Academy Awards producers are certainly regretting their decision to allow Sacha Baron Cohen to attend the award show in full "Dictator" regalia, after he deliberately spilled Kim Jong-Il's pretend ashes all over E! host Ryan Seacrest.
"Ryan was visibly upset about the stunt but managed to keep his composure," an E! insider told me. "It's not only that Sacha used Ryan in a desperate attempt to get publicity for his film; it's the fact that the joke was just not funny."
But Seacrest didn't seem too torn up over the fumbled urn.
"My mom always told me to pack two jackets for red carpets, always wondered why. Now I know," Seacrest tweeted after the incident, trying to make light of the dusty situation. But behind the scenes, no one at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was laughing.
"It's the Oscars, for God's sake," an A-list TV presenter told me. "It's just not the time nor the place. We were all amazed that the academy allowed him to walk the carpet dressed like that in the first place. But after the incident they were livid. Unless he ever gets nominated for something, you can expect to never see him invited back again."
Jennifer Lopez was one of the first celebrities to talk with Seacrest after the incident, checking that her "American Idol" friend was okay. It turns out that it takes a lot more than Bisquick mix to stop Seacrest from asking that all-important question, "Who are you wearing?"
