Security guards remove Sacha Baron Cohen from Oscar ceremony after he spills “ashes” on television host • Cohen initially blames “Zionists” for banning him from the ceremony • Academy says Cohen is welcome, just not in character.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Sacha Baron Cohen, dressed as Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen, on the Oscar red carpet. [Archive] | Photo credit: AP |
British Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was forcibly removed from the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday after spilling a powdery substance all over E! host Ryan Seacrest’s tuxedo.
Despite being expressly forbidden to do so, Cohen arrived at the ceremony dressed as Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen, the lead character in his latest film, “The Dictator,” flanked by two "amazonian guards" and carrying an urn he jokingly claimed contained the ashes of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Cohen, who routinely dresses in character and takes promotional stunts to new, and often grotesque, levels, had been told by the academy that the Aladeen character was banned from the red carpet. The academy did make it clear, however, that Cohen himself was welcome.
Aladeen is a flamboyant dictator whose dress, manner and spirit are a twisted homage to the late Libyan tyrant Moammar Gadhafi. In a statement on the website of the Republic of Wadiya, the fictional kingdom ruled by the dictator, Aladeen blamed the “Zionists” for the ban. “Admiral General Aladeen will deliver a formal response tomorrow morning to being banned from the Oscars by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Zionists,” he wrote on Thursday.
In typical tyrant fashion, Cohen defied the ban and appeared on the Kodak Theater’s red carpet Sunday night in full regalia as Aladeen. Seacrest grabbed the comedian for an interview, during which he explained that he was carrying the urn because it was Kim's dream “to be sprinkled over the red carpet and over Halle Berry’s chest.” Then, as Seacrest was bending down, Cohen dumped the ashes all over his designer tux.
He was then escorted off of the red carpet while a shaken Seacrest attempted to dust himself off.
As security muscled Cohen away, Seacrest tried to cut to commercial, but his E! colleagues instead jumped in to milk the made-for-live-television moment. It quickly became the most-chatted about topic on Twitter, where commentators eagerly lapped up the rare breach in decorum at the Academy Awards.
Seacrest said, “Anything can happen and it most certainly did, all over my lapel.”
This is not the first time Cohen has found himself at loggerheads with the academy. Five years ago, when he was dressing as his former alter ego Borat, he refused to present an award at the Oscars when he was banned from doing so in character.