld camera to document their trip. 'People came out of the subways. It was very confusing.'