Youtube

‘Borat’ star Sacha Baron Cohen has been banned from the Oscars.

According to the Daily Mail, Cohen’s invite was cancelled after organisers discovered that he planned to attend dressed as the lead character from his latest film, ‘The Dictator’.

Cohen was scheduled to attend the Oscars as part of the cast for Martin Scorcese’s ‘Hugo’, which has been nominated for Best Picture.

Cohen always attends red carpet events as one of his characters. He had planned to walk down the red carpet dressed as his ‘The Dictator’ character General Aladeen, before The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences flexed their muscles.

After Cohen refused to give them assurances that he would not hijack the event, his tickets to Sunday’s 84th Academy Awards were cancelled.

The Dictator is Cohen’s fourth film, 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”.

A spokesperson for the Academy said: “We would hope that every studio knows that this is a bad idea. The Red Carpet is not about stunting.”

The Academy also told the Hollywood Reporter that Cohen was not welcome in character. “We have not banned him. We’re just waiting to hear what he’s going to do.”

Cohen and the Academy already have a love/hate relationship.

In 2010, he was dropped as a presenter after it was discovered that he planned to poke fun at the film Avatar by dressing up as the blue-skinned female character Na’vi and telling the audience that she was pregnant with director James Cameron’s love child.

Organisers feared Cameron would storm out of the awards show and dumped Cohen.

In 2009, Cohen attended the MTV Movie Awards as the flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter Bruno. In a planned stunt, he was winched into the arena and lowered onto the face of rapper Eminem. An seemingly outraged Eminem stomped out of the arena only to later reveal that he was in on the joke. - IOL

Read about changes to IOL’s article comments

To sign up for our Tonight newsletter click here

To vote on our Tonight poll click here