No, this is not Sacha Baron Cohen disguised as a Chia Pet, it's the comedian-actor-writer-producer in full garb for his turn as a middle-Eastern despot in his new film, 'The Dictator.'
In the comedy, a dictator is secretly replaced by a goat-herder lookalike and flees to New York City to start a new life. Baron Cohen plays both parts (much like Charlie Chaplin in 1940's 'The Great Dictator,' in which dictator Adenoid Hynkel has a double, a poor Jewish barber, who one day is mistaken for Hynkel).
The log line for the Paramount film goes something like this: "The film tells the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. It is inspired by the best selling novel 'Zabibah and The King' by Saddam Hussein."
Actually, the book, most likely written in 2000 by ghostwriters with the input of Saddam, is a parable set in the 7th or 8th century about a beautiful commoner girl named Zabibah (Iraq) who is brutalized and raped by her husband (the U.S.) and saved by a benevolent king (Saddam). Baron Cohen is going to have a fun time with this one.
'The Dictator,' directed by Larry Charles and co-starring Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley and Jason Mantzouka, opens on May 11, 2012.
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