The following statements could sound terribly sexist, but it’s not intended that way in any shape or form. You see, I am terribly disappointed in Megan Fox. Admittedly, part of this sentiment could stem from the fact that I caught Passion Play on Netflix last weekend. In that film (which came after the Transformers movies and was intended to prove her range), she was completely awful while portraying an innocent, baby-voiced angel/bird-woman who inexplicably made love to Mickey Rourke’s trumpet player before gangster Bill Murray busted and and broke up the hasty love affair. Truly, all parties involved should be ashamed.
Still, Fox has much more to lose at this point in her career than either Murray or Rourke, and I am starting to rethink my prior endorsement of Fox in the face of Michael Bay-Gate. Admittely, I had moderately high hopes when she signed on for a cameo in Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator. Now, the trailer for that movie has arrived; and well, the film itself looks overwrought in terms of satirical humor that’s well past its due date. No surprise there. However, in terms of Megan Fox’s attempts to prove her acting mettle, she has spectacularly failed:
Honestly, this film could’ve been much more, and it could just be a case of bad editing as far as what the trailer presents the movie itself to be. To be fair, The Dictator will probably fare as well as Bruno, which made made about half globally as Borat did, at the box office. In other words, Sacha Baron Cohen will be fine. He’s not going to be the permanent fixture that Borat would have projected, but he’s got a career etched in virtual stone and has influenced a terrible Ben Affleck hairdo to boot.
Now as to Megan Fox? She’s worked terribly hard in recent months to repair her image with the general public. She spent Veterans Day tending to actual veterans, erased that dreadful Marilyn tattoo, and gained some weight after giving up veganism. Then, she squanders all of said goodwill by bedding Cohen’s dictator and making a Kardashian joke — “What’s this? A ruby? Is that a joke? What am I, a Kardashian?” — about necessarily accepting jewels after sex.
Okay, so it’s a mildly funny joke. Still, Megan’s agent could’ve scored her a better post-Bay gig than that, right?
Let me state for the record that, until recently, I hadn’t taken Megan Fox’s side on, well, any issue whatsoever; and I will continue to think she was pretty injudicious to badmouth director Michael Bay in public and expect that she was such an indispensible asset to the Transformers franchise that she’d be able to keep her job. Still, I do feel a rather significant amount of pity for her — which began when Shia LeBeouf starting talking about Megan’s supposed “Spice Girl” brand of feminism — for the way she’s been treated during the promotional tour for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. In just the past couple of days, Bay has made things even worse by using Fox’s name (not just once but twice) to promote the new movie even though she’s not even in it, which is pretty wrong no matter how you look at it. At the moment (or at least until Bay gives his next interview), however, Fox can look away from her troubles of the recent past, for she’s been signed to the latest Sacha Baron Cohen film:
Megan Fox and John C. Reilly are making cameos in Paramount’s The Dictator, the latest Sacha Baron Cohen comedy currently in production in New York with Borat director Larry Charles at the helm.
The movie has been described as “the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.” Cohen is said to play dual roles of a goat herder and a deposed foreign ruler who gets lost in the U.S.
Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley and Jason Mantzoukas are also in the movie, set for release May 11, 2012.
The Fox and Reilly roles are being kept under wraps.
For Fox, the part continues her entry into the comedy world. The Transformers star, who is the only actress in the top 20 of Facebook fan pages with more than 26 million followers, has made a shift away from the action world, recently shooting the ensemble comedic drama Friends With Kids, directed by Jennifer Westfelt and starring Kristen Wiig and Adam Scott, and booking a role in Judd Apatow’s latest project, This Is Forty, which shoots this summer.
In other words, let’s not count Megan Fox out of the Hollywood spectrum just yet. Is it likely that she’ll be around for more than another year or two? Nope, but at the same time, it’s just gotta irritate Bay (and, presumably, Steven Spielberg as well) that Fox is still kicking around town. For that pleasure, it’s worth the price of admission to at least one of Fox’s upcoming movies, right? Maybe.
In related news, here’s a photo of Cohen (looking slightly hot, no?) on the New York City set of The Dictator.
And here’s the movie’s first official promo photo of Cohen in full regalia.
In conclusion, Megan Fox will always be the girl who foolishly got herself fired from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, but at least Megan can take comfort in the fact that Michael Bay always looks like a damn fool every time he smiles.
Photos courtesy of WENN; The Dictator promo photo courtesy of HuffPo
I remember reading that Isla Fisher, Sacha Baron Cohen’s wife, was pregnant with the couple’s second child, but it kind of slipped my mind because we don’t hear much about the two of them. There was some minor drama a couple of years ago about whether they would ever get married, which they did in March after Isla reportedly converted to Judiasm. It took eight years and two kids together before they made it legal. Apart from that we rarely hear about them although there are the occasional paparazzi photos of Isla out with their daughter.
Now we have some candids of Sacha, Isla, their oldest child Olive, two and a half, and a baby carriage presumably carrying their new arrival. They looked pissed as hell to be photographed out together in the photos we’ve seen. (Which we don’t have access to, you can see a photo on Celebrity Baby Scoop and another one on E! Online and People has a third.) They seem to be very protective of their family, and I guess I don’t blame them. They didn’t confirm Isla’s pregnancy and they’ve refused to confirm the new baby or even the gender. Is this a bitchy move or something they should be respected for?
Who’s that strolling in London Friday with Sacha Baron Cohen, Isla Fisher and 2½-year-old daughter Olive?
It seems as though the trio has welcomed the latest addition to their family, although a rep for the actress says they likely won’t be commenting on the birth of the new baby.
The intensely private pair prefer it that way, having kept quiet about the impending arrival of their second child as well as their March nuptials.
We last spotted Fisher, 34, and Olive out and about in Los Angeles at the end of May, but the actress and husband Baron Cohen, 38, have managed to stay undercover since!
It’s my feeling that since they’re famous, they each make a ton of money in movies and are public figures, the least they can do is confirm the birth and sex of the baby. They don’t have to tell us his or her name if they want to keep it private. I like how Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber handle the press. They’re low key and try not to draw attention to themselves but they acknowledge their kids and will talk about them occasionally. Maybe the paparazzo is screaming rude stuff to the Cohens, though, which would explain their bad moods along with their unwillingness to open themselves and their family up to scrutiny. I’m not in that position so it’s hard to tell.
Despite the fact that Sacha can probably no longer work his character-driven shtick on the public due to how famous and recognizable he is, he’s still earning a ton of money. We heard this spring that his agency struck a huge deal for him with Paramount for an upcoming comedy in which he’ll play two roles “a goat herder and a deposed foreign dictator who gets lost in the United States.” According to Deadline Hollywood, Cohen stands to make $30 – $80 million on the deal, which offers him a significant piece of the film’s gross. He didn’t sell out his family to get there though, that’s for sure.
Isla is shown pregnant on 5/10/10 and 4/22/10. Sacha Baron Cohen is shown at LAX on 7/30/09. Credit: WENN.com
No sooner did Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen walk down the aisle in Paris, then Isla shows up with something looking like a baby bump. Their “surprise” elopement happened about a month ago – and Isla looks to be carrying a second-trimester bump (if not third). Sacha and Isla have been together for eight years, and they already have a a 2-year-old, daughter Olive (in these photos with Isla). Here’s more from Fame Pictures:
It seems Isla Fisher has given up in hiding her apparent baby belly despite the fact that neither she nor her husband Sacha Baron Cohen have made an official announcement yet. The actress took a stroll hand in hand with her daughter Olive Cohen in Los Angeles, CA on April 20, 2010 wearing a shirt that showed off how prominent her belly had really become! It’s a wonder when the couple will officially announce the happy news!
[From Fame Pictures]
This news has been around for a few days, but these are the first photos we’ve had access to, that’s why I’m doing the story. Plus, I’m rather startled to see just how far along Isla is. She must have even had a considerable “bump” when she married Sacha in Paris. Ah, shotgun weddings. At least she got him down the aisle, right? And I think that was her goal in the end.
But you know what these photos really make me think of? Isla’s more talented doppelganger, Amy Adams! Amy is pregnant too, and it seems like she’s been gestating forever. She should be ready to give birth any minutes now, shouldn’t she? Ah, Amy. She’s my real favorite.
By the way, I mean the following images to be a representation of how I think Isla got knocked up:
It finally happened! Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher were finally married in Paris over the weekend after a six-year engagement! Let me repeat: six-year engagement! And they were together for 2 years before that. That’s a total of eight years together! I didn’t think he was ever going to marry her. He made her convert to Judaism (or his mother made her convert, and Sacha‘s such a mama‘s boy that he does what mommy tells him), they had a daughter together (Olive, who is 2 years old), and he was still keeping Isla waiting. Apparently, their wedding ceremony was very low-key, and very few people were invited, but they notified their friends via e-mail. What the hell?
Borat punkster Sacha Baron Cohen and his fiancé Isla Fisher have married in an intimate Paris ceremony.
British comedian Sacha, 38, wed the Australian actress in a small Jewish ceremony last Monday, according to Aussie magazine Woman’s Day.
Isla, 34, confirmed the good news in an email to friends: “We did it — we’re married! It was the absolute best day of my life and in so many beautiful moments I missed you all so much. I thought of you as everything was happening, but Sacha and I wanted no fuss — just us!”
Sacha and Isla, who have a two-year-old daughter, Olive, have been engaged for six years. They met at a party in Sydney in 2002.
Well, congratulations to Sacha and Isla. More to Isla, because she finally at long last got that sh-t nailed down, and this is obviously a man who needs a woman with a lot of patience. Well, he got her! Am I being too harsh? Obviously, they love each other and support each other, and I think they probably had other priorities, especially after Isla gave birth to Olive. And yet… Isla comes across as a girl who likes “tradition” and I’ve always suspected she wanted to be married before she gave birth. It doesn’t really matter to me, I’m saying it mattered to her. But obviously, other things mattered a lot more to Sacha (and his mom). Well, she converted and now everything’s settled. Mazel Tov!
Sacha and Isla at various events in 2007. Credit: WENN.
Remember when Sacha Baron Cohen managed to land right in Eminem’s lap at the MTV movie awards? Cohen was in character as Austrian Bruno at the time, and he flew through the air on cables dressed as an angel. He ended up flipping over and lowering onto Eminem’s seat, his bare ass cheeks and crotch right in Eminem’s face. Em left all pissed off, just as could be expected, and then later tried to play it off like he knew about the stunt ahead of time. Well, Oscar night producers wanted to avoid a similar scenario with Director James Cameron. Cohen had a whole skit planned out with Ben Stiller in which he would have been dressed like a female Navii from Avatar who accused Cameron of getting her pregnant with his love child. Producers were afraid of offending Cameron and decided to scrap it, though. Cohen’s rep said that the segment was canned due to “creative differences,” but insiders say that an Oscar Producer who worked with Cameron realized that the guy didn’t have the sense of humor needed to graciously accept that he was being mocked.
An insider familiar with the Oscar telecast tells Vulture that an Avatar sketch planned by Baron Cohen and Ben Stiller was nixed yesterday by show producer Bill Mechanic, who worried that Cameron would be so offended by it that he might even walk out of the Oscar broadcast on live TV.
So what skit could possibly so incense the HMFIC?
Our insider informs us that Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.
Mechanic, now both a producer of motion pictures and of this year’s Oscar telecast, was head of Twentieth Century Fox when Cameron’s Titanic famously went massively over budget and over schedule, so he’s well acquainted with Cameron’s sense of humor — or lack of it. “Let’s just say that Cameron isn’t known to be, shall we say, ‘self-deprecating,’” explained one insider familiar with the decision to cut the sketch.
