Sacha Baron Cohen posts video response to Oscars controversy

Sacha Baron Cohen, posing as Admiral General Aladeen, says he wants his Oscar tickets back; Academy president says Sacha Baron Cohen has them.

|
Republic of Wadiya/YouTube screenshot
Sacha Baron Cohen, star of the upcoming movie 'The Dictator,' says the Academy will face 'unimaginable consequences' if he doesn't get his tickets back. The Academy says he has them.

Actor Sacha Baron Cohen has released a video in character as his “Dictator” persona Admiral General Aladeen, saying the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has until noon on Sunday to give him his Oscar tickets back. Following rumors he planned to walk the red carpet in character as Aladeen, there were some reports that the Academy had banned Cohen from the ceremony Sunday evening.

But the organization behind the Oscars says Cohen has not been officially banned, with Academy president Tom Sherak telling The Wrap this morning that Cohen has his tickets.

“We want him to come to the show,” he said in an interview. “But we would like him to come as Sacha.”

Sherak did not say in the interview with The Wrap if any action would take place if Cohen arrived in costume as Aladeen.

Cohen’s minute-and-a-half-long video, beginning with a line of text stating it was produced by the Republic of Wadiya Media (the fictional country ruled by Aladeen) and instructions to “Please Stand,” was filmed with Cohen sitting on a throne. Two actors playing guards held guns and stood at attention behind him, with portraits of Aladeen on the back wall.

Cohen delivered the video in his Aladeen accent of rolling Rs, beginning his speech with, “Good morning, great Satan of America” and adding a polite, “How are you? I am fine, thank you.”

Cohen continued, “I am outraged at being banned from the Oscars… while I applaud the Academy for taking away my right to free speech, I warn you that if you do not lift your sanctions… you will face unimaginable consequences.”

The actor also made jokes about romantic comedies like “You’ve Got Mail” and added that he had hired Hilary Swank as his date.

Cohen smiled at the end of the video. “Good luck, Billy Crystals,” he said. “Fantastic.”

Check out the video below:

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Sacha Baron Cohen posts video response to Oscars controversy
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2012/0224/Sacha-Baron-Cohen-posts-video-response-to-Oscars-controversy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe