Sacha Baron Cohen’s Academy Award Shocker Featuring Ryan Seacrest

In something of a guerrilla-marketing, gonzo-stunt for his upcoming film The Dictator, Sasha Baron Cohen arrived tonight at the prestigious 84th Academy Awards, in character, reminding everyone why he probably should have stayed uninvited by spilling an urn full of prop ashes onto E! host Ryan Seacrest’s tuxedo.

Cohen, in full attire as his new character Admiral General Aladeen, arrived at the award ceremony with an attractive, albeit militant-looking guest. Everyone was likely looking at Cohen out of the corner of their eye, thinking he would pull some outrageous stunt. Their instincts proved correct; Cohen arrived jokingly claiming that he was carrying the ashes of “Kim Jong-Il”, whose face was displayed on an urn he was carrying, and then proceeded to dump the “ashes” of the late North Korean dictator on the former American Idol host.

In his interview with Seacrest, Cohen (or rather, General Aladeen) claimed that it was Jong-Il’s dream “to be sprinkled over the red carpet and over Halle Berry’s chest.” Then, as Seacrest was bending down, Baron Cohen spilled the ashes on Seacrest’s tuxedo.

Seacrest looked taken aback, and he began to dust himself off. Security promptly removed Cohen from the scene. Known for rolling with just about anything, Seacrest said: “Anything can happen and it most certainly did, all over my lapel.”

Let’s not forget: first, the Academy told Cohen that he better damn-well not pull some cockamamie stunt, and you know what? Just don’t show up at all, only to later soften and re-invite the outlandish actor. They kind of had to expect something was going to happen.

Are you going to see The Dictator?