Showtime has finally released a statement regarding the drama surrounding Sacha Baron Cohen and his controversial new show, “Who Is America?” — and the network is firmly supporting its star.
According to Yahoo, Sarah Palin was one of the many political figures duped by the comedian, and she alleged that Cohen posed as a veteran for their awkward sit-down. The actor, via his character, Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., PhD, denied saying he was a “war vet” to gain access to the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, and Showtime is backing Cohen up, pointing to Sunday’s premiere episode as proof.
“There has been widespread misinformation over the past week about the character of Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., performed by Sacha Baron Cohen …” the statement begins. “Baron Cohen did not present himself as a disabled veteran, and viewers nationwide who watched the premiere on Sunday can now attest to that. In Sunday’s episode, during an interview with Senator Bernie Sanders, Baron Cohen in character as Dr. Ruddick was asked by the Senator if he is disabled, and he stated that he is not and uses a mobility scooter to conserve his energy.”
Sanders blatantly asks Cohen, who is in disguise, if he has “a disability.” Cohen replies, “No, I don’t. This here scooter is to conserve my body’s finite energy.”
Showtime’s statement continues, “In addition, Baron Cohen never presented himself as a veteran of the U.S. military to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin during the booking process or during the filming of her interview, and contrary to her claims he did not appear in a wheelchair. In both the interview with Governor Palin and the interview with Senator Sanders, he did not wear military apparel of any kind.”
Palin was so heated over her exchange with Cohen that she went on “Good Morning America” to bash the actor’s ruse.
“It was proposed to me as a legitimate interview to speak about veterans issues and our military and current events to a new audience,” she told Robin Roberts. “It was supposed to be this big-time Showtime documentary, and it was passed on to me by a speakers’ bureau, which, you know, I would assume had done some vetting. This ‘comedian’ is obviously very good at lying, at duping people.”
The former Alaska governor said she knew something wasn’t right when Cohen, posed as Dr. Ruddick, claimed Chelsea Clinton was the recipient of a government-funded sex change.
“It just got worse and worse and worse as the minutes went on in this bizarre, um, really embarrassing, humiliating interview that mocked middle-class Americans. It mocked our values. It mocked the disabled. It just got worse and worse,” Palin said.
Argento says she didn’t know of Bourdain’s suicide ‘obsession’
Asia Argento told People she had no idea that her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, had an “obsess ion” with suicide as she spoke about an article that listed the 19 times he publicly mentioned killing himself.
The Italian actress took to Twitter on Monday to share a link to the article published after Bourdain’s death that compiled all the times the celebrity chef had spoken of suicide.
“I never knew about this obsession of his. He never told me. Heart-wrenching read,” Argento, 42, tweeted alongside a link to the PDF documents.
The three-page piece, titled “Anthony Bourdain’s long-burning suicidal wick — in his own words,” was published in July. The globe-trotting food chronicler hanged himself in France last month.
Pamela Anderson defends Russia
On the same day that President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, actress Pamela Anderson made her own comments about Putin and the relationship between Americans and Russians.
“We’re programmed in America to think that if anything’s gone wrong, it’s Russia’s fault. It’s just the go-to thing to do,” Anderson said in a June interview with the Daily Beast published today. “So that’s kind of a common joke there when I go to visit. They say, ‘Well, what have we done wrong this time?’ And it’s authentic. People around the table are very, very powerful people, and they have this look of, ‘What now? Tell us what’s going on!’ It’s authentic.”
Anderson, who often advocates for animals and marine life, said the American people have the wrong ideas about the Russians.
“I’ve also had conversations when I was [in Russia] about the captivity of dolphins and the illegal captivity of whales — that are then being sold to Chinese aquariums — and I’ve seen teary eyes in the room,” she said. “People just think Russians are very scary and stoic, but they can be very emotional, very engaged, and wanting to do the right thing. It’s annoying. America can be very annoying, how everything is so anti-Russia.”
The Baywatch star’s friendship with Putin dates back more than 10 years. She insisted that her relationship with the Russian leader, as well as the one between her and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, is not romantic. (French professional football player Adil Rami is her current love.) Anderson said she met Putin through her advocacy work.
