Sacha Baron Cohen Tried to Prank Me. Here’s How I Knew It Was a Scam.

By Michael Caputo

Sacha Baron Cohen’s fake production company contacted me in mid-February asking me to help put together a TV interview with my client, former Republican Congressman Michael Grimm. I didn’t know it was Cohen’s crew—in fact I called the overture in an email at the time “amateur Ali G.” But there were signs of a bluff, and I turned them down. Today, I have a message for Republicans and Democrats alike: beware. There are plenty of politically motivated pretenders out there preparing to punk you, and you better be on your toes.

Cohen is following a great American television tradition started in the late 1940s by Allen Funt. His show, “Candid Camera,” hid its film crew and played practical jokes on unsuspecting victims. It was harmless fun. The program aired for two decades on network television, proving America loves this stuff.

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