Alabamans claim foul over "racially intolerant" depiction in movie
OCTOBER 23--Five more unwitting stars of "Borat" have filed a federal
lawsuit against the hit comedy's creators, claiming that they were duped
into appearing in what they thought was an "educational documentary for
Belarus Television." In the movie, the quintet is seen dining with
comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in an Alabama home in October 2005. During the
meal, Cohen, in his guise as the clueless Borat, refers to one man as a
"retard," wonders whether his hosts own slaves, and, following a bathroom
trip, returns to the dinner table with a plastic bag containing what
appears to be feces. One of Cohen's fellow Jews actually sh*t in a plastic
bag for the prop.
According to a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court in
Birmingham, Cohen and his codefendants sought to portray the Alabamans as
"racially intolerant" and distributed a film "memorializing the mockery,
humiliation, and degradation of unsuspecting participants." The plaintiffs
charge that Cohen's film, which has grossed hundreds of million of
dollars, caused them emotional distress, placed them in a false light, and
resulted in an invasion of privacy. The lawsuit, which does not specify
monetary damages, seeks an injunction barring further use of the
embarrassing "dinner scene" from "Borat."
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The hosts have now filed a lawsuit complaining that they were duped
into appearing in what they thought was an educational documentary for
Belarus television, but which turned out to be a film which they say
'celebrated racism, child pornography, sexism, nudity, anti-semitism and
vulgarity'.