For well over a decade now, Sacha Baron Cohen has been a master of disguise, taking on different kinds of characters to get reactions out of people, whether those be average citizens or people in power. We recently learned he has a new seven-episode series coming called Who Is America? The Showtime subscription cable program was able to keep Cohen's new character a secret and even speak with the likes of Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin, and the latter at least is very unhappy about the way things transpired. Speaking out on social media, Palin admitted she and her daughter "were duped," before explaining from her point of view what she thought was going on.

Elsewhere in the rant on Facebook, Sarah Palin also called Sacha Baron Cohen, "evil" and "exploitive," also noting she feels he has a "sick" sense of humor, before also challenging the British comedian to donate all proceeds from the upcoming Showtime series.

She closes out by noting her daughter thinks the former host of Da Ali G Show is a "piece of **," so clearly she and her daughter are not happy about being duped by a TV show.

Sarah Palin isn't the only major political figure who spoke with Sacha Baron Cohen for Who Is America? Teaser footage has already been released featuring Dick Cheney, and Matt Drudge noted Howard Dean, Alberto Gonzales, Bernie Sanders, Trent Lott, Patraeus, Ted Koppel were spoken to, as well. You can take a first look at the new series, below.

Who Is America? was announced out of the blue earlier this week, and Showtime won't be waiting long to release the new series. If you subscribe to the cabler and are interested in Sacha Baron Cohen's body of work, the new series will debut this weekend on Sunday, July 15 at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime. The return to TV marks the first time Sacha Baron Cohen has done a subscription cable project in years, although the actor has a new Netflix project called The Spy _coming soon, as well. Cohen is famous for kicking off his career with _Da Ali G Show but has subsequently brought characters to life on the big screen with Borat and The Dictator, among other projects.

Tina Fey made another return to Saturday Night Live, and it wouldn't be an SNL alumnus hosting if some of her past characters didn't return as well. The sketch comedy program decided to put Fey back in the "Oval Office" with her best Alaskan accent to parody former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Fey had the audience feeling like it was 2008 all over again as she joked about present-day politics and even broke into a musical number with some other familiar faces:

Tina Fey looked as though she had never left as her reprisal of Sarah Palin looked just as good in the present as it did back in the day. Fey's jokes about Palin weren't as subdued as previous performances, as a biting remark about the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket now tweeting for Bass Pro Shops got quite a reaction from the audience. From there, the skit devolved into the typical Broadway-style musical number the show has leaned on for years, which was fine as it allowed for other members of the cast and other former SNL alumni Fred Armisen to make an appearance. John Goodman also swooped in for another one of SNL's patented celebrity political figure cameos and truly seemed to relish appearing as Rex Tillerson once again on the program.

As good as Saturday Night Live's political impersonations have been as of late, it's very hard for any actor to reach the level of imitation Tina Fey has as Sarah Palin. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Palin and Fey are practically doppelgangers, which elevates Fey's impersonation of the former Alaskan governor and Vice-Presidential nominee just that much more. Saturday Night Live certainly took advantage of the similarities during the 2008 presidential campaign, and even had Palin appear on television alongside Fey in a sketch:

Sarah Palin has posted to her social media (but not about Bass Pro Shop) since Tina Fey's hosting of Saturday Night Live but has yet to offer any comment on the segment. If she does view the episode, hopefully, she watches the full season finale as things got far more star-studded for SNL outside of this skit. Fey was the star of the show, but Season 43 also featured appearances by Robert DeNiro, Donald Glover, Jerry Seinfeld, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anne Hathaway, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Tracy Morgan.

Saturday Night Live has wrapped for Season 43 on NBC, but those who missed any of the latest season can catch up on Hulu. For a list of what's on the way for television, visit our summer premiere guide. For more on Tina Fey, be sure to read up on the classic Mean Girls moment the actress experienced in real life.

Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol Palin, has made a career out of being outspoken and she recently had some pretty blunt things to say about Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey and more. While a lot of us love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler bringing back the political impressions they’ve done in the past for more recent SNL episodes, Bristol Palin is not one of them. In fact, she has some extremely negative things to say about how Saturday Night Live has treated Sarah Palin.

