Rudy Giuliani called the New York City Police Department when he realized something wasn’t quite right when Sacha Baron Cohen showed up in drag.
Cohen, a comedian, burst onto the scene where Giuliani was doing an interview with a woman at the Mark Hotel in Manhattan on Tuesday under the pretense of having President Trump’s personal attorney discuss the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cohen was dressed in drag — perhaps a nod to the former New York City mayor’s drag-queen comedy stints between 1997 and 2000.
“This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shake-down, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away,” Giuliani told the New York Post.
Giuliani said he didn’t know at the time that Cohen was involved.
“This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit,” said Giuliani. “It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn’t what I would call distractingly attractive.”
“I only later realized it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought about all the people he previously fooled, and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me,” Giuliani said.
Police arrived on the scene to investigate but reportedly did not make any arrests.
Cohen has tricked several politicians into saying ridiculous things for his show. The 48-year-old actor of Borat and Ali G fame was sued for defamation by former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in 2018 over a prank that took place on the show.
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to reflect that Sacha Baron Cohen was not the person conducting the interview with Rudy Giuliani about the coronavirus. The stunt appears as part of the sequel to Cohen’s Borat movie.