Academy spokesperson Toni Thompson would only confirm that Baron Cohen was no longer presenting, but Baron Cohen’s spokesman, Matt Labov, tells Vulture that “I hate to use the term, because it’s so ubiquitous, but there were ‘creative differences.’ Nothing acrimonious, but both sides felt that since they couldn’t agree, [Cohen] might as well remain in London.” (Calls to Mechanic’s office were not returned at deadline.)
That’s a shame as it would have added some obnoxious levity to the show. I have to say that last year wasn’t half bad, though, and that attempts to get the Oscars to lighten up and be more entertaining really worked. The skits were fun and I loved that they brought the stage and the audience closer together. There were also short touching tributes from fellow actors to each of the nominees. Overall they did a great job. I’m hoping that they’re going for a similar less formal format this year and that they keep up the momentum throughout the ceremony. Oh and they can always make it a little shorter!
A man portrayed as an angry terrorist in the shockumentary Bruno is suing filmmaker Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman, and NBC. Ayman Abu Aita runs a supermarket in Bethlehem and says he’s a Christian guy with a wife and two kids and isn’t a terrorist at all. He’s a Palestinian peace activist who responded to a request for an interview with what he was told was a German documentary filmmaker. Instead, he met with gay caricature Bruno and became an unwilling subject in what he considers an offensive movie. He was portrayed as the leader of a terrorist group and his reputation in his community suffered. They even used his real full name in the movie:
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor behind the flamboyant character Bruno, is being sued for $114 million in libel damages, reports the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Ayman Abu Aita, a Palestinian grocer and peace activist, says that the box office hit, “Bruno,” has ruined his life. In the film, Abu Aita travels with Bruno, a gay fashion journalist, to the Ein El-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon to meet with a leader there. A caption that appears during the scene describes Abu Aita as a “Terrorist group leader, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.”
Since the film’s release, Abu Aita says he has received death threats and that he was originally tricked into meeting Baron Cohen in the first place. He claims he thought Baron Cohen was a German producing a film about Palestinians — not an actor making a comedy, reports Britain’s Daily Mail.
Abu Aita alleges that when Baron Cohen spoke with David Letterman on TV last year, he said he had found a “real terrorist” through a contact at the CIA.
He is suing NBC Universal, Letterman and Baron Cohen. “Bruno” has grossed about $137 million worldwide since it’s release in July.
The thing that bothers me is that in an appearance on Letterman (link leads to video) Baron Cohen told the story about finding a “real” terrorist to interview as if the whole thing went down just as it looked on film. He said that he used CIA contacts to find a member of the “Al-Axa Martyrs Brigade, the number one suicide bombers out there,” that he had to agree to meet the guy at an undisclosed location, and that the situation was so dangerous he had trouble securing a willing bodyguard. If this guy’s story is to be believed, Baron Cohen just found an average guy with ties to Palestinian rights groups, met him at a public restaurant, and then duped him into appearing in the film.
In an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, Larry Charles, the director of Bruno and Borat, explained their approach. “A lot of this comedy is about putting people, hopefully who are good targets, in uncomfortable situations.” Not all of the people are good targets and many eventually fight back. This is the second lawsuit against Bruno. The first was by a woman who claims she was left permanently disabled after a scuffle with Bruno filmmakers at a Palmdale, CA bingo game. Baron’s earlier film Borat was the subject of at least seven lawsuits from the people who appeared in the film.
It’s unlikely that Baron Cohen will get the chance to offend more people in character. He told NPR that he’s too well recognized now and that it’s too dangerous for him. “Basically its impossible to do now. Its too well known as a genre, and its just too hard to get people not to recognize me. And also I think I was lucky as a performer in Borat and Bruno that I didnt get permanently hurt.” It’s not just Baron Cohen who can get hurt by his performances.
