WANTING MOORE
Who is Roy Moore, why is he suing Sacha baron Cohen for defamation on Who Is America? and who is the Alabama politician’s wife?
US Republican was pranked with a 'paedo-detecting' wand on Sacha Baron Cohen's show Who is America?
ROY Moore is a Republican politician who failed to be elected as a US senator after allegations of sexual misconduct marred his campaign.
Now he is suing Sacha Baron Cohen for £74million over a TV show prank. Here's what you need to know.
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Who is Roy Moore?
Roy Moore, 71, served in the Military Police during the Vietnam War before training as a lawyer.
He became known as a right-wing conservative judge who twice served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama.
According to The New York Times, Moore "is a staunch evangelical Christian, and his often-inflammatory political beliefs are informed by his strongly held religious views."
He has suggested God allowed 9/11 to happen because America tolerates gay sex and abortion, and has repeated the "birther" conspiracy theory that claims Barack Obama was born outside the US.
In 2017 he was selected as the Republican candidate in a special election to fill the US Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions.
His campaign was dogged by allegations of sexual impropriety as a total of nine women came forward to accuse him.
Three woman claimed he sexually assaulted them when they were aged 14, 16 and 28.
Another six women said he pursued them romantically when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.
Moore said he may have dated teenagers at that time, but denied that any of the girls were under 16 or that he had sexually assaulted anyone.
Although senior Republicans distanced themselves from Moore, a week before polling day he was endorsed by President Trump.
The seat was narrowly won by Doug Jones, the first Democrat to win in Alabama since 1992.
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What happened on Who Is America?
Moore fell victim to a prank on Sacha Baron Cohen’s TV sketch show Who Is America?
The Brit comic, disguised as a spoof ex-Mossad agent, showed Moore some of what he claimed were the Israeli military's latest "gadgets".
One was a “wand” that could accurately tell if someone was a paedophile.
He told Moore: “The phrase ‘sweating like a rapist’ is actually based on science.”
The gadget beeped as Baron Cohen glided the detector over an uncomfortable-looking Moore.
Moore angrily said he had been married for 33 years and had “never had an accusation of such things”.
He said: “Certainly, I’m not a paedophile. Maybe Israeli technology hasn’t developed properly.”
Moore then stormed out of the interview, which was broadcast in the US and in Britain.
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Why is Roy Moore suing Sacha Baron Cohen?
Moore filed a lawsuit claiming the comic mocked him with a "false and fraudulent portrayal" that harmed his reputation and caused "severe emotional distress" to his family.
He said he never would have agreed to the interview in Washington DC had he known that the "Mossad colonel" was really the Ali G and Borat creator in disguise.
His lawyers accuse the TV star of falsely branding the politician a sex offender.
A complaint filed in Washington says: "During the segment, Defendant Cohen's 'device' - as part of the false and fraudulent routine - purports to detect Judge Moore as a sex offender, thus defaming him."
It adds Moore, his wife and their whole family suffered "severe emotional distress and pain... especially given his status as a prominent conservative and God fearing person of faith".
He is seeking a total of $95million from Baron Cohen and from the Showtime and CBS networks.
In May, Moore also filed a defamation suit against women who had accused him in Alabama, claiming they were part of a "political conspiracy" to undermine his campaign.
Who is Roy Moore's wife?
He has been married to Kayla Kisor, now 57, since 1985.
They have four grown up children.
In his autobiography in 2005, Moore said he first met Kayla when she was in her mid-teenage years, in a dance recital.
He wrote: "I knew Kayla was going to be a special person in my life.”
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The pair met again years later at a Christmas party when she was a newly divorced mother.
When they married he was 38 and she was 24.
Today Kayla is the president of the Foundation for Moral Law, a Christian legal advocacy group founded by her husband.
They have faced controversy over the amount each has been paid in salaries by the non-profit group and alleged tax and accounting discrepancies.
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