It is an election year, and it doesn't shock us that Tina Fey might want to dust off some older impressions. Following the release of the film Sisters, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live where they brought back their versions of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, respectively. The show’s back from winter break at this point and this week Tina Fey returned for a second time, this time appearing in the cold open as Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump (amusingly played by longtime impersonator and former cast member Darrell Hammond).

The comment came in the form of a blog post over on Patheos where Bristol Palin also got a little snippy about Saturday Night Live attempting to recreate her mom’s wardrobe for this weekend’s big SNL spoof. Those weren’t the boldest comments, however. She also took a shot at Tina Fey’s looks.

Bristol Palin’s been outspoken since she first came into the spotlight thanks to her mom’s bid for Vice President of the United States. In the time since, she’s been the star of her own reality show and made the news numerous times thanks to having problems with her first baby daddy. She's used to being in the news and having opinions, so it’s not shocking that she would say something so vociferously about the long-running late night program. Unfortunately, I’m guessing this means we won’t ever get to see Bristol Palin make fun of herself on the late night series, unlike her famous mother, who has popped up before.

You can catch new episodes of Saturday Night Live as part of NBC’s late night Saturday schedule. They start at 11:30 p.m. ET. In addition, you can check out what else the network has coming up with our midseason TV schedule.

Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin was the best part of the 2008 season of Saturday Night Live. While she had already departed from the comedy sketch show two years beforehand, she couldn’t resist returning due to her uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin, as well as her spot-on impression. Well, fans of those sketches (AKA everyone) got a special treat last night as Fey returned to SNL to spoof Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump for President of the United States. Check out the sketch below.

Once again, Tina Fey’s illusion as Sarah Palin is almost identical to the former Governor of Alaska. I can only imagine that the costume department at Saturday Night Live got to work immediately after Palin’s endorsement to put together that heinous chainmail-esque cardigan that she wore in her bizarre endorsement. Seriously, where does one even buy that sweater?

This sketch was super successful for a couple of reasons. Of course, the most important is Tina Fey’s impression of Sarah Palin is basically a legendary SNL moment at this point. So few celebrity impressions on the show have ever been quite as spot-on, so much so that comedy fans are starting to be happy anytime Sarah Palin makes a big public appearance. While SNL fans might not want to watch Palin on TV, they sure do want to see Tina take her on.

The use of asides in this sketch was a new one for the SNL Sarah Palin world. Normally, we just focus on Tina Fey’s antics as the bizarre Wasilla resident, but this new device set the sketch apart. After each of Fey’s crazy monologues, the character of Donald Trump (another amazing impression) would comment about how crazypants Sarah Palin’s character was. This was used a few times and when it was on the verge of becoming stale, Palin utilized the aside herself commenting she should be in the president’s cabinet because “I’m full of spice and gave a great rack!” 

Tina Fey did a really remarkable job at capturing the almost manic high energy that Sarah Palin had when she was endorsing Donald Trump. In fact, some of Fey’s lines were once again exactly what Sarah Palin had said during her speech. Of course, they used her somewhat rhyming speech and took it a step further, bringing pop culture jokes and even a Three Men and A Baby reference. You can watch the original Sarah Palin endorsement below, courtesy of CBSN. 

Bravo, Saturday Night Live and Tina Fey. This impression was once again a highlight of the episode.

A lot of people were a part of last year’s SNL 40 anniversary special and a lot of those big names brought up stories from the set after the now-famous event happened. Recently during an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, former Vice President hopeful Sarah Palin revealed her own story from her big night over at Studio 8H. Apparently, before the episode happened live, comedian Louis C.K. came up to the politician and apologized for a mean-spirited comment he made years ago. Here’s the full story:

Louis C.K., what a stand up guy, pun intended. It’s interesting that the comedian is not really one to apologize, but went out of his way to say some nice things to a lady who was the brunt of a lot of jokes when she was on the national stage. After telling the story, though, Meyers actually has an interesting take on what may have prompted the comedian to go out of his way to be so nice to Sarah Palin, noting that SNL 40 episode was an extremely special time for all of the celebrities who were involved. Just being kind and “in it together” was one of the “energies” of the SNL 40 special, which shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who witnessed people like Jimmy Fallon and even Melissa McCarthy telling stories after the big event. You can check out more of Palin's impressions from the night, below.

