back to article Sacha Baron Cohen scars Paula Abdul for life

American Idol judge Paula Abdul has described herself as "scarred for life" by a Sacha Baron Cohen set-up which saw her interviewed from the comfort of two Mexican gardeners by the Brit comedian's alter ego Bruno. Abdul was last year duped into believing she was to be interviewed by a German TV crew "after winning an artist of …

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  1. Chris
    Joke

    mmm warmth

    I do love it when he mocks the Americans...a warm feeling comes over me, but this one is even more so. American Idol judge...not only a yank, but one that works on one of those disgusting excuses for a TV program. Here Here to the Mr Cohen and his Julie

  2. Richard Cartledge

    Codswallop

    Funny how most of the people he 'fools' are his friends and associates already.

  3. Kevin Gurney
    Thumb Up

    @ Richard Cartledge

    I suggest that you check out the number of (failed) lawsuits that came as a result of the filming of Borat.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat#Legal_action_by_participants

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    How ironic...

    ...that his cousin is a researcher into autism, a condition characterised by a difficulty in empathy, social nuance and getting along sweetly with people...

  5. richard
    IT Angle

    poor paula

    she's not the sharpest tool in the box, just watch her and her 'straight' friend simon cowell acting like a couple of queens on american idol. she cannot even form an opinion without cowell making schoolboy faces behind her.

    she still looks great for her age though, dooshbags!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    A title is required.

    She actually sat on them? The hell?

  7. Ed Blackshaw Silver badge

    Low Hanging Fruit

    It would be more amusing if he were to get someone with that gag who actually had something to do with human rights abuses, for example, rather than the low hanging fruit that is some modern-day 'opportunity knocks' panelist.

    If he needed some pointers, the IMHO much funnier and cleverer comedian Mark Thomas could probably point him in the right direction.

  8. Ian Sawyer

    sceptic tanks

    Them yanks are so gullible. I like the one where there talking about the the twin towers and

    he refers to the event as 7/11

  9. Nick Miles

    how long is life?

    I love the fact that in the article, she was "Scarred for life for a year"

    ;o)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    my hero

    Is the guy in NYC that he tried the Borat persona on out in the street. Being your average laid-back New Yorker, they guy commenced to punch him. and had to be pulled away.

    As for Ms. Abdul, are we sure that it isn't plastic surgery that did the scarring?

    @Chris: is this really the forum for your deviations?

  11. Howard Hanek
    Joke

    Imagine!

    Why Paula Abdul is a 'judge' . Fooling a judge is serious business and is usually only done by hardened career criminals. So where did Sacha do his time before this incident? He'll never make the Fashion Police this way.

  12. AC
    Paris Hilton

    if she werent so stoopid

    she wouldn't have been picked for the prank!

    how you can sack a dude for signing you up to a comedy sketch is beyond me though, do yanks not have a sense of humour?

    paris because she's dumb enough to get taken in by this and I'd like to see Cohen "do" her too.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Exploitation

    Forget being exploited, I'd pay good money to be sat on by Paula.

  14. Sam C

    @Kevin Gurney

    True, but that doesn't mean there aren't some setups in his movies. Couldn't comment on this one without having seen it, but the Pamela Anderson bit in Borat was obviously a setup. Most of those legal cases are from the general public rather than celebs / actors as well.

  15. Mike Kamermans
    IT Angle

    so...

    where's the IT angle? =(

  16. RichyS
    Paris Hilton

    Rat

    She should have smelled a rat at the "after winning an artist of the year award for her singing" bit.

    Paris, just 'cos (with apologies to Sarah Bee)

  17. Matthew Barker
    Stop

    @Chris

    So you think that American Idol is much worse than "The Hopefuls" and other similar shows, then?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Not exactly the brightest bunny, is she?

    I've known tree stumps with better reactions than hers.

    "At two o'clock in the morning that night I woke up in a cold sweat, popped my body up out of bed and went, 'Oh my God.'"

    Not only did it take her three weeks to make the realisation she'd been had, it took her *several* *hours* after she was *explicitly* told for a reaction to set in.

    Unless that quote refers to a bout of necrophilia on her part. And the last bit could (downhill, with a following wind) mean she pissed herself. Yes, it's tenuous, but this is how it read in my mind:

    "At two o'clock in the morning that night I woke up in a cold sweat, popped my dear departed sleeping partner up out of bed and urinated full stop end of quote new paragraph."

    "Oh my God," she ululated, as the full recollection of that fateful night returned to her.