Sacha Baron Cohen is shown outside the Late Show as Bruno on 7/9/09. He appeared on the show as himself, not as one of his alter egos. Credit: WENN.com
I haven’t seen Bruno yet, but I think I’ve got one of the situations down: Bruno “interviews” random semi-famous people and gets them to say really embarrassing stuff. Brittny Gastineau was one of those random semi-famous people! Brittny is best known for… uh… that show “Gastineau Girls” and …uh… yeah. That’s about it. So Brittny is in Bruno, participating in one of the embarrassing interviews. Bruno shows Brittny photos of celebrity babies and asks her for a designation of “keep” or “abort”. Sounds hilarious…? When Bruno got to a photo of Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby Maddie. Brittny declared Maddie to be an “abort”. And now Brittny has taken her “just joking” defense to Page Six:
BRITTNY Gastineau doesn’t really think Jamie Lynn Spears should have had an abortion instead of giving birth to now 1-year-old daughter Maddie Briann.
One scene in “Bruno” features Sacha Baron Cohen (as a flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter) showing photos of celebrity babies, and asking the reality starlet if she would “keep” or “abort” them. When shown a sonogram of what Bruno claims was Spears’ unborn fetus, Gastineau cheerfully decrees, “Abort it!”
“It’s a joke,” Gastineau assured us. “It’s crazy how serious some people can get.”
She said, “The whole time I was talking in this high, jokey voice, and I was just kidding along with it.”
“Everyone who follows me on Twitter has said that they know I was joking. I think [Cohen] is one of the funniest people alive, so when I got there, I decided just to spoof myself and be a dumb idiot.”
Gastineau admits that she didn’t realize Cohen was going to interview her before she arrived. “I was approached through a manager of mine. ‘Gastineau Girls’ was aired in 54 countries, and I thought I was doing a promotional interview for a German TV show,” said the daughter of legendary Jets lineman Mark Gastineau.
“When I got there . . . I knew something was up,” she recalled. “They wouldn’t let my makeup artist come in . . . Then, when I saw him, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, OK.’ Because I recognized the character but I couldn’t place it. I just went along with it.”
As for the rest of the film, Gastineau told us, “I overall thought it was great. I laughed my ass off — I was crying I laughed so hard.”
Although several people who appeared in Cohen’s first movie, “Borat,” sued claiming he had misrepresented himself and ruined their lives by humiliating them and depicting them as bigots, only one has sued over “Bruno,” claiming emotional distress.
Sacha Baron Cohen gets so many people to say crazy stuff, it’s kind of no longer shocking. Considering this interview from Page Six is the first I’ve heard of the Brittny Gastineau scene, I suspect this is far from the most shocking content in the film. I also suspect that it’s one of those situations D-List celebrities find themselves in – they do something weird or gross or shocking, and when nobody notices or cares, they talk about it in a half-assed apology or explanation, trying to get some kind of press out of it. Meh. Abort.
Brittny Gastineau is shown on 6/6/09 and 6/27/09. Credit: WENN.com
Yesterday we heard that a supposed “terrorist” briefly interviewed in the new Bruno film wasn’t a terrorist at all and claims he was misled into thinking that he would be interviewed by a German filmmaker trying to shed light on the situation in Palestine. (Documentaries and educational films are very popular on German television and this undoubtedly seemed like a legitimate request.) When Cohen brought up Osama Bin Laden, the “terrorist”/Palestinian rights organizer got offended and told him to leave. Now that the film is out, the guy is very upset and says that his image was misused and that he may sue.
Not only is the guy featured in the movie offended, the terrorist organization that Cohen incorrectly claimed he belonged to, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, has issued a pretty scary statement saying that the film was a conspiracy against them and that “We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man.” Uh-oh:
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the terrorist group depicted in the film “Bruno,” is “very upset” their group’s namesake and former member was featured in a film about a homosexual character that includes graphic depictions of homosexual sex.
The group, as well as individual members, released a statement to WND that includes a veiled threat against the movie’s star, Sacha Baron Cohen:
“We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man (Cohen)” said the statement.
“This movie was part of a conspiracy against the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,” continued the statement, released through a senior member of the group in the West Bank.
“According to what we checked there was no meeting about the real context of the film. This was a dirty use of our brother, Aiman, and we don’t accept that the name of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is part of the film.”