Obviously, it was a night of fun throwback sketches that nodded at various generations of Saturday Night Live cast members. Most memorable among them were probably Bill Murray’s “Jaws” theme song rendition, a new “Wayne’s World” sketch, a digital short from Andy Samberg and Adam Sandler, and one more round of “Celebrity Jeopardy.” The sketches were obviously a good time, but there was so much fun behind-the-scenes stuff happening, too, that new stories should continue to come out about the big event in the years to come. Just don’t expect Louis C.K. to apologize to anyone else anytime soon.

New episodes of Late Night with Seth Meyers air weeknights at 12:35 p.m. ET, only on NBC.

If you’ve been watching Fox News recently and wondered why you felt a pronounced absence of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, may you wonder no longer. It looks like Palin and the cable news behemoth have once again quietly parted ways, and her days of regularly appearing as a talking head are behind her. Probably, anyway, unless they put another deal on the table in the near future, as they did back in 2013.

According to Deadline, Fox News confirmed that the network and the often controversial political figure said their most recent official goodbyes to one another on June 1. It was apparently an amicable agreement, which is why we haven’t seen any finger-pointing blame games happening over the last three weeks. And you can be certain that someone would have gotten verbal had this cessation had any steam behind it.

Palin hasn’t been used on Fox News much recently because the network apparently doesn’t feel that she is as relevant as she has been over the past decade or so. The timeliness of this decision is seemingly less than optimal, as the wheels are starting to turn for potential presidential candidates hoping to rise to the top of the voting order for the 2016 election. Considering Palin served as John McCain’s Vice Presidential running mate back in 2008, and has been pretty vocal about Barack Obama and other democratic politicians over the years, I’d have figured Fox News would have kept her around for as long as possible. (You can still catch former Clueless star Stacey Dash on her own Fox News show, though, so that’s something.)

Even though she won’t have regular status on the network, there’s nothing stopping Palin from occasionally popping up on certain shows where her opinion is warranted. For instance, she stopped by Hannity on June 8 to complain about the way the mass media has treated the Duggar family following the reveal of son Josh’s teenaged past, during which he molested underage girls. She even takes a shot or two at Fox News’ own Megyn Kelly, which probably didn’t come off too wonderfully. Check it out below.

Those still wanting to see Sarah Palin on a regular basis don’t have to look far. She can be seen on The Sportsman Channel’s Amazing America with Sarah Palin, and she’s also got her own online news network, the Sarah Palin Channel.

Every time HBO releases another piece of promotional material for Game Change, my anticipation grows. And that's quite impressive considering the last time HBO, writer Danny Strong and director Jay Roach teamed up, they won the Outstanding Made for TV Movie Emmy for Recount. Obviously expectations were already high, especially since the new film finds itself in familiar territory and is based on the best selling novel "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, but this latest behind the scenes featurette cuts away with some of the humor and somehow makes it look more important (and certainly relevant).

First of all, Julianne Moore's portrayal of Governor Sarah Palin is uncanny. The actress doesn't just look like Palin - although huge credit to the make-up artists and costumers for making her look like a clone - she has meticulously studied the former Governor's mannerisms and speech patterns in order to deliver the most accurate performance possible. The moment in the video when Jay Roach smiles coyly, knowing that they are capturing something special in Moore's performance of Palin, is priceless.

Ed Harris looks equally up to the task as his John McCain is also a spitting image of the real man. And finally, Woody Harrelson stars as Steve Schmidt and seems like the glue that will hold this film together. That's not a bad thing since Harrelson's been doing nothing but quality work for years. At the end of the day though, it's not just about how much the actors look and act like the characters they are portraying, but how engaging and worthy is the story that they're telling. Well, with the next election heating up it might be worth exploring, as Jay Roach puts it, "how we choose our leaders."

