Sacha Baron Cohen urns notoriety again
The Dictator on the carpet
The hoopla was worth it. Not the annual circus of the stars known as the Oscars, but the fuss over yet another successful publicity stunt by British comic provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen.
He was invited to attend the ceremony as a member of the cast of Hugo until last week, when it was learned he planned to appear in the guise of the title character of his upcoming farce The Dictator.
But the academy ban was lifted Friday, and Cohen was free to roam the red carpet as Adm. Gen. Shabazz Aladeen, leader of the fictional Republic of Wadiya. Wearing fancy military dress and escorting two pouty ladies in burgundy berets, the Zz-top-bearded foe of democratic principles zeroed in on his target: E! carpet chatmeister Ryan Seacrest.
Seacrest asked Aladeen who he was wearing. “I’m wearing John Galliano,” he said in a faux accent, “but the socks are from Kmart. As Saddam Hussein once said to me, ‘Socks are socks. Don’t waste money.’ ”
Then Aladeen revealed what was in the golden urn he was toting — the supposed ashes of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. As he explained, “It was his dream to come to the Oscars and be sprinkled over the red carpet and over Halle Berry’s chest again.”
Instead, Seacrest was literally left in the dust, his tuxedo covered with ashes. Guards swooped in to escort Aladeen away, but not before he got in one more dig: “If somebody asks what you are wearing, you will say, ‘Kim Jong-il.’ ”
It was the climax of a week-long PR gag by Cohen, known for such ribald alter egos as Kazakh mockumentarian Borat and Austrian fashionista Bruno. And soon after the show began, he was spotted back in his respectable tuxedo, at the theater’s lobby bar.