Entertainment sites including Starpulse and the IMDB are reporting that Sacha Baron Cohen has turned down a chance to be an Oscar presenter because the ceremony's producers won't let him do it in character as Borat. Possibly that was to prevent him from stealing the show with his usual series of half-disguised sexual and scatological references. Then again, Cohen is up for a Best Screenplay award, and could end up onstage anyway. And to judge from his Golden Globes awards-acceptance speech – which included a lengthy rant about "the anus and testicles of my [Borat] co-star, Ken Davitian," and what it was like shooting Borat's nude wrestling scene – he doesn't need to be in character to be outrageous. An exerpt from that speech, directed at Davitian, offstage:
"Ken, when I was in that scene and I stared down and saw your two wrinkled golden globes on my chin, I thought to myself, 'I'd better win a bloody award for this… And then when my 300-pound co-star decided to sit on my face and squeeze the oxygen from my lungs, I was faced with a choice. Death, or to breathe in the air that had been trapped in a small pocket between his buttocks for 30 years. Kenneth, if it was not for that rancid bubble, I would not be here today."
Given that, it's hard to be upset that he won't have the chance to stand onstage next to, say, Scarlett Johansson and discuss how much he wants to make sexy all over her designer dress. If he wins, it'll be a lot more entertaining seeing how much he can get away with as himself before the orchestra strikes up and the cameras suddenly cut to Jack Nicholson or Clint Eastwood smirking in the audience.