Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin revealed on Tuesday that English actor Sacha Baron Cohen used a “sick” ploy to “dupe” her into a satirical interview for his upcoming Republican-mocking Showtime series “Who is America?”
Soon after Cohen’s new promo featuring former Vice President Dick Cheney signing his “waterboard kit” went viral, Palin gave an account on Facebook of how Cohen and his team duped her and one of her daughters into flying across the country to give an interview: He shamelessly posed as a “disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all.” After she walked out of the interview, she says Cohen’s team deliberately dropped her and her daughter off at the wrong D.C. airport knowing that they’d miss all flights back to Alaska.
After shaming Cohen for his “evil, exploitative, sick ‘humor,'” Palin issued a challenge to CBS and Showtime, which are sponsoring the production, to give all proceeds from the show to a charitable group “that actually respects and supports American Vets.”
“Yup – we were duped. Ya’ got me, Sacha. Feel better now?” Palin began the blistering post. “I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick ‘humor’ of the British ‘comedian’ Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime.”
Palin then explained how she was ensnared by Cohen and how much time she and her daughter — who the Daily Mail‘s source says was Piper — dedicated to the sham interview.
“This ‘legit opportunity’ to honor American Vets and contribute to a ‘legit Showtime historical documentary’ was requested of me via a speakers bureau,” she wrote. “For my interview, my daughter and I were asked to travel across the country where Cohen (I presume) had heavily disguised himself as a disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all. Out of respect for what I was led to believe would be a thoughtful discussion with someone who had served in uniform, I sat through a long ‘interview’ full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and sarcasm – but finally had enough and literally, physically removed my mic and walked out, much to Cohen’s chagrin.”
Palin added: “The disrespect of our US military and middle-class Americans via Cohen’s foreign commentaries under the guise of interview questions was perverse.”
She then issued her challenge to Cohen et al: “Here is my challenge, shallow Sacha boy: go ahead – air the footage. Experience tells us it will be heavily edited, not pretty, and intended to humiliate,” she wrote. “The challenge is to Cohen, CBS and Showtime: donate all proceeds to a charitable group that actually respects and supports American Vets.”
She punctuated the challenge by unloading on Cohen for his disrespect of veterans. “Mock politicians and innocent public personalities all you want, if that lets you sleep at night, but HOW DARE YOU mock those who have fought and served our country,” she wrote. “Truly sick.”
In a final demonstration of their sick form of humor, claims Palin, Cohen’s classless team deliberately dropped her and her daughter off at the wrong airport “knowing we’d miss all flights back home to Alaska.”
“And as an aside, for further insight into the wealthy corporate enablers of this kind of ‘joke’, I’ll add that after great costs on our part in time and resources to contribute to their ‘documentary’ the Cohen/CBS/Showtime production team purposefully dropped my daughter and me off at the wrong Washington, DC airport after the fake interview, knowing we’d miss all flights back home to Alaska,” she wrote. “After refusing to take our calls to help get us out of the bind they’d put us in for three days, I wrote this off as yet another example of the sick nature that is media-slash-entertainment today.”
“Feel good and manly about your M.O., Sacha?” Palin concluded. “By the way, my daughter thinks you’re a piece of ****, Sacha. Every honorable American Vet should feel the same.”
So far, Showtime hasn’t responded to media requests for comment.
Below is Cohen’s promo for his show featuring Cheney, who appears mildly amused by Cohen’s ridiculous request to sign his “waterboard kit”:
H/T People, Daily Mail