I’m not sure what I think about this one. First, read what the good folks at IMDB tell us:
Sacha Baron Cohen will not be a presenter at Sunday’s Academy Award ceremony, because he could not appear as his famous character Borat Sagdiyev. Baron Cohen has been reluctant to make appearances as himself, preferring to do interviews as the star of the faux documentary Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan. Oscar broadcast producer Laura Ziskin tells the Los Angeles Times, “He was asked, but he declined.”
On the one hand I think “Oh come on! Let the guy present as Borat! It’ll be funny, people will laugh and it will be a memorable moment”. But on the other hand I also think: “Oh come on Cohen! Drop the “my way or no way” attitude and just acceptthe honor of presenting at the Oscars as yourself… you know… like all the other performers are doing”.
I can see both sides here… but this may surprise you… I’m actually siding with the Oscars here. Yes, I wish they had let Cohen just present as Borat, but I think that would steal the spotlight away from the category and whoever the winner is. And that should be THEIR moment, not Borat’s. Still, I’d like to see Borat up there. But so what… they said “no”. So just go up and present as yourself. Present as Sacha Baron Cohen, the performer.
Oh well… either way the show loses. Too bad.
