‘Daily Show’ host in Middle East to film fact-based drama.
By NOA AMOUYALJon Stewart Morsi screenshot 370(photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
Two satirical comedic forces are scheduled to collide Friday night when Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef hosts Jon Stewart on his popular program, Al Bernameg (“The Program”).Stewart, who arrived in Cairo on Wednesday according to the DPA news agency, is on hiatus from his program The Daily Show in order to direct his first film.Stewart, who became good friends with Youssef after he appeared on his show twice, recently came to his defense in April when the Egyptian government issued an arrest warrant against him for insulting Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Islam.“I know Bassem. Bassem is my friend, my brother. There are two things he loves in this world with all his heart: Egypt and Islam,” Stewart said in a sincere plea on his program after news of the arrest warrant broke.Youssef, who was named one of Time magazine’s Most Influential People this year, has earned a significant cult following in Egypt and his program is frequently hailed as the “Egyptian Daily Show.”Stewart is in the region to film the fact-based drama, Rosewater, a memoir based on Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari’s 118-day imprisonment for allegedly collaborating with an American spy against the Iranian government in 2009. However, the spy in question was not a spy at all and is actually one of the satirical “correspondents” on Stewart’s show.The two have decided to collaborate and tell the story of Bahari’s unjust imprisonment.The movie is set be released sometime next year.
