On the same day that Sacha Baron Cohen, in character as General Aladeen, led an elaborate, absurd, and hilarious press conference at the Waldorf Astoria for his new film, The Dictator, a slightly more serious press conference was conducted with the films supporting actors, Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List) and Jason Mantzoukas (Baby Mama, The League). The Dictator, which is now playing everywhere, stars Sacha Baron Cohen as Supreme Leader, Chief Ophthalmologist, and excellent swimmer, General Aladeen, a misogynistic, anti-Semitic dictator of a fictional country in northern Africa called The People’s Republic of Wadiya. Sir Ben Kingsley plays Aladeen’s scheming uncle and Jason Mantzoukas plays Aladeen’s Chief Nuclear Scientist.

Along with other members of the press, I had a chance to sit down with Sir Ben Kingsley and Jason Mantzoukas to discuss The Dictator. The actors discussed the energy of New York City, what it was like working with Sacha Baron Cohen, trying not to break character, the phrase ‘just kidding,’ improvisation, Arab Spring, accents, and beards.

Now that Tony Stark has saved Manhattan and made probably the biggest superhero endorsement in shawarma's history as part of The Avengers, he's going back to the solo adventures that so suit his outsized personality.  Iron Man 3 is starting principal photography any minute now, so Marvel Studios and Disney are locking down the supporting cast, including the latest addition, James Badge Dale.

Supreme leader, Chief Opthamologist, and excellent swimmer, General Aladeen of the People’s Republic of Wadiya, addressed hundreds of journalists from all over the world recently in New York City. General Aladeen is the latest alter ego of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Brüno), a comedian known for promoting his films with in-character stunt appearances. In his latest film, The Dictator, which opens Wednesday, May 16th, Cohen plays a misogynistic, anti-Semitic dictator of a fictional country in Northern Africa, called Wadiya.

This Wednesday, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest comedy The Dictator arrives at theaters across the nation, but today, a new extended clip reveals just about four minutes of the movie.  Considering that the film clocks in at a brisk 83 minutes, those four minutes represent a pretty good little patch of The Dictator.

The clip has Baron Cohen as the de-bearded Admiral General Aladeen and the always-welcome Jason Mantzoukas as sidekick Nadal.  Many a trailer and teevee spot has featured the two of them horrifying a couple of tourists on a helicopter flight over Manhattan, but this clip provides the full sequence of Aladeen and Nadal's helicopter adventure.

Synopsis: The heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

Okay, The Avengers is out now and broke the all-time opening weekend record, earning over $200 million in its domestic debut.  So now let's look to Iron Man 3, Marvel and Disney's first post-The Avengers release, which will find Tony Stark once again sliding on his supersuit and pew-pew-pewing with aplomb.  The film is currently casting up, and despite earlier reports to the contrary, Jessica Chastain won't be playing a role in the sequel.

Paramount Pictures has let loose just under two minutes of new footage from The Dictator.  The clip is actually the opening of the movie, quickly introducing the entirely-fictitious Republic of Wadiya and its in-no-way benevolent leader, His Excellency Admiral General Aladeen.  After mixing in some real footage of world leaders and situating Wadiya geographically, The Dictator's opening minutes provide a brief biographical view of Aladeen's life, from his already-bearded birth to his 14 Gold Medal triumph at the Wadiyan Games.

In the impending The Avengers, the sole lady on that superteam should get ample opportunity to kick all manner of alien ass, but it might be a while before we get to see Natasha Romanoff throwing down in her leather Black Widow gear.  Last month, we had a headline reading, "Will the Black Widow Return in Iron Man 3?"  At the time, it seemed likely, but according to Scarlett Johansson, the answer is an unequivocal nope.

It would appear that both Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff will soon have some competition in the department of beautiful women who can put up with Tony Stark's egocentric nonsense.  Iron Man 3 is rapidly assembling an eclectic cast before production begins next month in North Carolina, and luminous redhead Jessica Chastain is reportedly in talks to play the sequel's new female lead.

As Disney and Marvel Studios prepare to unleash The Avengers on the world shortly, we're hearing a lot more about Iron Man 3, the first post-Avengers Marvel-Disney joint.  Earlier this week, we learned that the film will be co-financed by Chinese company DMG, and will be partially filmed in China, where it'll also see a wide release.  Before that, word was that Ben Kinglsey was in negotiations to play a mysterious role.  Now, there's more casting news, as the always-outstanding Guy Pearce is hopping aboard Iron Man 3.