THERE HAS BEEN plenty of controversy surrounding Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest TV show ‘Who is America?’
The Ali G and Borat star managed to convince Dick Cheney to sign a ‘waterboard kit’, got a US politician in some big trouble over their repeated use of racist and homophobic slurs and in the final episode, he met OJ Simpson and tried to make the football player confess to the murder of Nicole Brown.
So, really it was only a matter of time until someone decided to take legal action against the comedian. And no – it wasn’t OJ, Dick Cheney or the Republican lawmaker who was forced to step down from his position over the racist remarks. Instead, it was US Senate candidate Roy Moore.
While in character as an Israeli anti-terror expert called Erran Morad, Sacha interviewed Roy, asking him to explain why he believed that Alabama has always been at the forefront of striving for equality in America.
Sacha later spoke to him about the ‘latest Israeli gadget’, which was a ‘paedophile detector’.
Before showing Roy Moore the paedophile detector, the TV show played several clips from news reports listing the nine allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct made against Roy Moore. One of these allegations was from a woman who claimed Roy initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was just fourteen years old.
In Israel, they have developed a machine that is used in schools and playgrounds to detect anyone coming in and if they detect a paedophile, the wand alerts the law enforcement and the schools within a 100 mile radius. It is very simple to use, you just switch it on, and because neither of us are sex offenders, then it makes absolutely no noise.
Baron Cohen then waved the wand around his body to demonstrate the silence. A few seconds later, he attempts the same demonstration with Roy Moore, and the device beeps.
Baron Cohen’s character then insists that it must be ‘malfunctioning’, before testing the device out on a crew member. Things become tense in the room, before Roy suggests that Israeli technology hasn’t been developed properly and announces that he will be cutting the interview short.
Roy Moore is now suing Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation and emotional distress.
The former US Senate candidate, who lost in the last election, wants $95 million in punitive and compensatory damages, as he “suffered extreme emotional distress” after being “falsely portrayed as a sex offender and paedophile” on ‘Who is America?’
In a statement, Moore’s representative in the case, Larry Klayman said that Sacha Baron Cohen is “not only low class but also a fraudster” and, along with Showtime and CBS will be “held accountable for his outrageous and false, fraudulent and defamatory conduct which callously did great emotional and other damage to this great man and his wife and family.”
Baron Cohen has not issued any response to the lawsuit, while Showtime said that they “do not comment on pending litigation”.
