Cohen - right

Few movies have stirred as much controversy as the new Sacha Baron Cohen film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. There are lawsuits. The Russians have banned the film (see below). But nearly everyone who has seen it agrees it is funny.

Borat grossed over $26 million even though it was released to a limited number of theaters. The plot involves a racist post-Soviet reporter who travels across America. Cohen interviews various people who are unaware that the Russian is not really who he says he is. He isn’t even Russian, he is British.

There are two college students suing the filmmaker after they were given alcohol and encouraged to be outrageous. According to a report from ABC News, one of the student’s attorneys, Olivier Taillieu, said "Our contention is that they were set up and made to say things they don't believe. They want to be cut from the movie and they want financial compensation."

There were three students in the skit. According to the Blogger News Network, Borat’s team told them (A) the movie wouldn’t be shown in the U.S. and (B) to drink as much as possible. They appear pretty dumb and pretty inebriated, at one point lamenting the end of slavery.

The London Times reports that the petitioners are identified as John Doe I and John Doe II. They 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 in a camper van. The lawsuit also claims one of the students was under drinking age and they were all "well under the influence of alcohol before they signed the (consent) Agreement".

There is some confusion as to why the film will not be shown in Russia. The Romanian website, Playfuls, reports that studio and government officials alternately take responsibility for the decision not to release the film and blame one another.

The film was scheduled for release in Russia, but was pulled from the theaters. Playfuls says that the distributor subsequently decided not to apply for a license to screen the film in theatres, opting instead to release it on DVD. But according to Vadim Ivanov, Fox's director of theatrical sales, the government had refused the company release rights and that he hoped it would relent, adding "this story is not over."

Yury Vasyuchkov, a representative of the Russian news agency, Interfax says the Russians "cannot prevent a film from being released; that could lead to lawsuits. 20th Century Fox CIS never officially applied for release rights, and we didn't refuse anything.” They say that Russia has not officially banned a non-pornographic film from theatrical release since the Soviet collapse in 1991.

Thousands of protestors attended a protest of the film Saturday and Moscow police reported 37 arrests. Russia has a large Jewish population which has voiced concerns over the films content.

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By Nancy Connors
Best Syndication Entertainment Writer

Misspellings and Keywords: Barat Borrat Sasha Sascha Kohan Ali G Gee Kashicstan Kasikstan Kasickstan Rusia suit suing sueing lawsute