Game Change airs Saturday, March 10 on HBO.

The award winning team behind HBO's fantastic political drama Recount are back with an adaptation of the best selling book "Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime" by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Adapted for the premium cable network by Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach, HBO's Game Change will explore the behind-the-scenes events of the intense and surprising 2008 Presidential election. You know, the one with the Hockey Mom who could see Russia from her house in Alaska.

The fact that the same creatives as Recount are also behind this special already gives me great confidence that the television film will be poignant, unrelenting and all done with comedic flair. The last part is key because you can't tell this story without capturing the absurdity of the whole enterprise and how a Governor from probably the most forgettable state in the union (sorry Alaska, I'm still bitter that you aren't part of Canada) was plucked from obscurity and put on the National stage. And this first preview captures the vast tonal range perfectly - both intense, important and yet, at times irreverent -and it's once again set to The Guess Who's "American Woman." How fitting, if not a bit cliche.

This first full trailer for the special is pretty sensational. Like I said, not a huge fan of the music, however, that's a minor point to dwell on when there is so much to love - mostly the extended looks at the uncanny performances delivered by Ed Harris and, the incredible, Julianne Moore. Harris looks spot on as John McCain and his arc will be perhaps the most fascinating, watching him change from the man we knew from his The Daily Show visits to the presidential candidate who seemingly lost a lot of his core beliefs along the way. Moore is going to win any and all acting awards. I don't even need to see anymore, the trailer is enough. She captures everything we know about Sarah Palin, her look and her speech, as well as diving deeper into the actual person behind the cameras and tailor made suits. Oh, and having Woody Harrelson in anything doesn't hurt. Take a look and mark your calendars.

Game Change airs Saturday, March 10 on HBO. It stars Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson.

Hollywood has unleashed dueling asteroid movies and dueling volcano movies on an unsuspecting public. But never have we faced a situation as terrifying as side-by-side Sarah Palin films.

As HBO prepares its adaptation of the political best-seller Game Change, with Julianne Moore playing the former Alaska governor, Deadline is reporting that Palin is racing into theaters with her own biopic that’s also expected to kick-start her 2012 presidential campaign. Titled Undefeated, the Palin-authorized film is being directed by conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon (In the Face of Evil) and will be released in key primary states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina in June. Interestingly, Deadline says that there will be an unrated edition with “some obscene anti-Palin language and imagery,” as well as an audience-friendly cut that will angle for a PG-13 rating.

Sadly, Tina Fey doesn't appear to be involved. Still, no matter which party produces a film, political pictures aimed at a specific audience tend to just preach to the choir. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see the disturbing imagery Palin and her team are hoping to include in a feature that they hope explains why she left her office in Alaska with time left in her first term. If the unrated cut includes, as rumored, clips of celebrities such as Matt Damon, Rosie O’Donnell, David Letterman and David Stern ripping Palin, then Undefeated will make an interesting companion piece to Game Change, and a coveted double feature for Republican film fans.

For everyone who got caught up in the madness of the 2008 Presidential election and the amazing satire that went alongside it, the name of former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin is in some ways synonymous with the woman who played her so memorably on SNL, Tina Fey. Fey's pitch-perfect imitation of Palin-- kept up even when the two met face to face on the camera-- was credited by some with helping bring down the McCain-Palin campaign, and most retellings of that election will include at least some mention of Fey's influence.

That includes the book Game Change, based on interviews with people inside all of the various campaign camps, giving a remarkably unfiltered view at what went on behind the scenes as Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Mitt Romney tried to become President. The book is now being adapted into an HBO original movie, and-- apologies to anyone who thought it might happen-- Fey has not been cast as Palin. According to THR the job has instead gone to Julianne Moore, who looks not a bit like Palin but is an acting genius and capable of just about anything, particularly when give Palin's signature big hairdo and glasses.

