The only thing trendier than quoting Borat these days is trying to sue him. The fictional character portrayed by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has caused stir after stir with the hit film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," a mock documentary about a Kazakh journalist on his journey across America.
Many of the people depicted in the film are fine with their representation, including an elderly Jewish couple who operate a B B, a Southern dining society and even a homophobic rodeo promoter.
Here's who has tried to take action so far and why.
THE KAZAKH GOVERNMENT
HE SAID: The full extent of farcical stuff Borat has said about Kazakhstan is impossible to document here. Among the most tasteless morsels are that Kazakhs drink horse urine and traditionally engage in incest.
THEY SAID: Before there were the box office numbers to back it up ($26.5 million opening weekend), the film received a huge, albeit unintentional, boost in publicity from Kazakh officials who spoke out about it. Though no lawsuit was ever filed, foreign ministry spokesman Yerzhan N.
Ashykbayev told The New York Times that Kazakhstan "reserved the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of this kind."
HE SAID: In typical Borat style, Baron Cohen posted a video rebuttal on his Web site. "In response to Mr.
Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew. Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world.
Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to 8 years old. Please, captain of industry; I invite you to come to Kazakhstan where we have incredible natural resources, hardworking labour, and some of the cleanest prostitutes in whole of Central Asia. Goodbye!
Dzienkuje!"
THEY SAID: Kazakhstan took out a four-page ad in The New York Times as well as ads on CNN and the Herald Tribune.
HE SAID: Borat cited the ads as "disgusting fabrications.
These claims are part of a propaganda campaign against our country by evil nitwits Uzbekestan."
THEY SAID: Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev invited Borat to visit the real country of Kazakhstan, "He can discover a lot of things. Women drive cars, wine is made of grapes and Jews are free to go to synagogues.
" Why the turnaround? As he explained in an interview, "We must have a sense of humor and respect other people's freedom of creativity."
USC FRAT BOYS
THEY SAID: Three frat boys from the University of South Carolina chapter of Chi Psi picked up Borat as he hitchhiked to California.
They drank, talked and watched pornography. Among the nuggets captured in the banter were the boys' desire for slavery to return and how minorities "have all the power," the belief that women should be used and thrown away, and one unfortunate young man's willingness to insert a mouse somewhere no mouse should ever go. Now two of the three boys have filed an anonymous lawsuit against 20th Century Fox saying they were duped into drinking, signing release forms and acting against their personalities because they were promised the movie would never been shown in the U.
S. They request monetary compensation and removal of the footage from the film.
HE SAID: Borat has been oddly quiet about the lawsuit, but Fox says it "has no merit.
"
ROMANIAN GYPSIES
HE SAID: In this case, it's what he did hired Romanian Gypsies to portray Kazakh Gypsies from Borat's home village.
THEY SAID: It's not all the cracks about Gypsy hunting that have the Romanian village of Glod in a tizzy. It's how little the Gypsies who live there were paid to be mocked while the film is raking in millions of dollars.
According to an Associated Press article, the leader of the 1,670 Gypsies who live in Glod, Nicolae Staicu, is exploring legal action. "Staicu accused the producers of paying locals just $3.30 to $5.
50, misleading the village into thinking the movie would be a documentary, refusing to sign proper filming contracts and enticing easily exploited peasants into performing crass acts," the story says.
HE SAID: There has been no reported reaction to the accusations.
REAL MEDIA
HE SAID: As a guest on WAPT, an ABC affiliate in Jackson, Miss.
, Borat gave an interview with Brad McMullan, during which he repeatedly stood up out of frame, said he had to go to the bathroom, and invited McMullan to come to his house and share his sister. After the interview ended, Borat interrupted a weather report by Ken Johnson to give him a kiss.
THEY SAID: After the incident, station general manager, Stuart Kellogg, told the Jackson Clarion-Ledeger "We were gotten.
" However, it seems the real fall person was Dharma Arthur, the show's then-producer. She told Newsweek, "Because of him, my boss lost faith in my abilities and second-guessed everything I did thereafter," she wrote. "I spiraled into depression, and before I could recover, I was released from my contract early.
It took me three months to find another job, and now I'm thousands of dollars in debt and struggling to keep my house out of foreclosure."
HE SAID: Nothing. But it serves the real media right for not knowing a world famous comedian from a traveling journalist.
MORE FUN WITH LAWSUITS
According to Reuters, entertainment law specialist Jay Dougherty of Loyola Law School analyzed the release form that all these unwitting participants signed. His conclusion is that their cases probably won't get far. On the other hand, nobody signed a release for Borat's act beyond the film.
Here are a few subjects of Borat's public ridicule we'd love to see try to sue.
TRANSVESTITES
For Borat, the fact that Americans consider a transvestite one of our greatest pop stars speaks to our country's sense of freedom. The transvestite in question: Madonna.
We're not sure whether the transvestites should sue because of COURSE we'd embrace a transvestite performer (see David Bowie, New York Dolls, RuPaul, etc.) or because he's comparing them with Madge.
THE BUSHES
Borat is a "very big fannies" of our sitting president, whom he calls "Premier George Walter Bush.
" He also refers to former first lady Barbara as Bush's father. Then again, how can a man who can't get the word "nuclear" right sue someone else for screwing up a name, title or gender or two?
ANTI-SEMITIC HOLLYWOOD STARS
Borat's people, he says, "very much support anti-Jew warrior Melvin Gibsons and his statement about the Jew," Borat said on the Opie and Anthony radio show.
"He say that they start all the wars? We also have proof from our government scientist that it was the Jews that were responsible for the end of the dinosaur period."
And yet, Jewish newspaper The Forward named Baron Cohen one of its Forward 50 people who are "making a difference in the way American Jews, for better or worse, view the world and themselves.
" Baron Cohen: Jewish. Mel should sue, if not for the war thing, at least on behalf of the dinosaurs.
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