Borat triggers second lawsuit

[Bling]

South Carolina man is suing Ristorante Divino, saying managers allowed a “Borat” cameraman to film him in the restaurant’s bathroom.

It’s the second lawsuit involving “Borat” that has an S.C. connection.

In the movie, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, posing as Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, makes a fake documentary. Borat asks unsuspecting Americans ridiculous questions and puts them in inappropriate situations under the guise of cultural misunderstanding.

But the restaurant’s owner says he is a victim and says Cohen lied about his intentions. He said the comedian gave waiters and customers $20 to sign waivers.

The man, identified as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, says Cohen posed as a bathroom attendant at the restaurant in October 2005 and commented about his genitals.

The segment was not included in the movie, which was released Nov. 3, but it aired on Comedy Central for a show promoting the movie. The cable comedy channel also is named in the lawsuit.

Since then, the clip has been put on various video-sharing Web sites, including YouTube and Google, which are named in the lawsuit.

The man decided to sue after a friend in another state saw the clip on Comedy Central and called him.

“People who know my client are able to identify him,” said Jonathan Milling, a Columbia attorney representing the customer.

Milling said he is not sure whether his client signed a wavier, but added that if he did, it would not “cover what happened in this case.”

The lawsuit, filed in state court, asks for compensation and seeks an injunction to ban the scene from being included on any DVD releases of the movie. The suit also asks that the clips be removed from the Web sites.

In the clip, Cohen says he has become “penniless and wretched” in his journeys in America so he got a job at a “fancy pants” restaurant.

It shows Cohen approaching a man who is using a urinal and asking whether he needs any help. Next, Cohen peeks over an adjacent stall at the man and compliments him on his anatomy. The next frames show the man hurrying from the bathroom with Cohen following him while holding what appears to be a tip plate.

“The staff and management had to have known about this,” Milling said. “You don’t have a camera crew go into a bathroom without the management of Divino’s knowing about this.”

The restaurant’s owner, Fulvio Valsecchi, said a woman representing Cohen told his wife the day before the incident that the crew was making a documentary about South Carolina tourism and they wanted some shots of people eating in the restaurant because it was the “finest in Columbia.”

He said managers did not know Cohen went into the bathroom with a camera.

“We were fooled,” said Valsecchi, who was not working the night of the incident.

Valsecchi said the manager asked Cohen to leave after a customer, who Valsecchi said was in the movie business, recognized Cohen from his appearances on “Da Ali G” show on HBO.

But Cohen argued with the manager and tried to get the manager to go into the men’s room, Valsecchi said. The manager called police, he said, but Cohen and his crew left before officers arrived.

Valsecchi said he is concerned about the lawsuit’s impact on his restaurant’s reputation.

“I have been working for nine years to keep this place up on top. I don’t want anything like this to just stumble in and ruin what I did for nine years.”

Last month, two members of the Chi Psi fraternity at USC sued Cohen and the production company, saying his crew, which had them sign waivers, got them drunk. In the film, they are shown making racist and sexist comments.

A Los Angeles judge on Friday rejected their request to halt the DVD release or to remove the scene from the DVD.


http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16218566.htm

[coach]

Well, look, it's not good satire unless you are getting sued.