Sacha Baron Cohen banned? No, but 'General Aladeen' is. Woe be unto Dictators.
It鈥檚 hard to imagine how 2012 could be any worse for the world鈥檚 hapless and beleaguered dictators and warlords after that (ahem) horrible Arab Spring craze last year 鈥� with people-power movements toppling despots in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya.
Consider the and former , issued by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, the anticipated human rights investigation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the looming trials of former and former, the pending verdict on former r, and the , warlord and founder of the genocidal Lord鈥檚 Resistance Army in the dense borderlands of the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As if that list of indignities wasn鈥檛 long enough, we can add another dictator to the list of the banned: General Aladeen.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has banned a certain General Aladeen from attending the 84th聽annual Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 26.
Technically, General Aladeen isn鈥檛 a real person 鈥� he鈥檚 a character portrayed by the satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of 鈥�Borat鈥� and 鈥淭he Ali G Show,鈥� as well as the voice of .鈥� is due to open later this year.聽
It should also be mentioned that General Aladeen鈥檚 country, the Republic of Wadiya, doesn鈥檛 exist on any maps and . (Note: this may have changed. We checked last at 10:23 a.m. on Thursday).
But for the academy, General Aladeen 鈥� if not an actual real person 鈥� is a real problem. The academy doesn鈥檛 want Mr. Cohen, the actor who portrays Aladeen, to show up to the awards ceremony as Aladeen. They think that it would be with a publicity stunt. Like that would ever happen in Hollywood.
聽鈥淯nless they鈥檙e assured that nothing entertaining is going to happen on the Red Carpet, the Academy is not admitting Sacha Baron Cohen to the show,鈥澛燼 spokesman for Paramount Pictures told movie blog 鈥淒eadline.鈥�
That satirical characters might intrude where they aren鈥檛 wanted and don鈥檛 belong has been evident for quite some time now. , the former US House Speaker and current presidential candidate, who was 鈥� how to say this? 鈥� duped into giving an interview with Sacha Baron Cohen in one of his other comedic personas, the British hip-hop talk show host Ali G. Watch this, o political press secretary, and embrace the modern miracle of Google Search.
But for this column, the matter of greater concern is the fact that dictators have now become the butt of jokes and the subject for a satirical Hollywood movie shows.
How far hath dictators fallen. Just a few years ago, Hollywood could be depended upon to portray dictators as fearsome, wily, or at the very least, edgy. in the 2006 film, 鈥�The Last King of Scotland鈥� was a high-water mark of Attila-the-Hun-like gravitas. There were exceptions to this rule, of course (). And who can forget ?鈥� But in general, Hollywood saw dictators as they preferred to be seen: in fear.
Human rights observers would assert that there are still plenty of dictators out there, and that there are even a few democratically elected leaders 鈥� in Senegal and, of course, in Zimbabwe 鈥� who have begun to experiment with their inner despotic tendencies by staying in power longer than originally planned.
But where鈥檚 the joy of staying in power, if the world openly, cinematically mocks you?
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