Roy Moore Is Suing Sacha Baron Cohen For $95 Million

It appears there are two possible ways to react if you’re a famous American politician and have recently found yourself humiliated at the hands of Sacha Baron Cohen on his Showtime series Who Is America?. If you’re Georgia Republican state Rep. Jason Spencer, you might pull up your pants and resign in an attempt to save what little shred of dignity you might have left. If you’re Sarah Palin, you would throw an internet tantrum and claim you were duped. Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama (and creep) Roy Moore looked like a fool on Who Is America? in a segment involving a fake pedophile detector, and now he’s suing.

The segment in question happened during the third episode of the series, and involved Sacha in character as Erran Morad, an Israeli anti-terrorism expert. Erran was explaining some of Israel’s technical innovations, which led to him bringing out a standard security wand that Erran claimed was actually a tool able to detect the secretions of a pedo. Last year, Roy Moore became a household name when four women came forward during Roy’s bid to run for Alabama senate, and accused him of hitting on them when they were underage girls (Roy lost to the Democratic candidate).

As you can probably guess before even hitting play on this video, Erran’s pervert-wand beeped like crazy when it came near Roy Moore. Skip to the 2:46 mark to watch Roy look extremely uncomfortable before walking out of the interview.

Roy was so pissed off, he probably had to go to his happy place (the mall) for at least four hours after to collect his thoughts. And when he was done, he lawyered up and threatened legal action. That threat just became real. The New York Times says that Roy Moore filed a lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud.

Roy Moore says he was duped into appearing, and that his initial invitation was to speak with a television host from Yerushalayim TV (a fake network), as well as to receive an award for his support of Israel. Roy confirmed in his lawsuit that he signed a release, and that the release form was void because he was duped. But it might not matter. According to legal experts, Sacha uses extremely detailed release forms that protect the show and can prevent anyone from suing him after the fact. The NYT figures that Roy Moore probably didn’t actually read the release form before he signed it. Release forms, age of consent – Roy Moore isn’t great when it comes to details.

Showtime and CBS are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, and he’s seeking $95 million in damages. How he came to the number $95 million, I have no idea. I want to believe it was an arbitrary number chosen by his lawyers after Roy kept suggesting numbers in the teens.

Just as a reminder of what Sacha Baron Cohen looks like without 10 lbs. of silicone prosthetics and fake hair on his face, here he is with his wife Isla Fisher at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in London last night.

Pics: Showtime, Wenn.com