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Sarah Palin was “duped” by Sacha Baron Cohen for his new series

How did Baron Cohen convince Palin to fly to DC and sit down for an interview? Let’s just say an extensive disguise was involved.

Sarah Palin is one of many who have fallen victim to Sacha Baron Cohen’s tricks in “Who is America?” his new series on Showtime.
Sarah Palin is one of many who have fallen victim to Sacha Baron Cohen’s tricks in “Who is America?” his new series on Showtime.
Sarah Palin is one of many who have fallen victim to Sacha Baron Cohen’s tricks in “Who is America?” his new series on Showtime.
Pete Marovich/Getty Images

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s new show, Who Is America?, has already tricked former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Palin admitted that she and her daughter were “duped” into an interview with an undercover Baron Cohen in a scathingly critical Facebook post, Palin said that she joined “a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick ‘humor’ of the British ‘comedian’ Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime.”

Palin explained that she was invited to “honor American vets” and “contribute to a ‘legit Showtime historical documentary’” by speaking with Baron Cohen, who was “heavily disguised ... as a disabled US Veteran, fake wheelchair and all.”

Palin said she was treated poorly, mocked with sarcasm, and said she left the interview early after reaching a breaking point with Baron Cohen. Following the interview, Palin said she was intentionally left at the wrong Washington, DC, airport to really drive the joke home.

And as an aside, for further insight into the wealthy corporate enablers of this kind of “joke”, I’ll add that after great costs on our part in time and resources to contribute to their “documentary” the Cohen/CBS/Showtime production team purposefully dropped my daughter and me off at the wrong Washington, DC airport after the fake interview, knowing we’d miss all flights back home to Alaska. After refusing to take our calls to help get us out of the bind they’d put us in for three days, I wrote this off as yet another example of the sick nature that is media-slash-entertainment today.

She also anticipates that, falling in line with Trump’s belief that the media is “fake,” the interview will air her appearance “heavily edited, not pretty, and intended to humiliate.”

Palin’s post — which challenged Baron Cohen, CBS, and Showtime to donate “all proceeds to a charitable group that actually respects and supports American Vets” — is likely to provide some free publicity for Baron Cohen’s latest project, even if that wasn’t her intention.

Baron Cohen is a known prankster in the entertainment industry. He has posed as fake interviewer Ali G, a dictator and caused a ruckus at award shows. On Monday, July 9, Baron Cohen announced he was entering the political sphere through a series of undercover interviews with political figures, including Dick Cheney.

Though not much else is known, the mysterious Who is America? project includes something about Trump University.

Who is America? premieres on Showtime on July 15.

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