Sacha Baron Cohen stole the show Saturday night at the BAFTA L.A. Britannia Awards.
It all started when Judd Apatow took the stage at the Beverly Hilton to introduce Cohen, the winner of the organization’s Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy.
“No man has ever deserved an award more than Sacha deserves this,” the comedy producer said, “even though this year Sacha did not create any comedy work whatsoever.”
Apatow added, somewhat more seriously, “He is clearly the best … the funniest … the smartest … has the most balls, or, at least the largest balls … the most observant Jew I know … truly a groundbreaker,” and emphasized, “I love him more than Sean Penn loves Idris Elba — and Sacha does no charity work.”
After a series of clips of Cohen’s work, Salma Hayek and Grace Colington, introduced as the oldest living co-star of Chaplin, greeted Cohen onstage with his award.
Cohen accepted a kiss from Hayek and the gift of a cane from the seemingly frail Colington, with which he broke into a Chaplin-esque dance, only to have the cane snap, causing him to send the wheelchair containing Colington flying off the stage.
