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Posted on 11/10/2006 4:35:50 AM PST by Wolfie
Fraternity boys sue movie studio over appearance in "Borat"
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - The joke was on two unsuspecting fraternity boys who thought they were being interviewed by a Kazakh reporter named Borat and made racist and sexist comments on camera.
But now that they've learned their encounter would appear in the No. 1 movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," they're not laughing anymore.
A lawsuit filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary and "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in."
"Borat" follows the adventures of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist character in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels across the United States and mocks Americans.
The plaintiffs were not named in the lawsuit "to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment." They were identified in the movie as fraternity members from a South Carolina university, and appeared drunk as they made insulting comments about women and minorities to Cohen's character.
The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and "loosen up" before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the United States.
"They were induced to agree to participate and were told the name of the fraternity and the name of their school wouldn't be used," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Olivier Taillieu. "They were put into an RV and were made to believe they were picking up Borat the hitchhiker."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
>>>Laura Ingraham just said on her radio show that Borat is "beyond disgusting," and parents should not allow teenagers to see it. She said she can't get some of the images out of her mind. They were so disturbing.>>>
Really? I wonder what is disgusting about it? Jackass bothered me though. I tend to over empathise when people are in pain. That's why I couldn't handle Saw.
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That was funny! I don't have an overly moralistic sense of humor like some folks, so I enjoyed it. I'm going to see the movie, but will wait till my girlfriend comes out from New York.
ALI-G: "Well, then why don't we just fly there in the winter time, when the sun is cold?"
>>>I had the last line wrong, too. It was even funnier than that . . .
ALI-G: "Well, then why don't we just fly there in the winter time, when the sun is cold?">>>
Oh dear Lord that man is funny!!
The rodeo is hilarious. The audience tolerates "drink the blood of every man, woman and child" - but goes berserk at the Kazakh national anthem.
It's a wonder this guy got out of there alive.
Laura's right about it being disgusting, but that doesn't mean it's not funny. Go see it, you'll die laughing.
What minorities, specifically? 
If someone is easily offended, they should not see this movie. However, if someone can handle that, and wants to see the most politically incorrect movie of the year, and has a funny bone, this is can't miss.
I'll never forget the look on Bob Barr's face as he ate the cheese Borat offered him.
The dinner party was classic, as was the rodeo.
What's so bizarre is that it's a comedy that makes you uneasy, yet splits your gut. It's a combination I've never seen before.
The Bob Barr scene was great. If only it could have been John Kerry.
Do you happen to remember what fraternity letters the kid was in the RV was wearing?
I didn't notice. Probably too many tears from laughing.
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The makers of the hit Borat movie by the British comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen, have been sued by two American college students who claim they were duped into taking part in the film. In papers served at a court in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, the two plaintiffs, identified as John Doe I and John Doe II, said that they "have suffered and will continue to suffer humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community" after being shown drinking with Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakhstani television reporter, in a camper van. In the scene, three young men, identified in the film as students from the Chi Psi fraternity of the University of South Carolina, get drunk with Borat, watch a sex video that purports to show Pamela Anderson, the American TV star, and make disparaging remarks about slavery, women and ethnic minorities. Borat!: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is top of the box office charts in America, Germany and the UK after being released this month. It has enjoyed the most successful movie release ever in the US for a film showing at fewer than 1,100 cinemas.
But its enormous success and publicity have made unknowing victims of Baron Cohen laughing stocks across America. Several people featured in the film, including Linda Stein, an artist and veteran feminist from New York, a car salesman called Jim Sell and Pat Haggerty, a "humour" coach from Washington, have complained that members of the production team tricked them into thinking that the crew were from Belarus, not Kazakhstan, and that they were hurried into signing confusing consent forms thick with legalese. Ms Stein has written of her experience, saying she was left "confused and sad" after the filming. "Maybe it's his way of gaining power over the childhood sting of religious animosity or the feelings of inferiority from a woman’s beating him at Scrabble," she wrote in a local New York newspaper. Organisers of a rodeo in Virginia, whose producer, Bobby Rowe, is shown in the film making homophobic and anti-Islamic remarks, have joked about teaming up with the Kazakhstani Embassy in Washington to burn an effigy of Borat. In the lawsuit filed by the college students, the plaintiffs said they were paid $200, promised that the film would not be shown in America and that they would not be clearly identified. The suit claims that the three students, one of whom was under the legal drinking age of 21, were plied with drinks and "well under the influence of alcohol before they signed the (consent) Agreement". "Believing the film would not be viewed in the United States and at the encouragement of Defendants, Plaintiffs engaged in behaviour that they otherwise would not have engaged in," the suit claims, according to copies of the documents posted on the website TMZ. One of the three students -- it is not known whether he was one of the plaintiffs -- has described the experience on the record. David Corcoran told the men's magazine, FHM: "My first thought was, 'What if my mom finds out?'" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2447662,00.html |
I watched the movie. Those idiots deserve whatever they get. They behaved like asses.
" I've heard it's offensive and anti-semitic."
His point is to show how ignorant and crazy the anti-semitism of folks like the muslims is.
I dunno. The session with the three unsuspecting feminists in New York City alone was worth the price of admission.
My daughter is a Clemson alumnus....lives near NYC now. Although I'm from the northeast, too, I love that place!
She graduated about 10 years ago, and returned, with her friends, for homecoming this year, as they usually do. She came home and said she had so much fun that she wishes she was back there in school! Yes, it's a great place!
Only insofar as some people think it's funny, while others scratch their heads and say "huh?" Comparing Sasha Cohen to the Python boys is like comparing the Three Stooges to Jerry Seinfeld.
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