    Bless 'er.

  19. Nick L

    Copyright be damned

    URL to the Youtube video, if you please !

  20. Madrak

    @Chris

    I might be assuming wrong here, but based on your use of the word "Yank" I'm going to assume you're British. You do know that American Idol is a spinoff of Pop Idol, right? So the "disgusting excuses for a TV program" as you put it, is originally yours. Now I do see your Joke Alert, and being American I realize that I am sarcasm impaired, so I might have missed the humor in your post, for which I apologize.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I have absolutely no time for "Borat"

    I think his jokes are infantile and mostly actually insulting to all present. I prefer intelligent humour which doesn't need specific people to be set up and fooled. But hey, "The Office" wasn't on my list of favourites either because I know too many f*ckwits who behave just like that.

    As for whoever signed the release forms, I think just sacking isn't good enough.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Paula Abdul - Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    Brilliant!.................... LOVE IT....

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    "infantile and mostly actually insulting"

    You bet! Also scatological, banal, puerile, imbecilic, moronificating, and best viewed through the haze of a stupefying concussion!

    Did you see the bit where the bear crapped all over the inside of the ice-cream van? Man I laughed!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    @Madrak

    Yes we had that program first. And it was the first of the breed of manufactorered pop. it has imprived TV shows like that a lot since its stopped. but your still dragging it through the mud. We started with it. And the yanks are carrying on. And taking it downwards. Especially with all the stupid branding everywhere. (Whats with the constantly forward facing Coca-Cola glasses?)

  25. Mike Flugennock
    Thumb Up

    @AC 1st May 2009 20:25 GMT

    D'ahhh, get over yourself.

    ALL comedy is stupid -- ALL of it.

    Do you honestly think Michael Palin and Graham Chapman dressed up as a couple of old British prole wives arguing about the nature of the work of Marcel Proust is _intelligent_? No, it's _not_, pal, it's friggin' _stupid_ -- and that's why it's so _great_.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can Borat ...

    ... please interview that smarmy git from phorm?

    @zerofool2005 - are you related to aManFromMars?

  27. skeptical i
    Pirate

    @@Madrak: Paula used to shill for Diet Coke in the 80s.

    Coincidence? I think not.

    <-- Because the show's been hijacked by Coke(R)-heads.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Ian Sawyer

    <quote>Them yanks (sic) are so gullible</quote>

    Yeah, they've even been made to make spots for a TV documentary about mutant rain falling upwards, been horrified by the craze of taking drugs through a dog and even warning children to watch out for vapours released from keyboards by paedophiles to make them more suggestible. Oh, wait. hang on...

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Sat on by Paula Abdul...?

    That's on my fantasy list......tick!

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Sacha BC

    Borat and all of Sacha Baron Cohen characters, are profoundly unfunny. He is easily the most over rated talentless piece of you know what I have ever seen on TV, even worse than talent shows or the depicable reality TV and that takes some doing!

  31. E
    Thumb Up

    Cohen

    I have never found Borat very funny, but Bruno is absolutely brilliant. I have wound up laughing so hard I was gasping for air while watching Bruno interview politicians.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re:disgusting excuses for a TV program

    Just because the British broadcasters were originally responsible for such programs does not mean that all Brits have to like them. Anyone saying "yeah, but you were orignially responsible for this rubbish" needs their head examined. We were not personally responsible, we are not accountable for what crap our media decides to put on.

  33. al
    Paris Hilton

    @Dave: your opinion can't be an abolute truth.

    There is something called being pissed withone who is over-popular.

    Then there is something called acknowledging other's right to have an opinion.

    When you say : "Borat and all of Sacha Baron Cohen characters, are profoundly unfunny." You seem to project this as an abolute truth like it's -21degrees in Chelsea today. I may or maynot find him funny. But I know people who do. And so I don't think I can say that Borat etc are not funny. One guy tells a joke 10 guys laugh - who am I to say that he is not funny ?

    Paris, coz she is ticklish..

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lego reconstruction?

    Paula sitting on a certain Transformer perhaps ?

  35. Dave Morris

    @Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 4th May 2009 02:46 GMT

    "Just because the British broadcasters were originally responsible for such programs does not mean that all Brits have to like them. Anyone saying "yeah, but you were orignially responsible for this rubbish" needs their head examined. We were not personally responsible, we are not accountable for what crap our media decides to put on."

    However, Americans are?

  36. Trevor
    Joke

    @Dave M 17:56

    Yes. Obviously. Don't you watch Televis...oh

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