Sacha Baron Cohen needles Jeffrey Katzenberg, boosts Kazakh tourist industry

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Sacha Baron Cohen has been stirring the pot with his crazy antics, as usual.

At the CinemaCon movie marketing event in Las Vegas, Cohen appeared in full costume to promote his upcoming movie, “The Dictator,” about a ruler from a fictional Middle Eastern country, in which he pretty much mocks real-life characters like Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi.

“I thought I was going to be the only dictator here tonight,” Cohen said at CinemaCon, “So imagine my surprise when I found out Jeffrey Katzenberg would be here,” referring to the Dreamworks Animation CEO. In introducing himself, Cohen claimed to have starred in movies such as “The 14-Year-Old Virgin,” “When Harry Kidnapped Sally” and “Planet of the Rapes.”

But it turns out Cohen’s weird mockumentaries are actually having some positive effects on the world. “Borat,” in which Cohen played an ignorant journalist from Kazakhstan exploring America for the first time, has actually increased tourism in the former Soviet republic.

“With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold,” the country’s foreign minister reportedly said recently, as he thanked Borat for the massive boost.

This is a pretty big change from when the movie first came out in 2006 and Kazakhstan banned distribution of the film and blocked access to his website.  They probably regret being such haters.yep

 

 

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