Singer-songwriter Sia picks up three Golden Raspberry Awards for her controversial film on autism
The former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, has been awarded a Razzie for one of the year’s worst performances for his unwitting appearance in Sacha Baron Cohen’s sequel to Borat.
The Golden Raspberry Awards, colloquially known as Razzies, are an annual prize for Hollywood’s lowlights, taking place the day before the lavish Oscars ceremony.
Continue reading...The Oscar-nominated Bulgarian star of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on the weirdness of shooting to fame during a pandemic
Bulgarian actor Maria Bakalova broke through last year as Sacha Baron Cohen’s co-star in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. She has won more than 20 awards for the performance, including best supporting actress at the Critics’ Choice awards last month, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Academy Award.
This year, we have all put more effort into getting dressed from the waist up for the benefit of a work Zoom call. Actor Maria Bakalova has been doing the same, only in her case she has been getting fully dressed and made-up for red-carpet events, while wearing slippers and pyjamas just off-screen. “The past 12 months have been really crazy,” she says over the phone now. “Probably it’s a little bit different from the normal way of becoming famous. It’s been… interesting!”
Continue reading...Stopping Trump, reforming Facebook and risking his life to make a Borat sequel. In an exclusive interview, the actor unveils his plans for a revolution – and reveals how it feels to come out as himself
Seven months ago, Sacha Baron Cohen was in the back of a speeding ambulance. It was an escape car, and he was fleeing a gun rally. The Borat producers had chosen the ambulance as it could blend in, accommodate a small film crew and, if necessary, hasten a trip to hospital.
Baron Cohen – dressed as Borat, himself disguised as a country singer – had just led the crowd of far-right conspiracy theorists in a singalong. At first, they happily joined in: “Obama, what we gonna do? / Inject him with the Wuhan flu.” Then one or two smelled a rat. Then they all stormed the stage.
Continue reading...Rowan Atkinson and Sacha Baron Cohen are killing off two of comedy’s most indelible characters. They’ve picked the perfect time
Nothing lasts for ever. In time the trees will wither, the seas will boil and the mountains will crumble to dust. And nothing reinforces the ephemeral cruelty of the universe like the news that Rowan Atkinson doesn’t want to be Mr Bean any more.
In an interview with the Radio Times this week, Atkinson said of Mr Bean: “I don’t much enjoy playing him. The weight of responsibility is not pleasant. I find it stressful and exhausting, and I look forward to the end of it.” And that’s fair enough; Mr Bean has now been a going concern for 31 years, and has taken the form of a television programme, two films, an animated series, a sketch performed for the Olympics nine years ago and – slightly improbably – four books.
Continue reading...From an unusual first kiss to a horrifying shock death, Guardian writers pick their most impactful big screen bits of the year
Spoilers ahead
Continue reading...Jeanise Jones, 62, was unaware she was participating in comedy film while mentoring Borat’s fictional daughter
Sacha Baron Cohen, who stars in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, has donated $100,000 (£77,000) to the church of a woman who was featured in his comedy film believing it was a real documentary.
Jeanise Jones, 62, thought she had been recruited by her place of worship, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, to mentor Tutar, Borat’s fictional daughter who came to the US with him from Kazakhstan. But Jones didn’t find out until the film was released on Amazon Prime last week that Tutar was an actor and the man believed to be her father, Borat, was actually Baron Cohen.
Continue reading...The Kazakh American Association has released a letter on social media accusing Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest Borat film of ‘justifying harassment’
A group of Kazakh-Americans has demanded that Amazon withdraw Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Sacha Baron Cohen’s new satirical comedy which – like its 2006 predecessor Borat – identifies Kazakhstan as the home country of its fictional journalist character Borat Sagdiyev.
In a letter published on social media shortly before the film’s official launch, addressed to three senior Amazon executives, the Kazakh American Association says that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm “may cause irreparable harm to to Kazakhstan’s national image and people as its comedic nature may justify ethnicity-based harassment”. It adds: “This film incites violence against a highly vulnerable and under-represented minority ethnic group.”
Continue reading...Trump’s personal attorney has indiscreet encounter with actor playing Borat’s daughter in hotel room during pandemic
The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat.
In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.
Continue reading...In wide-ranging speech, actor accuses tech giants of running the ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’
Read Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing attack on Facebook in full
Sacha Baron Cohen has denounced tech giants Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google as “the greatest propaganda machine in history” and culpable for a surge in “murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities”.
Baron Cohen was speaking on Thursday at Never Is Now, the Anti-Defamation League’s summit on antisemitism and hate in New York, where he was presented with the organisation’s international leadership award. He said that “hate crimes are surging, as are murderous attacks on religious and ethnic minorities” and that “all this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history”.
Continue reading...From apocalyptic standup Frankie Boyle to the many hilarious faces of Tina Fey, Steve Coogan, Sharon Horgan and Kristen Wiig, we present the funniest comics of the era
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