Moore is the first cast member on board, and there's no word on when production might start, but having a film out in time for the 2012 Presidential campaign-- in which Palin will inevitably play a part-- seems like an obvious move. Fantasy casting for the rest of the major parts is encouraged in the comments.

Anyone who watched Inside The NBA last night knew this was coming. After a roundtable discussion turned into a debate over Sarah Palin and Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan called the former Vice Presidential candidate “good masturbation material” because of “the glasses and all that”. Even though the comment elicited plenty of laughter from Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, you could tell by the look on Ernie Johnson’s face that we were headed for some serious next day backpedaling.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sorry came by way of TNT, not Tracy Morgan. The network released a statement saying, “It’s unfortunate Mr. Morgan showed a lack of judgment on our air with his inappropriate comments.” At least for their sake, he didn’t loudly announce plans on “getting that pregnant”.

Here’s a look at the video. I actually thought it was funny, but I’m not the type to get hot and bothered over nonsense like this…

From October 26th to November 1st, the news week wasn’t quite as big or fascinating as it could have been, when it came to gaming. But it doesn’t mean there wasn’t enough news in the industry to give gamers something to talk about. I mean, Barack Obama and Sarah Palin making debuts in video games (almost officially) is pretty big news, as well as MTV getting in good on the music-game genre. Keep reading to find out what the other highlights of the week's news headlines were.

Sunday

Rich Knight kicked things off with a review of Guitar Hero: World Tour. This game has been in the news almost as much as Paris Hilton...except without the sex scandals, “oops” moments, or jail time. Check out what got this game a five-star rating, and why Rich thinks this game is better than Rock Band 2.

Blend Games’ Editor, Pete Haas, takes a crack at Far Cry 2. His review is fair, yet stern. Find out why this game-that-could-have-been doesn’t quite add up to being as big as some hardcore gamers may have thought. But all isn’t lost in the camp of Ubisoft, Pete Haas gives some high-praise for some of the game’s innovative features.

Monday

Rating theft alert! Fatality changed for the sake of ESRB? Who would have thunk it? Well, everyone. The Midway team announced early on that Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was going for a teen rating. So guess who’s finisher had to get axed to compensate for the kiddie-boppers? Click the link to find out.

LittleBigPlanet is getting a LittleBigSequel. Seriously, the name needs to stay just like that: LittleBigSequel. I don’t even have to say how big, and how cool the sequel will be. Maybe...maybe it will actually be in a 3D environment?! Oh, a gamer can wish...a gamer can wish.

More sequel news on the way, this time it’s Saints Row 3 that gets the spotlight. I told you we didn’t have a whole lot of news happening throughout the week, but what news we had was good news. And Saints Row 3 is definitely good news. The game is apparently going in a new direction, one that is so top secret, so mind-boggling, so capricious, that the developers just couldn’t say a word about it. Or did they? Click the link to find out more.

Tuesday

Jimi Hendrix and The Raconteurs are joining Guitar Hero: World Tour. The two superstar rockers will have tracks available via DLC. The point prices vary for the consoles, but all in all you’re getting some good stuff. Check out the link to get the full low-down on the content details.

USA Today (of all places) has beta keys for Resistance 2. The new and media publication already offered up the last of their LBP beta keys, and being that they must be in need of gamer recognition, they are offering up some Resistance 2 beta keys. Hmph, and they accuse Blend Games of being hard-up for hits. Yeah right.

LionHead announcement for a new project in 2009. This ought to be very, very, very interesting. That’s all I’m going to say. Really. Click the link to find out why.

Wednesday

New Elder Scrolls game is due out in 2010. I’m definitely not complaining, considering that the team is coming off of the destined success of Fallout 3. It should be a fascinating turn of events to see how this Elder Scrolls game comes out. I just keep thinking about miles, and miles, and miles of 3D terrain that gamers will have to traverse. Alternatively, there’s always the comfort of teleportation.

