Stunt livens up Bafta LA ceremony

Sacha Baron Cohen caused chaos at an awards ceremony last night - pushing a woman in a wheelchair off the stage.

He livened up the event, thrown by Bafta's Los Angeles branch, when he accepted the Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award For Excellence In Comedy.

The woman he 'assaulted' was introduced by presenter Salma Hayek as 87-year-old Grace Collington, 'the oldest surviving actor to have worked with Chaplin in a silent movie' – having worked on City Lights at the age of five.

She presented one of Chaplin's trademark canes to Baron Cohen, who broke into a tap dance, shoving her wheelchair off the stage. She landed face down and motionless.

As her limp body was taken out of the Beverly Hilton ballroom, the Borat and Ali G creator said: 'Grace Collington is the oldest, sorry, was the oldest… I dedicate my award to her. It’s obviously a tragedy but on the bright side what a great way to go. She’ll probably make the Oscars In Memoriam section…

'Anyway tonight is not about her, it’s about me.'

Judd Apatow previously mocked Baron Cohen for winning the award despite having done nothing to merit it in the past year.

He said: 'He made exactly zero films which means he had the same amount of output as Don Knotts who has been dead since 2006.

'In 2013 Will Ferrell made what is probably his greatest work, Anchorman 2, which I produced. Apparently Sacha doing nothing is better than Will’s finest achievement.

'Apparently all he did this year was a performance art piece called "sitting on my ass living off my Borat money". And another one where he held his wife’s purse at Great Gatsby premieres.'

The event was hosted by Rob Brydon, and will air on BBC America in the US tonight.

Last week it was revealed that Baron Cohen is to record new material as Ali G when his original Channel 4 show is aired on the FXX channel in the States.

Published: 10 Nov 2013