Ali G Raps Shutterbug
Maybe he just needed to keep it real, aight?
Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comic behind HBO's hilarious, dimwitted hip-hop journalist Ali G, has been accused of grabbing a New York Daily News photographer by the throat at a movie premiere Wednesday night.
According to accounts Friday in both the Daily News and New York Times, Cohen, 34, lashed out at shutterbug Richard Corkey as he tried to snap a photo of the comedian and his fianc?e, Australian-bred actress Isla Fisher, at an after-party following the Gotham premiere of Wedding Crashers, in which she costars.
Cohen--whose bumbling rapper "straight outta Staines" regularly cons the rich and powerful into making idiots of themselves on camera--apparently wasn't too pleased about being part of a Kodak moment.
Eyewitnesses say the six-foot-three funnyman used what appeared to be a one-handed martial arts-style maneuver, reached out and grasped Corkery by the throat and wouldn't let go. Cohen then warned the photographer not to take a picture without first asking permission before finally letting go.
"All of a sudden, Ali came racing up and his hand went up on Dick's throat, neck, his windpipe," New York Times reporter Paula Schwartz told the Daily News. "It was scary to me."
Fisher, who appears onscreen as Vince Vaughn's slightly scary love interest, seemingly had no clue what was unfolding as she stood smiling for the photo op.
Corkery, a veteran photographer who has been snapping celebrity stills for more than 25 years, is deciding whether to file a criminal complaint against Cohen. There is no word on whether he is considering a civil action.
"It was shocking," he told the Daily News. "You just don't expect that someone would grab your throat."
Cohen's publicist, Matt Labov, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. But he told the Daily News that the alleged chokehold never occurred. He claimed that Cohen was merely trying to prevent Corkery from crashing what he thought was a private area of the party, a lavish wedding-themed reception at Cipriani 42 near Grand Central Station, to take his picture.
"[Cohen] did not put a hand on Dick," Labov said, contradicting the newspaper accounts. "He put his hand in front of the camera but did not touch him."
The Wedding Crashers, a comedy starring Vaughn and Owen Wilson arrives in theaters Friday. Among the celebs in attendance that night were Vaughn, Wilson and costars Christopher Walken and Jane Seymour.
Despite possible criminal charge and/or lawsuit, Cohen has had a huge summer. He earned plaudits as the voice of the lemur King Julien in the smash hit 'toon Madagascar, and on Thursday, just hours after the alleged chokehold, HBO's second season of Da Ali G Show picked up three Emmy nominations: Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program, and Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program.
And while he's no-commenting on the neck-throttling allegations, Cohen's alter ego was quick to issue a statement on the Emmy recognition: "I iz well excited to be nominated for a Grammy cuz I iz gonna get to meet dem Desperate Housewives, who, after spending de night wiv me, will ge goin home very Satisfied Housewives, innit!"
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