Sacha Baron Cohen was declared persona non grata by the
Academy, for his intentions to arrive in character as his latest creation
Admiral General Aladeen, star of his upcoming film The Dictator. But the ban
was short lived (can you hear the PR cogs turning?) and Cohen graced the red
carpet, clutching the ‘ashes’ of late dictator Kim-Jong-Il, which he
subsequently chose to pour on TV presenter Ryan Seacrest.
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| photo: Paramount Pictures |
If this is the kind of controversy the Oscars was looking to
avoid, Baron Cohen was never likely to oblige. In 2006, he crashed the Toronto
Film Festival as Borat - another of his satirical guises - riding onto the red
carpet in a carriage harnessed by six peasant women. The film was boycotted by
the Kazakhstani government for 'defaming their nation in the
eyes of the world'. In 2008, Baron Cohen prodded the bee’s nest at the MTV
VMA’s, by staging a ‘fly-by gone wrong’ in which he landed semi-clothed into a
disgruntled Eminem’s lap.
Pushing the boundaries of social tolerance
has become the raison d’être of much of Baron Cohen’s work, but does it leave a
bad taste in one’s mouth? Or are his debacles becoming the reason to tune into
jaded television ceremonies?
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