AceShowbiz - Sacha Baron Cohen's prank on Rudy Giuliani backfired on Tuesday (07Jul20), as the former New York mayor ended up calling the police on him.

Giuliani told the New York Post's Page Six that he went to the city's Mark Hotel for what he believed to be a serious interview about the U.S. government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

And while things seemed above board at first, with a female interviewer kicking things off with some soft questions in a room professionally decked out with lights and cameras, they went downhill when "this guy comes running in, wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit."

"It was a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd. He had the beard, bare legs, and wasn't what I would call distractingly attractive," Giuliani, 76, said.

Admitting that he didn't immediately realise that the intruder was Cohen, Giuliani added, "This person comes in yelling and screaming, and I thought this must be a scam or a shake-down, so I reported it to the police. He then ran away."

Other sources told the website that Cohen was seen sprinting out of the hotel and down 77th Street in Manhattan wearing just a bathrobe. However, while police did arrive on the scene to investigate, Cohen was not apprehended, and the New York Police Department opted not to comment.

"I only later realised it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen," Giuliani added. "I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn't get me."

A representative for the "Borat" star declined to comment.

It's the latest stunt for Cohen, who gatecrashed a right-wing event in Washington last week posing as a racist country singer, encouraging the crowd to sing along to lyrics about liberals being "chopped up" or "injected with the Wuhan flu."

Following the incident, it was reported that it may have been a stunt for Cohen's Showtime comedy "Who Is America?" but the U.S. TV network has yet to comment on the speculation.