Well, this is probably not the way he saw this going down. The message is clear: do not fuck with the Academy or you will be left the last one not laughing.
If you’ve kept your nose to the pre-Oscar grindstone this week, you’ve likely already heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was hoping he could attend the red carpet as General Aladeen, the main character from his upcoming Paramount comedy, "The Dictator."
The potentially ridiculing idea (see all of Cohen’s films and the way they skew celebrity) made the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences extremely uncomfortable and the idea has, in fact, totally backfired. So concerned are they with the Cohen stunt, they have apparently pulled his ticket from the Oscars this Sunday, effectively banning the actor from appearing at the show. Wah wah wee wah.
Ironically, Cohen is an Academy member and is in Best Picture nominee “Hugo,” but that’s apparently not enough. Maybe it’s not all said and done. “Unless they’re assured that nothing entertaining is going to happen on the Red Carpet, the Academy is not admitting Sacha Baron Cohen to the show,” an insider told Deadline about the situation. Either way it’s going to be pretty good free promotion for Cohen’s upcoming picture directed by “Borat” director Larry Charles.
Cohen tried to pull a similar stunt in 2007 when he was asked to be a presenter for the show. Cohen said he would do so, but if only if he could present in his “Borat” character. He did the same at the MTV Movie Awards as his "Bruno" character, but that was a stunt that Eminem was in cahoots with. The Academy, who take the event hyper-seriously as a night to parade our greatest stars, not mock or scorn them, pretty much rescinded the invite immediately. [Deadline]
