Sacha Baron Cohen’s alter-ego Admiral General Aladeen descended on the Waldorf- Astoria for a press conference yesterday to comically bring awareness to “a global human tragedy” — deposed dictators — and send up half of Hollywood at the same time.
“Dictators have fallen one-by-one,” a bearded and bedecked freedom-hating Aladeen lamented (photo, facing page), listing, “Saddam, Kim Jong-il, Khadafy . . . and Oprah.”
The leader of fictitious North African Republic of Wadiya (“12,000 miles from Israel, as the Scud flies”) was flanked at the Park Avenue hotel by “virgins” armed with machine guns, red berets and short skirts, and supporters with signs reading, “Give Persecution a Chance,” to promote “The Dictator,” opening May 16.
“I have 25 virgins protecting me at all times,” Aladeen said. “I have their virginity checked every night, by the head — of my penis.”
He revealed his country’s love for Mel Gibson, in hot water for another alleged antiSemitic rant: “We have made him our p.r. expert . . . [as well as] head of our Museum of Intolerance.” The general listed his own favorite Hollywood movies as, “fantasy films, like, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Schindler’s List.’ ”
Fielding questions, Aladeen addressed his red-carpet run-in with Ryan Seacrest at the Oscars: “It’s not the first time he’s had an Asian man poured on his chest,” he said of spilling Kim Jong-il’s ashes on the host.
After making a racy joke about Kim Kardashian, Aladeen said, “What? I’m not afraid of a Persian girl and her sisters! I will have Ahmadinejad recall [her] back to Iran.”
Politically, he said, “I liked Santorum despite his liberal views,” and Mitt Romney showed promise because, “you can turn putting pets on top of cars to putting political dissidents on top of cars . . . he has the makings of a great dictator.”
He also took aim at Lindsay Lohan, John Galliano, Heidi Klum and Donald Trump, and took responsibility for the deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.