Sarah Palin condemns Sacha Baron Cohen as "evil" and "sick" for duping her in an interview for his new TV series
Has the Ali G star gone too far this time?
The targets in Sacha Baron Cohen's Who Is America? are doing the PR for him: former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has called the comedy star "evil" and "sick" for pulling the wool over her eyes in an interview for the series.
The US politician took to Facebook on Wednesday to pre-empt the response when her interview airs in the show, which begins on Showtime in the US this Sunday, and Channel 4 here in the UK on Monday evening.
In her self-censored post, she says that she was duped into travelling across the US for a Showtime historical documentary, where Cohen, disguised as a wheelchair-bound US army veteran, interviewed her. The sting in the tail, though, is that she alleges that the show's production team intentionally dropped her and her daughter off at the wrong airport in Washington, DC afterwards, knowing that they would miss their flight back to their home state of Alaska.
She goes on to criticise the former Ali G star for disrespecting US military vets, calling him "evil, sick and exploitative", and challenging him and the network to donate all profits from the show to a "charitable group that actually respects and supports American vets".
Read Palin's post in full below.
Yup - we were duped. Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now?
I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick "humor" of the British "comedian" Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime.
This "legit opportunity" to honor American Vets and contribute to a “legit Showtime historical documentary” was requested of me via a speakers bureau.
For my interview, my daughter and I were asked to travel across the country where Cohen (I presume) had heavily disguised himself as a disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all. Out of respect for what I was led to believe would be a thoughtful discussion with someone who had served in uniform, I sat through a long "interview" full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and sarcasm - but finally had enough and literally, physically removed my mic and walked out, much to Cohen’s chagrin. The disrespect of our US military and middle-class Americans via Cohen’s foreign commentaries under the guise of interview questions was perverse.
Here is my challenge, shallow Sacha boy: go ahead - air the footage. Experience tells us it will be heavily edited, not pretty, and intended to humiliate.
The challenge is to Cohen, CBS and Showtime: donate all proceeds to a charitable group that actually respects and supports American Vets. Mock politicians and innocent public personalities all you want, if that lets you sleep at night, but HOW DARE YOU mock those who have fought and served our country.
Truly sick.
And as an aside, for further insight into the wealthy corporate enablers of this kind of “joke”, I’ll add that after great costs on our part in time and resources to contribute to their “documentary” the Cohen/CBS/Showtime production team purposefully dropped my daughter and me off at the wrong Washington, DC airport after the fake interview, knowing we’d miss all flights back home to Alaska. After refusing to take our calls to help get us out of the bind they’d put us in for three days, I wrote this off as yet another example of the sick nature that is media-slash-entertainment today.
Feel good and manly about your M.O., Sacha?
By the way, my daughter thinks you’re a piece of ****, Sacha. Every honorable American Vet should feel the same.
- Sarah Palin
Who is America? begins Monday 16th July at 10pm on Channel 4
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