We all say regrettable things when we’re drunk, but unless we’re Mel Gibson most of the time it doesn’t ruin our reputations. That is, of course unless a film crew and Borat happen to be in town. The folks over at yahoonews.com give us this:
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Two fraternity boys want to make lawsuit against “Borat” over their drunken appearance in the hit movie. The legal action filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” in which they made racist and sexist comments on camera. The young men “engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in,” the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs were not named in the lawsuit “to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment.” They were identified in the movie as fraternity members from a South Carolina university.
The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and “loosen up” before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the United States.“They were induced to agree to participate and were told the name of the fraternity and the name of their school wouldn’t be used,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney, Olivier Taillieu. “They were put into an RV and were made to believe they were picking up Borat the hitchhiker.” After a bout of heavy drinking, the plaintiffs signed a release form they were told “had something to do with reliability issues with being in the RV,” Taillieu said.Studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant said the lawsuit “has no merit.”
The plaintiffs were seeking an injunction to stop the studio from displaying their image and likeness, along with unspecified monetary damages
This lawsuit makes me think. This isn’t the first time that it has been said that people didn’t know the exact nature of the Borat film when they agreed to be on camera. And if these boys were given alcohol before a release form to sign…well….that is a bit sneaky of the Borat film crew. I bet these guys have had a lot of grief over this being in the movie. I have no doubt that their reputations have been tarnished.
And I say good.
I do not believe that they “engaged in behavior that they would have otherwise not have”. Maybe not in front of cameras, but that is the point of making a film with reality involved, the goal is to capture people doing things that normally they wouldn’t do on camera. And if they make racist and sexist comments drunk when a camera is rolling they probably do it when the cameras aren’t on as well.
What’s really gotten these boys mad is that they are probably not getting laid as much, their parents are no doubt catching grief from the neighbors for raising racists and are therefore pissed off at the naughty frat boys. And maybe some professors who they were able to manipulate have now wised up.
But they signed an agreement, maybe they did sign it drunk, maybe the crew twisted the truth. Or perhaps they were told everything up front and then after they saw the final result decided to say that they were tricked to save face. All I know is that if they were so concerned with their image they shouldn’t have been talking derogatively about women and minorities, if they were told that this was a documentary for another country then they wouldn’t have been just tarnishing their reputations, they would have been tarnishing America as well.
