Source: Reuters
A Los Angeles judge on Thursday said he would consider a request by two U.S. college students to have a scene cut from the hit movie Borat that shows them guzzling alcohol and making racist remarks.
In a lawsuit originally thrown out a month ago and now aimed at DVD sales, the fraternity brothers said they were tricked into appearing in the film and that including the scene on the forthcoming DVD would harm their chances of finding work.
One of the South Carolina students has already had to resign from a prominent position in his fraternity and another lost a “very prestigious internship,” their lawyer said.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan stars British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a television journalist from Central Asia whose boorish sensibilities clash with ordinary Americans he meets on a road trip.
The two men, whose names are not used in court papers to protect them from “additional and unnecessary embarrassment,” appear in a drunken interview in which they watch a sex tape and make racist remarks about slavery and minorities in the United States.
They said they were taken to a bar to “loosen up” before filming and never expected the movie to be shown in the United States. The pair are seeking unspecified damages and footage involving them removed from the DVD.
West Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Biderman did not say when he would issue a ruling.
The film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., has described the lawsuit as “without merit.”
Oliver Tailleiu, lawyer for the fraternity brothers, said the judge was “very engaged. Hopefully he sees it our way.”
Borat, which has grossed more than $110 million at the North American box office, has sparked a number of complaints and lawsuits including one from residents of a Romanian village who said they were depicted as rapists and thieves.
