According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sasha Baron Cohen’s new movie for Sony Pictures will feature Donald Trump being infected by AIDS when the blood of the assassinated Harry Potter flies into his mouth. Or something.
The Brothers Grimsby opens March 11, infected Trump and all, apparently. Trump and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe are played by actors in the satire, but Sony is supposedly afraid that the real Donald will sic his real lawyers on the studio. THR cited a Huffington Post report saying “the studio, nervous about repercussions from famously litigious and outspoken Trump, asked Baron Cohen to take the scene out, but he declined.”
But a Sony spokesperson told THR that was “absolutely ridiculous.” Also, it’s worth remembering that Cohen (Borat) is known for outlandish marketing stunts, and that Sony is the studio that temporarily shelved The Interview over North Korean threats.
But even if the scene isn’t really in the movie, the fact remains that Cohen or Sony chose Trump as the target of a particularly nasty little fantasy, rather than, say, Hillary Clinton. And they’re not the first ones to wish AIDS on a Republican; in 1995 NPR’s Nina Totenberg hoped that Sen. Jesse Helms would “get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it."
