Weekend box-office: Borat tops again but 'oy, vy' what has he wrought?

By Scott Rosenberg Nov 13, 2006, 0:33 GMT

Borat was number one at the box-office again this weekend with take of $29 million from 2,566 locations bringing its two week total to $67.8 million. 

But “oy, vy,” what has Borat wrought?

First, the buxom Pamela Anderson spilled the beans that the seemingly impromptu encounter between Sacha Baron Cohen as the Kazakh television journalist Borat and herself was in fact loosely scripted.

Next is the impending threat to sue Borat & production company for misrepresentation to WAPT TV in Jackson Mississippi.

Dharma Arthur a producer at the station was contacted by a publicist for a reporter from Kazakhstan who claimed to be working for Bulgarian television and traveling across the US to get a look at life in America.

Based on the premise the journalist was producing a documentary, studio execs signed the image release forms.

When “Borat” appeared for an interview on set for the 6 am show, Arthur claims the Borat character went “nuts,” opening the segment by saying (on live TV) he had to go “urine” and offering to share his sister with the anchorman, Brad McMullan. Station tried to cut to commercial break but could not due to technical problems. Finally during a commercial break, Borat was “escorted” to the door.

He walked back in and walked back on set while weatherman Ken Johnson was doing his morning broadcast, hugging Johnson as he walked through.

Arthur personally kicked him out and is now threatening to sue unless there is an apology.
 
"This guy is causing harm and that is not funny," Arthur said.

Then two fraternity brothers who claimed they were encouraged to guzzle alcohol and make racist comments filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court November 9, claiming they (named as plaintiffs John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 - both from South Carolina), agreed to appear in the film – a documentary they were told - after producers promised it would never be shown in the United States.

"Believing the film would not be viewed in the United States and at the encouragement (of the filmmakers), plaintiffs engaged in behavior they otherwise would not have engaged in," the suit says.

And most recently townspeople in the Romanian town of Glod, a poor remote mountain outpost which still uses horses and mules and has no sewage or running water, claim they were “tricked” and exploited by the comedian and his production crew.

Sacha Baron Cohen used the small village to represent the impoverished Kazakh home of his character Borat. Villagers claim they were led to believe Cohen was making a documentary about their hardship rather than a comedy mocking them.

Nicu Tudorache, a deeply religious man who lost an arm in an accident feels most humiliated by the comedy production.  In one scene a rubber sex toy in the shape of a fist was attached to the stump of his missing arm – he maintains he had no idea what it was.

“This is disgusting. They conned us into doing all these things and never told us anything about what was going on. They made us look like primitives, like uncivilized savages. Now they’re making millions but have only paid us 15 lei (around $7),” said Mr. Tudorache.

Mr. Tudorache invited reporters investigating the story from the UK based ‘The Mail’ into his home where he said, visibly disturbed, 'Someone from the council said these Americans need a man with no arm for some scenes. I said yes but I never imagined the whole country, or even the whole world, will see me in the cinemas ridiculed in this way. This is disgusting.”

“Our region is very poor, and everyone is trying hard to get out of this misery. It is outrageous to exploit people's misfortune like this to laugh at them.

We are now coming together and will try to hire a lawyer and take legal action for being cheated and exploited. We are simple folk and don't know anything about these things, but I have faith in God and justice,” Mr. Tudorache said.

In the meantime, no one from Fox has commented on the lawsuit or any of the  allegations against Borat.

In other box-office news, wide releases this past week did not fair so well.

The only wide release coming in the top five was Sony’s fantasy comedy starring Dustin Hoffman, Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Queen Latifah - ‘Stranger than Fiction’, coming in fourth with $14.1 million from 2,264 theaters.

Sarah Michelle Geller in supernatural thriller ‘The Return’ also opened this week coming in at weekend box-office in eighth place with $4.7 million from 1,986 theaters.

'A Good Year,” director Ridley Scott’s rejoining with Russell Crowe preemed in tenth place taking in $3.77 million from 2,066 theaters.

Filling in the rest of this weekend’s top five, in second place, which kicked off the holiday season last week, ‘The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause,’ this week taking in $16.9 million from 3,458 locations for a total cume to date of $41.1 million.

Dreamworks animated ‘Flushed Away’ starring the voices of Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet is in third place, talking in $16.7 million from 3,707 locations bringing its two week box-office total to $39.9 million.

And in fifth place, is the third chapter in Lionsgate’s Saw franchise, ‘Saw III’ taking in $6.6 million from 3,013 locations bringing its three week take to $69.9 million.