the law

Roy Moore Can’t Sue Sacha Baron Cohen Over a Prank, Courts Say

Sacha Baron Cohen Photo: Rick Rycroft/AP/Shutterstock

“For far too long, the American people have been subjected to the antics of Spider-Man. His pusillanimous and fraudulent conduct must be stopped,†J. Jonah Jameson told the Associated Press.

Wait. That’s not right. “For far too long, the American people have been subjected to the antics of Sacha Baron Cohen. His pusillanimous and fraudulent conduct must be stopped,†former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Roy Moore told the Associated Press.

The disgruntled alleged sex pest sent this joint statement with his wife to the AP after the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a former ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on July 8 that dismissed Moore’s defamation lawsuit against Baron Cohen. Moore and his wife tried to sue Baron Cohen for $95 million in 2021 in response to his appearance on Baron Cohen’s Showtime series Who Is America? in 2018. In the segment, Baron Cohen plays a Mossad intelligence expert whose pedophile-detecting wand gets set off by Moore. Moore felt $95 million worth of offense and embarrassment toward this and hinged his lawsuit on the grounds that he signed his TV waiver on false pretenses, not knowing he was about to get his ass satirically handed to him by the guy who says “my wife!â€

But falling for it isn’t a strong enough legal case, and the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed it. Baron Cohen only defamed him using “the obviously farcical pedophile detecting ‘device,’ which no reasonable person could believe to be an actual, functioning piece of technology.†Moore is no reasonable person, though, and he and his wife told the AP, “We will appeal,†again. If anything, Moore’s insistence on keeping this lawsuit alive is just a constant reminder that Moore was rumored to be banned from a mall for allegedly hitting on teenagers.

Roy Moore Can’t Sue Sacha Baron Cohen Over a Gag, Courts Say