I WON’T RISK A REAL-LIFE MOVIE SHOOT
ACHA BARON COHEN is hanging up his mankini after conceding that another Borat film would be ‘too dangerous’.
This weekend the 49-year-old Brit might win a Golden Globe for his Borat
Subsequent
Moviefilm, in which he wore a bulletproof vest to perform the satirical song Wuhan Flu at a farright rally in the US.
Baron Cohen says he was lucky to escape with his life after his disguise as the Kazakh journalist was rumbled and he was chased from the event.
‘There were a couple of times I had to put on a bulletproof vest to shoot a scene, and you don’t want to do that too many times in your life,’ he added. ‘I was pretty lucky to get out this time, so no, I’m not doing it again.’ His daring behaviour has put him in the race for a best comedy actor award but the reality is no laughing matter. Sharing his fears, Baron Cohen said: ‘The night before something like that rally you’re going through everything that can go wrong.
‘In a normal scene, we’re like, “Have I done my research? How do I make sure the accent’s perfect?”
‘In this one you’re going, “OK, if a bunch of guys with guns come from that side of the stage, have I got a way to get out? What if a bunch of people start shooting me?” I’m not pushing my luck again.’
■ One of your readers, Carolyne from Birmingham, alludes to a ‘middle-aged William Shatner’ and you print a photo of Shatner in his eighties (MetroTalk, Tue). Maybe Metro needs to do more research into what Shatner looked like in middle-age. His TJ Hooker period, when he was in his early fifties, is indicative of that. Get it right! William Barklam, Shepherd’s Bush
Health secretary Matt Hancock should apologise after the High Court found he broke the law by failing to publish details of emergency Covid contracts for PPE (MetroTalk, Wed).
Accountability and transparency are even more important during a national emergency.
If the paperwork was done on time, the mistakes that resulted in shortage of PPE, delivery of substandard PPE and placing of orders without due diligence with companies with no experience in this field would have been avoided.
Some humility from the government would be welcome when the lives of front-line workers are involved.
Brij, Croydon
I do wish people would stop calling for Matt Hancock’s resignation. Yes, he may well be the worst health secretary in living memory (for those of us lucky enough to still be alive), but he’s still one of the least incompetent ministers in cabinet. Beyond Hapless Hancock, that’s probably limited to Carrie Symonds and Dilyn the Downing Street Dog at the moment.