Aiman is a reference to Ayman Abu Aita, who was interviewed in the movie “Bruno” and labeled as a “terrorist leader” from the Brigades division in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Aita told WND yesterday the movie mislabels him and that Cohen conducted the interview under false pretenses. Aita said he is pursuing legal action against Cohen.
The Brigades statement claimed that “Aiman is part of the political level of Fatah in Bethlehem, part of the leadership of the political apparatus of Fatah. He is not a member of the Brigades.”
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ U.S.-backed Fatah party. The Brigades is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and deadly rocket attacks against Israeli civilian population centers.
Several Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders responded to the use of their group in the “Bruno” movie.
Abu Philistine, the current leader of the Brigades in Aita’s hometown of Bethlehem, told WND, “This was a trick against Aiman. We don’t want to be part of this movie”
Jihad Jaara, the infamous exiled chief of the Brigades in Bethlehem, called Cohen “not funny” and said his film was “stupid.”
“I’d like to tell Cohen if you like to be funny you are not. You showed the world how stupid is this film,” Jaara told WND. “We don’t need for Cohen to show us to the world in a homosexual film. That made us very angry at him.”
Continued Jaara: “If he wants to make a real film, then come to the Palestinian territories and see how children are dying every day at the hands of the Israeli occupation.
“I heard about this film and I felt very shamed when I heard about it,” added Jaara.
Jaara was the notorious director of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity who served as the Bethlehem-area chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist organization during that time.
Many senior Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leaders were granted amnesty by Israel in 2007 in an American-brokered gesture to bolster Abbas. The group, therefore, could not release an official pamphlet against the movie since the Brigades has not been releasing pamphlets. Also, some Brigades leaders warned that Abbas’ Fatah party may try to distance itself publicly from the statements against Cohen.
I saw Bruno this weekend, and I can’t remember if Cohen specifically mentioned that group in the film. He did bring up their name in an interview on Letterman last week though, and it’s pretty likely he claimed that the guy he interviewed was in the group, especially considering how seriously they’re responding. You don’t want to piss off a group of suicide bombers! The film could have been just as funny without that scene, and they probably should have cut it. It must have been a huge expense to go to the Middle East and they didn’t have much else to fill out that part of the story, though.
The film was really raunchy, and included several scenes of jaw-dropping, offensively portrayed gay sex along with real straight sex (with bars to block the naughty bits, but it was clear what was going on) and full frontal male nudity. Just about anyone could conceivably be upset to be associated with that film. It’s also not for kids or teens at all. Universal wants to make sure they maximize ticket sales and have cut three scenes to a offer a new teen-friendly UK version of Bruno in order to score a “15″ rating. The original film has an adults-only “18″ rating. There are at least four scenes that I can remember that should really be cut to sanitize it, but many people would argue that no version of the film is appropriate for under-18. It’s obnoxious through and through, and that’s why it’s so successful.
Cohen is shown at the LA premiere of Bruno on 6/25/09. Credit: PRPhotos
I saw Bruno this weekend, and while I thought it was pretty damn funny, it wasn’t “pee your pants/can’t stop crying” funny. It was totally offensive on many different levels, but you kind of expected that. The thing that impressed my husband and me the most was the fact that Cohen never broke character and was willing to go as graphically, obnoxiously far as he did in so many instances with so many hapless victims. Some of the people’s reactions were really priceless, especially a focus group hired to screen the faux pilot for Bruno’s American talkshow. I won’t give away too much of the non-plot, but there were moments when you were cringing and hoping that Cohen would escape with his faux sneer intact.
One of those moments wasn’t when Bruno was interviewing a supposedly bonafide terrorist. The guy just told him to get out when he insulted Osama, and the Osama crack had me laughing pretty hard. Cohen said that he wanted to get kidnapped to be famous and that “your king Osama” looks like “a dirty wizard or a homeless Santa.” It was surely a dangerous situation, but it didn’t seem as scary as the other segments because the guys weren’t having any of Bruno’s bullsh*t and kicked him out right away.
