UN
Tells
ICP It Let
Sacha Baron
Cohen Film
"Exteriors"
for The
Dictator, Not
Inside
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 18 --
Under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, the
UN has
said it's
getting more
Hollywood
friendly,
allowing for
example the
filming
of a
Transformers
movie in the
General
Assembly Hall.
(Click
here for
Inner City
Press' story
on that).
But
Sacha Baron
Cohen has
said, of The
Dictator, "we
asked to shoot
inside the
United
Nations, they
actually
refused. We
said 'this is
a
pro-democracy
movie'. They
said 'that's
the problem -
we represent a
lot of
dictators, and
they are going
to be very
angry by this
portrayal of
them so you
can't shoot in
there.'"
Inner
City Press
on Friday
asked Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
if in fact an
application
for interior
filming in the
UN was made
for the
Dictator,
if it was
denied and if
so, why. All
Nesirky said
was that Sacha
Baron Cohen is
funny.
Inner
City Press
reiterated the
question in
writing, then
got this in
return:
Subject:
Your
question on
The Dictator
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Fri, May
18, 2012 at
4:35 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
The
United
Nations
reviews every
request on its
merits and
determines
case by case
whether access
to the complex
can be
granted. With
respect to The
Dictator, the
Organization
did
collaborate
with
Paramount
Pictures and
facilitated
the filming of
exterior
scenes at
UN
Headquarters
last summer.
The
question
remains, why
did Ban
Ki-moon's UN
let
"Transformers"
inside
the GA Hall,
and confine
the Dictator
to exterior
scenes? Watch
this
site - and the
film.
, 