Thursday

Brutal Legend, the game inspired by rockster/actor, Jack Black, is still without a publishing parent. Yes, mergers can be a good thing and they can also be a bad thing. In the case of Brutal legend, the merger happened to be a bad thing. Check out the article to find out why.

A Beatles Game is in the works. Seriously, why? Well, I already know the answer to that: MTV wants to be EA. Well, keep dreaming MTV, you have a long way to go in the art of corporate deception, consumer manipulation and product misrepresentation. Oh wait..never mind I forgot for a minute that it was MTV we were talking about. Check out what their latest scheme is to conquer the gaming world.

Want to know the real reason behind Obama’s in-game advertising on Xbox Live? Well, this is the sort of story that requires clickage. So my suggestion to you is to get-to-clicking.

There’s equally tantalizing news on the front of Electronic Arts. If you get banned in their forum, for trolling, then you get banned from playing their games online. Both forum and game accounts are attached. Check out the full story to get the full low-down.

Blend Games’ correspondent, Kurt Bieg, continues his weekly venture into game design. An interesting topic is discussed regarding building a game that people will want to play. Check out the full editorial to get the entire scoop.

Friday

More Obama in the gaming news. He and Sarah Palin are both playable in Mercenaries 2. I was totally loving the McKain, Obama tag-team battling on Saints Row 2 (battling evil Independents?). Well now you can tag-team Obama and Palin as they single-handedly take down evil in Venezuela: using tax-breaks to cut down the resources of over-spenders, and banning foreign drugs to kill off the bad guys’ parents – leaving them in emotional shambles. That’s how you take out the garbage.

Nintendo’s Apple i-killer, the DSi, is scheduled to release no time soon outside of Japan. You know you’ll have to click the link to really find out when Nintendo’s third-generation DS is going to be coming to a country near you.

And if you really wanted to get into some mischief and mayhem in GTA IV, on PC, you’ll have to wait a little longer. It appears the game has been delayed. “Why of why?” You ask. Well, the answer is in the link. Do click the link to be enlightened.

Saturday

Xbox 360 copies the Wii with a new Mii and it can mimic the PS3 with direct-to-drive installations. So what’s the problem? I guess if plagiarism was hardware the New Xbox Experience (or NXE) would be a shining example of it. Get all the details on this new update by clicking on the link.

We round off the week’s news with a Review of Legend of Spyro for the Wii. Be sure to check out what Andy Keener has to say about the game, and if the final game in this series is worth your interest.

For more news and information be sure to stay tuned in with Blend Games, or drop by the Blend Games Forum for discussions on the hottest gaming topics.

Those of you who enjoyed the Saints Row 2 trailer with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama strolling the virtual streets of Stilwater and popping criminals will really like this: Obama and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will become playable characters in Mercenaries 2 in an upcoming DLC pack.

Why Palin and not McCain? Probably because it's a lot funnier to hijack a tank as a soccer mom in stylish eyeglasses than as a POW. There's the residual comedy from all the SNL skits, too. Both Palin and Obama have been criticized by opponents for their lack of national security experience so featuring them in a video game where they single-handedly battle an entire army can only help, right?

The price of this DLC hasn't been revealed yet, nor the release date. They probably want to get this live soon-ish though seeing as Election Day's on Tuesday. Oh, and here's a video of the two candidates in action.

Tina Fey has been doing such a good job as Sarah Palin on SNL that she may actually be single-handedly winning the election for Barack Obama. But, there’s no better way to win people over than making fun of yourself, and the real Sarah Palin is set to do just that this weekend on this week’s edition of SNL.

Yahoo News reports that though Josh Brolin will be the host, Mrs. Palin will definitely be featured also. “A John McCain campaign spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, on Friday confirmed Palin's appearance but offered no details about what the Alaska governor will say or do.”

I’m not going to lie. I like her. She is me on steroids – I can shoot a gun and have killed a few small mammals in my time, and I’m a mom too. I’m not sure that she or I would be suited to this office, but I’m rooting for her anyway. And I always love the non-actors who appear on SNL. Their awkward presence makes the show even more hilarious than usual. Go Sarah!