In an appearance on The Late Show last week, Cohen (not in character) told Letterman that he went to great pains to find a real terrorist, and that he used CIA contacts to find a member of the “Al-Axa Martyrs Brigade, the number one suicide bombers out there.” Cohen said he had to agrees to meet the guy at an undisclosed location. The situation was so dangerous, he claimed, that it took him a long time to find security and he had to settle for one guy who used to work with Enrique Iglesias to serve as his bodyguard.
The “terrorist” interviewed for the film is predictably appalled, and said he thought he was being interviewed to speak about the cause of Palestinian rights. He’s not a terrorist and is an active legitimate political leader. He was involved in terrorist-type pro-Palestinian activities at one point, but that ended five years ago and he’s since cooperated with the Israeli authorities and leads a peaceful life. The guy says he didn’t have a bodyguard with him, and he didn’t have guns. They met at a restaurant for the interview, not an undisclosed location. He’s considering suing and said that he was mislead into believing the film was being made about Palestine.
Aita is a representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party to the West Bank town of Beit Sahor, which is a satellite of Bethlehem. Aita also is a board member of the Holy Land Trust, a nongovernmental organization promoting Palestinian rights and commitment to nonviolence.
Aita served in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from 2000 until 2003, after which he did a two year stint in Israeli prison on accusations he was involved in shootings against Israeli soldiers operating in Bethlehem. Still, according to Israeli security sources speaking to WND, Aita, while a member of the Brigades, once worked with Jewish state officials to return two Israeli reserve soldiers who had gotten lost in Bethlehem.
Baron Cohen, meanwhile, has pumped up his sit down with a “real terrorist” to promote his new movie.
In an interview with Letterman last week, Baron Cohen described meeting Aita and Aita’s “bodyguard” at an undisclosed location in the West Bank.
“I thought I needed security,” Baron Cohen told Letterman. “It was in the West Bank. The guy picks this secret location. … The terrorist comes in with his bodyguard.”
“I was pretty sure that my terrorist either did or did not have a gun on him,” said Baron Cohen.
Aita, however, says the interview took place at a private section of a popular restaurant called Everest in the town of Beit Jala, which is in a section in the West Bank under Israeli control.
Aita said he does not carry any weapons and Palestinians are not allowed to bring weapons into Beit Jala. Indeed, during multiple in-person interviews with WND, Aita was unarmed.
Aita also said he does not have a bodyguard. The second individual who showed up with him for the interview with Baron Cohen, he said, was Sammy Awad, the American manager of the Holy Land Trust.
Asked if he thought anything was unusual about the way Baron Cohen acted or dressed during the interview, Aita replied, “No. He behaved very normally.”
“There was nothing special,” continued Aita. “He said he is a German actor making documentaries watched by young people. … He wanted to make a story to mobilize the young people to help us (Palestinians). … I didn’t have any impression he would use my interview in a bad way.”
Aita slammed Baron Cohen as a “big liar.”
He said he is in the process of securing a lawyer to pursue possible legal action, claiming the film “made me big damages.”
Baron Cohen’s publicist, Matthew Labov, told WND the comedian has no comment on the report. A spokesperson for Universal Pictures, which released the movie, said the studio also had no comment.
So far, the film has only been sued once – by a woman who suffered an injury at a bingo game where Bruno shocked all the old people with his foul language and antics, making the poor bingo lady go in the back and cry hysterically, hitting her head on a concrete slab. She said she suffered from a bleeding brain and ended up in a wheelchair. That scene was cut from the film.
Borat, the 2006 film featuring Cohen as a Kazakh reporter, was sued seven times by various unwilling participants.
There were plenty of people in Bruno, especially in one of the seminal final scenes which featured women covering their mouths in disbelief and guys throwing chairs and drinks. Expect to see a handful of more lawsuits now that the film is out. I would guess that the agreement they have the guests sign is pretty solid, although there has got to be a judge somewhere who is willing to challenge it.
Cohen is shown outside The Late Show on Thursday, where he read the Top Ten List as Bruno
