Fraternity pranksters have stopped laughing
By AMY KAUFMAN Special to the Daily Press
SM COURTHOUSE — Two fraternity brothers from the University of South Carolina have lost ‘respek’ for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday at the Santa Monica Courthouse against 20th Century Fox, the men claim they were tricked into appearing in the hit film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
The men allege in their suit that when they agreed to participate in the film they were unaware it would be distributed in the United States, and thereby participated in behavior uncharacteristic of their personalities.
The film — a “mockumentary” in which Cohen, 35, portrays the character Borat, a TV journalist from Kazakhstan made popular on his hit HBO television series “Da Ali G Show”— depicts Borat traveling the country to more fully comprehend American culture. Throughout his journeys, Borat frequently encounters real-life American citizens who unwittingly become the punch line to Cohen’s joke.
All the while, Borat targets his victims with blunt, often offensive questions, blaming any outlandishness on a cultural misunderstanding as the interviewees offer up candid commentary.
Representatives at 20th Century Fox denied any trickery on Friday, with studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant saying only that “the lawsuit has no merit.”
During the scene in question, the plaintiffs (both identified in the suit as “John Doe” to protect them from further embarrassment) pick Borat up on the side of the road in a motor home and proceed to binge drink with the false journalist. As they progressively become more intoxicated, the men make inflammatory misogynistic and racial remarks and view the infamous Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sex tape.
It appears the men are not aware their conversation will be made entirely public, as they reference their desires to resurrect slavery in the South and engage in one-night stands.
The men’s attorney, Olivier Taillieu, said Friday that the frat members were “bamboozled” into drinking, with one of his clients being 19 at the time and not even of a legal drinking age. Legal documents state that they were taken to a bar to lose their inhibitions before they began filming and that it was only after intense drinking that they signed a consent agreement to appear on screen.
Taillieu expressed there was more to the story than the movie shows,including the fact that the RV was provided for the men and stocked with copious amounts of free alcohol that the guys were told to drink and be as “outrageous” as possible after consuming.
“They said ‘What are you worried about?’” according to Taillieu. “The producers told them it’d be an easy way to make a little cash.”
Though the scene appears to take place in the men’s own RV in Texas, in actuality, filming took place close to the University of South Carolina. Furthermore, the attorney said, the production company targeted them by calling their house in advance and selecting only those unfamiliar with Cohen’s visage.
The attorney hopes to prevent the men’s image or likeness from appearing on the big screen any longer, though Taillieu says realistically, it is more likely the pair would be removed from the DVD release of the film rather than the version currently out in theaters.
At the University of South Carolina, where the students were members of the Chi Psi fraternity, the movie has only recently been released. Russ McKinney, a spokesper-son for the University, said he had “not come across any real reaction” on campus yet.
JOKE WAS ON THEM Court documents state that the film “made plaintiffs the objects of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community.”
According to Taillieu, one of the men suing is currently out of school and was “working for a multi-national corporation, though that’s not going to be continuing for much longer,” hinting that the man risked losing his job due to his actions in the film. The other plaintiff is still a student at the University of South Carolina, where he’s been “forced to resign from a pretty prestigious internship and may potentially have to transfer,” the attorney said.
The two men are not the only real-life individuals affected by the hit comedy flick, which grossed $26.5 million last weekend — a record for a film opening in fewer than 1,000 theaters. Jim Sell, a new car salesman at Criswell Automotive in Gaithersburg, Maryland, said he was also told the movie would only be shown in another country. Unaware of Cohen’s television presence, Sell said he was tricked into believing that Borat was a wealthy man from another land who wanted to negotiate purchasing a car for the purpose of filming his experience driving cross-country. As the employee attempts to sell Borat the car in the film, the comedian asks if he can buy a vehicle with a veritable “p--- y magnet” installed inside it. The character proceeds to offer Sell $1,600 for a brand new Hummer. When Sell declines, he said that Borat promised him off camera “dry meats and his sister for two weeks.”
“The first question he asked me was ‘what kind of car do the black-skinned people drive?’” recalled Sell, noting that because he responded modestly to the questions, his portrayal in the film remained relatively tame. The salesman acknowledged on Friday that he did sign a release “in the very last minute before they started filming,”which he was told was merely verifying his payment of $150.
‘HUNG THEMSELVES’
Sell believes the fraternity members “basically hung themselves,” though he can identify with the embarrassment they feel from the experience. Grace Welch, who was shown in the film with a panel from the Veteran Feminists of America speaking in Tribeca, New York, said she wondered about the honesty of the drinking scene, questioning if the alcohol the men consumed was “that iced tea like they have on TV.”
Welch and her organization were also told that Borat was a journalist from “one of those Stalin-type of countries,” interested in sharing feminist values with his native country. When the film company contacted Welch, she said she was immediately asked if she had watched HBO before.
“The first thing I noticed was his cheap powder blue suit with a puckered seam,” Welch laughed.
As soon as the ladies began lecturing Borat on the power of women to achieve high status within government, Welch said she began to notice his propensity towards making outrageous comments, as he referred to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as “that chocolate lady.” He also doted upon one particular feminist panel member, calling her “pussy cat.”
Though Welch sees the humor in the situation now, she said that at the time of the filming, she was “in a complete state of bewilderment.” She admits to signing a release form as well, which she noted was suspiciously faded. Adding to the mystery of the scene were the professional-looking cameramen, who kept “complete stone faces” the entire time, Welch added.
Meanwhile, Cohen himself would appear to be on a roll. His next project, which was recently purchased by Universal for a cool $42.5 million, will depict the jokester as a gay Austrian man in “Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 11, 2006. Read the original PDF.