Rudy Giuliani Called Police After ‘Absurd’ Sacha Baron Cohen Interview Prank
Zack Sharf
Sacha Baron Cohen is up to something. Just over a week after pranking a far-right rally into participating in a racist singalong, the comedian reportedly tried to prank former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani during a July 7 interview at the Mark Hotel in New York City. Page Six reports that Giuliani, who also serves as a personal attorney to Donald Trump, believed he was going to be interviewed about the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The former mayor said he agreed to donate the money being offered for the interview to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Giuliani told Page Six that in the midst of the interview, which was being conducted by a female interviewer “with a professional set-up of lights and camera,” a man came storming in wearing an outrageous outfit. The former mayor told the publication, “This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit. It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn’t what I would call distractingly attractive.”
While Giuliani would later identify the interview-crasher as Cohen, he told Page Six he did not realize it at first and reported the incident to the police. “This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shake-down,” he said. “So I reported it to the police. He then ran away.”
“I only later realized it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen,” Giuliani added. “I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”
Other sources confirmed to Page Six they saw Cohen sprinting out of the Mark Hotel “wearing just a bathrobe.” Cohen was reportedly not apprehended by the police. Giuliani said he has no ill will against Cohen, adding, “I am a fan of some of his movies, ‘Borat’ in particular, because I’ve been to Kazakhstan…That was pretty funny.”
The Giuliani incident would be the second Cohen-backed prank in less than two weeks. Does this mean Cohen is secretly filming a second season of his Showtime series “Who Is America?” or a new project? The comedian has yet to announce any official project. Showtime has said it is not in development on a second season of “Who Is America?,” which earned an Emmy nomination last year for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series. IndieWire has reached out to Cohen’s representative for further comment.
