Sacha Baron Cohen - aka Ali G, aka Borat, aka Bruno - has finally given an interview as himself.
After all the hoo-ha over the Borat movie, Rolling Stone gets a peek "behind the Kazakh curtain, into the mind of the man behind the buffoon, into the very private world of England's most popular enigma".
You have to buy the magazine to get the whole interview, but there's a decent-sized chuck of it online.
The real joke with his fictional Kazakh journalist character Borat, Baron Cohen explains, is not on the former Soviet republic but on the US.
I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist - who believe that there's a country where homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old.
Baron Cohen reveals how his 91-year-old grandmother, who lives in Haifa, is among his most fervent fans, and tells of his belief that the "road to Auschwitz was paved with indifference". He admits he'd find it hard to deal with the cringing situations his alter egos put others in.
If you haven't seen the film, there are more favourable tomatoes than splats at Rotten Tomatoes.
Its more evocative skits include a country and western singalong about throwing Jews down wells and how men should spend their days shooting guns and gawping at naked women .
Borat seems to be showing in most countries, except Kazakhstan. It has been reported the Austrian tourist board is shivering at the thought that Baron Cohen's next film will feature his Austrian hairdresser character, Bruno.
