{"id":871416,"date":"2026-08-28T12:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871416\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T12:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T12:08:20","slug":"uk-cinema-chain-wont-show-ali-g-who-iz-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871416\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Cinema Chain Won’t Show “Ali G: Who Iz I?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Amazon<\/p>\n

UK exhibitor Picturehouse Cinemas has confirmed they won\u2019t screen Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s upcoming comedy film \u201cAli G: Who Iz I?\u201d when it releases in October.<\/p>\n

According to Metro<\/a>, the decision comes in the wake of an online campaign by media watchdog platform NewsCord that demands that cinemas worldwide refuse to screen the comedian\u2019s new satire.<\/p>\n

The reasoning? They allege Baron Cohen has \u2018enforced harmful stereotypes across marginalised communities through his characters\u2019 and that distributor Amazon MGM has \u2018revived a racist caricature\u2019 with the film.<\/p>\n

Ali G was created as a white man from Staines who blindly adopts slang, dress and mannerisms he associates with Black British culture, with the comedy focused on the character\u2019s own ignorance and obliviousness.<\/p>\n

Picturehouse controls 25 cinemas across the UK and, in a statement to the paper, says: \u201cWe currently do not have any plans to screen this film on its release\u201d.<\/p>\n

The trailer for the mockumentary was released earlier this week with the fictional character ambushing unsuspecting real people and public figures.<\/p>\n

The \u201cBorat\u201d star has expected controversy, responding to negative reactions to the trailer on X<\/a> the other day with: \u201cIn an age where a comedian\u2019s career can be ended by a single un-PC joke, I thought I\u2019d play it safe and bring this guy back.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 34,000 emails have reportedly been sent to cinema chains as part of NewsCord\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Even so, no other distributors have seemingly followed suit while a poster on Reddit<\/a> claims Picturehouse frequently doesn\u2019t carry movies that go into other multiplexes \u2013 including their parent company Cineworld \u2013 and advises \u201cI wouldn\u2019t read too much into this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amazon UK exhibitor Picturehouse Cinemas has confirmed they won\u2019t screen Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s upcoming comedy film \u201cAli G:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,142132,134],"class_list":["post-871416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bigslider","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}