Borat visits Kazakh Embassy, White House
Last Updated: Friday, September 29, 2006 | 1:43 PM ET
CBC Arts
Kazakh officials can't seem to escape Sacha Baron Cohen — the ridiculous British comedian appeared as his fictional TV reporter Borat at the Kazakh Embassy and at the White House gates in Washington, D.C.
Cohen, appearing as the boorish, anti-Semitic Kazakh journalist from his cult hit subversive comedy program Da Ali G Show, turned up Thursday shortly after Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev unveiled a new statue on the embassy lawn.
Nazarbayev is visiting Washington at the invitation of U.S. President George W. Bush, with the two scheduled to meet Friday. The visit comes as Cohen is set to release his new movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, to theatres across North America.
British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays the boorish ficitional Kazakh reporter Borat on his TV satire Da Ali G Show, stopped by the Kazakh Embassy in Washington and the White House on Thursday.
(Getty)
Kazakh officials have been trying to improve the profile of their country, an oil-rich former Soviet republic, through television spots and advertisements in major newspapers.
However, they have also been furiously countering the popular comedian's portrayals of their nation, which is depicted by the character Borat as bizarre, drunken, misogynistic and anti-Semitic.
"I would like [to] make a comment on the recent advertisements on television and media about my nation of Kazakhstan, saying that women are treated equally and all religions are tolerated," Cohen, dressed in Borat's trademark light-coloured suit and bushy moustache, told a crush of media Thursday.
"These are disgusting fabrications," he quipped.
Soon, security officials escorted Cohen away from the embassy.
White House stop
The Cambridge University-educated, award-winning comedian — who is Jewish — also dropped by the White House and attempted to present Bush with an invitation to a screening of his upcoming movie.
Secret Service agents turned him away at the gate.
Kazakh press secretary Roman Vasilenko stressed that the public should not take Cohen's Borat routine seriously.
"He is not a Kazakh. What he represents is a country of Boratastan, a country of one," he told Reuters.
On his TV show, Cohen, as various characters, conducts interviews with unsuspecting subjects, including prominent politicians and celebrities such as Noam Chomsky and Donald Trump. He uses his silly personae to ask coarse, misguided or impertinent questions that often help to reveal hidden prejudices or challenge prevailing social values.
The Kazakh government has frequently criticized Cohen for the character and his depiction of the country, which, officials say, he has never visited. They once even threatened him with legal action.
However, Dariga Nazarbayev, a politician and Nazarbayev's daughter, later said the reaction hurt the country's image much more than Cohen's satire itself.
Cohen, 35, recently appeared in the car-racing comedy Talladega Nights. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, is set for North American release Nov. 2.
Da Ali G Show airs in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
With files from the Associated Press.
