By Drew Grant 5/11/12 4:19pm

Characters

Sacha Baron Cohen at 'The Dictator' premiere (YouTube)

Update: Shticky Sacha Baron Cohen Still Admiral for Dictator Premiere (Video)

Update: Scroll down for the most subtle reference in The Dictator‘s marketing.

Way, way back in the early 2000s, when media prankster Sacha Baron Cohen first began his Ali G. routine, the idea of a comedic actor who went out into the real world as his characters was ingenious. It was like Method acting meets guerrilla theater meets Improv Everywhere (with a little Andy Kaufman thrown in for good measure).

But now we’re all old and grey, and Mr. Cohen’s popularity in America after Bruno and Borat means that no one will fall for his pranks anymore, mostly because he’s too recognizable. It would be like Ashton Kutcher (or Justin Bieber, or Nick Cannon) showing up to “punk” you. And despite the fact that British comedian’s new film, The Dictator, is entirely scripted and does not necessitate any sort of “man on the street” pranks, Mr. Cohen can not, will not, let his old habits die. Even when they really, really should. Read More

By Jake Brooks and Mark Lotto 11/08/04 12:00am

DVD’s, Videos, TiVo, Downloadables

‘This Is the War Room!’

The 40th-anniversary special-edition DVD of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove makes fascinating viewing in this tense post-9/11 period, not long after the political and economic collapse of the Soviet empire as a feared global nuclear threat seemed to promise a period of peace and prosperity for the world. Back in 1964, Read More

By NYO Staff 3/03/03 12:00am

Spinola, Betts: You Better THINK

The competition for the commission at Ground Zero seemed to be undergoing a late-breaking shift in momentum.

On Feb. 25, when the final two architectural candidates presented modifications of their original designs to a team of rebuilding officials and city and state representatives, the favorite was Berlin-based architect Daniel Libeskind, whose proposed crystalline structures surround Read More