SACHA BARON COHEN - AUSTRALIAN TOURISM BOSSES EYE ALI G

Tourism chiefs in Australia want to recruit SACHA BARON COHEN's comic creation ALI G in their latest advertising campaign - and hope the tracksuited character will convince Britons to move Down Under. South Australia agent Bill Muirhead this week (ends15Feb08) launched a campaign to urge Brits to consider emigrating to state capital Adelaide; citing commuter town Staines - Ali G's hometown - as a reason to escape the United Kingdom. And Muirhead hopes Baron Cohen's character and his links to the area - which is just outside London - will help promote the project. In a letter to the star's representatives, Muirhead writes, "I understand you represent Sacha Baron Cohen and we would be very keen to talk to you about his character Ali G." However the plans to recruit Baron Cohen could be doomed to fail - after the actor announced in December (07) the Ali G character was retiring indefinitely.