Corinne Olympios Says She Was 'Visibly Upset' After Being Duped by Sacha Baron Cohen (Exclusive)
Corinne Olympios is the latest celebrity to be duped by Sacha Baron Cohen.
The controversial Bachelor alum appeared on Sunday's episode of Cohen's Showtime series, Who Is America?, where Cohen conned her into claiming she helped save thousands of lives in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis and even got her to tape a fake ad seeking monetary sponsorships for child soldiers.
“I obviously don’t support children with guns or anything like that," Olympios said in a statement exclusively to ET on Monday. "I’m clearly reading a teleprompter with him standing beside me. I had no prior knowledge to any of this before reading the Teleprompter and realized what I was reading once I was done reading it. I definitely don’t support any of that. I was visibly upset.”
In the episode, Cohen -- in character as billionaire fashion photographer Gio Madando -- convinces Olympios to lie about her supposed acts of goodwill during the Ebola crisis as a way to promote his faux charity for relief work in Africa. Cohen promptly asks Olympios to pose for photos in a HAZMAT suit in front of a green screen so they can Photoshop her into the action.
"No one will know," Cohen promises, as Photoshopped versions of Olympios "helping" during the Ebola crisis among the relief workers appear onscreen. (One of the Photoshopped photos even features her holding a designer handbag.)
Later, Cohen has Olympios sit down for an interview about her "charity work," asking her questions about her (non-)experience helping those in need in Africa. "Helping is really important to me, so...," Olympios says, adding at one point during their conversation, "It was just one of those things where I just did it."
Olympios first claims during the interview that she was on the ground in Sierra Leone for "one week," but Cohen stops the interview and prods her to say she was there longer -- which Olympios was clearly uncomfortable with. "But they're going to know I wasn't there," Olympios says to Cohen during this exchange. "No, no, no, I run the charity. Don't worry," Cohen assures her.
But that's not the most ridiculous moment from Olympios' portion of Who Is America?. Cohen then asks her about an "interaction" with a war lord in Sierra Leone. "There was a war lord in Sierra Leone and he wanted to do a massacre, and apparently he recognized you, and you can tell us the story?” Cohen asks Olympios, who seemed to panic at the question, prompting him to inquire again.
"He recognized me and he was a really big fan," Olympios says, answering Cohen's question with a lie. "He was really nice, actually, and he was really surprised to see me. I was surprised he knew who I was and yeah, it was really humbling. It was good, because I saved 6,000 people. I feel like because I was so kind back and I was so positive back, it really helped with the whole massacre situation."
At the end of the episode, Olympios appeared to be taping a fake ad hawking for an $18/a month program to help fund the training of child soldiers. "Join our program and adopt a child soldier," she's seen saying to camera, claiming that Jessica Simpson is a participant.
Olympios appeared on season 21 of The Bachelor with Nick Viall. She was set to be featured on season four of the franchise's spinoff series, Bachelor in Paradise, but filming was abruptly halted in summer 2017 due to allegations of sexual misconduct between Olympios and fellow contestant DeMario Jackson. After an internal investigation, it was determined that no misconduct had occurred and the season went on as planned without Olympios or Jackson participating.
Olympios is the only TV/pop culture personality so far to be targeted by Cohen on Who Is America?. In the first two episodes, the satirical mockumentary comedy series duped Dick Cheney, Bernie Sanders and Ted Koppel, while Sarah Palin is allegedly a subject in a future episode.
Who Is America? airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.
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