Names and faces

■ Country stars Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker are promising laughs and good music when they co-host this year’s CMA Awards in November. McEntire, a Country Music Hall of Famer and veteran host of country music awards shows, returns after hosting last year with Carrie Underwood and Dolly Parton. It will mark her fifth year as a host. Rucker, who crossed over from the rock world about 15 years ago and is a Grand Ole Opry member, will be a first-time host of the CMAs when the show airs on Nov. 11 on ABC from Nashville, Tenn. “We both love to giggle and laugh and cut up. Whatever they give us to say, I have a feeling that we’re going to be adding a little bit of our own kind of sense of humor,” said McEntire, during an interview with Rucker. “One of the cool things about getting to do this with Reba is we can both be the straight man, or we can be the person who delivers the joke,” said Rucker. One of the first people that Rucker said he was planning on telling about his new co-hosting gig was country icon Charley Pride. Pride was the first Black country artist to co-host the awards show, in 1975 with Glen Campbell. Pride had won the CMA’s top prize, entertainer of the year, in 1971 and paved the way for artists like Rucker decades later. “When I started in this business, I was at my very first CMAs when I won the best new artist,” said Rucker, of his 2009 win. “I said to my manager, ‘I want to host this someday.’ I was joking. And to be here 14 years later hosting with Reba freaking McEntire? Wow!”

■ Borate is back. Sacha Baron Cohen has filmed a sequel to his 2006 film “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” that Amazon plans to release before the election. The streaming giant confirmed last week that it has acquired worldwide rights to the film. It’s reportedly titled: “Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan.” Reports have steadily accumulated about the project throughout the summer as it was filmed in secret during the pandemic. In early July, Rudy Giuliani called the police on Cohen after an interview in which Cohen emerged in character. Giuliani told Page Six: “This guy comes running in wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit. It was a pink bikini, with lace.” In June, Cohen appeared at a farright rally in Olympia, Wash., posing as a sponsor of the event. He led the crowd in a racially charged singalong. Cohen originated the character of Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh journalist, on his series “Da Ali G Show.” The 2006 film, directed by Larry Charles, grossed $262 million worldwide and was nominated for best adapted screenplay.

McEntire

Rucker

Cohen