Sony Denies Asking Sacha Baron Cohen To Remove Trump HIV Gag From Grimsby

Sony has denied accusations it leaned on Sacha Baron Cohen to remove a visual gag in which Donald Trump swallows HIV-infected blood in ‘Grimsby’.

Following a story in the Huffington Post, a spokesperson for the studio said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Another Sony Pictures spokesperson, Jane Guerin, added: “This is utter nonsense. We have been supportive of the filmmaker and the film.”

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The story claims that executives, who are afraid of the litigious Trump’s reaction to the joke, did not want a repeat of the international political incident caused by Seth Rogen’s 'The Interview’.

The exploding of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s head in a scene from that movie resulted in the studio being hacked by a group thought to be from the region.

A source said: “They’re subtly trying to make it disappear so Donald Trump doesn’t sue the studio, and also if Donald Trump wins, then they don’t have a major problem with the corporation where they’ve alienated the president.”

In the scene from the movie, a Trump look-a-like actor has his mouth splattered with blood from an actor playing 'Harry Potter’ star Daniel Radcliffe, who in the film is infected with HIV.

There’s now a disclaimer used at the end of the movie, stating that the real Donald Trump had not taken part in the film.

Another source told the Post: “If you were told that they’re shying away from the movie because of the political implications, I can tell you that’s 100 percent true.”

So far Baron Cohen has not commented on the matter.

It would not be the first time that Sacha Baron Cohen has clashed with Trump.

While in character as Borat on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he said: “The only person who would ban Muslims is someone with a brain like a female chicken.”

Trump, meanwhile, has claimed that he walked out of his spoof interview with Ali G, realising he was being sent up.

He tweeted in 2012: “I never fall for scams. I am the only person who immediately walked out of my Ali G interview.”

Image credits: Sony/Rex Features