Sacha Baron Cohen’s failed prank on Rudy Giuliani

The comedian was seen running down a New York street dressed in a pink bikini after he attempted to prank Donald Trump’s lawyer.

Rudy Giuliani called the police when comedian Sacha Baron Cohen — wearing a spangly pink bikini — tried to prank him into a spoof interview.

The former New York mayor and personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump went to the Mark Hotel on Tuesday for what he thought was a serious interview about the administration’s response to COVID-19. He said he was offered payment for the interview, and asked that the money be donated to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Rudy Giuliani at the White House. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

A female interviewer began the conversation in a room fitted out with a professional set-up of lights and camera with a few softball questions before, as Mr Giuliani told the New York Post: “This guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit.

“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.”

Mr Giuliani, 76, said he didn’t immediately recognise the gatecrasher as Cohen.

“This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shakedown, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away.”

Other sources said Cohen, 48, was seen sprinting out of the swanky Upper East Side hotel – a favourite with celebrities and the scene of Meghan Markle’s starry 2019 baby shower – and down the street wearing just a bathrobe but was not apprehended by police, who did arrive to investigate. The NYPD did not comment.

Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife Isla Fisher. Picture: Valerie Macon/AFP

“I only later realised it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen,” Mr Giuliani said. “I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”

A representative for Cohen declined to comment.

Mr Giuliani said: “I am a fan of some of his movies, Borat in particular, because I’ve been to Kazakhstan. [Adopting a Borat accent, Giuliani repeats a famous line from the movie:] ‘She is my sister. She is number four prostitute in all of Kazakhstan.’ That was pretty funny.”

Baron Cohen last week gatecrashed a right-wing event in Washington posing as a racist country singer – where he encouraged the crowd to chant along to lyrics about liberals getting “chopped up” or “injected with the Wuhan flu”.

Dressed in dungarees, a cowboy hat and a fake beard, the Borat comedian tricked organisers of Saturday’s event by the “Three Percenters” militia group by producing a last-minute big-money donation, according to reports and organisers.

The professional prankster then took to the stage in Olympia, getting some of the audience to chant along with extreme lyrics including: “Obama, what we gonna do? Inject him with the Wuhan flu … WHO what we gonna do? Chop ’em up like the Saudis do,” seemingly a sick reference to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Dressed as a hillbilly, Sasha Baron Cohen infiltrated a rally being held by “The Washington State Three Percenters” - a right wing militia group — and took over the stage.

I’m crying...pic.twitter.com/cIydi6kqWh

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 28, 2020

He also wished the same for “sushi eaters” – and worse for “Chinese people,” singing that they should “nuke them up like in World War II”.

When event organisers finally rushed the stage, the prankster and his entourage fled into a waiting decoy ambulance.

Many speculated that it could have been a stunt for a new season of his Showtime comedy Who Is America? but the network has not commented.

This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was reproduced with permission