Ding: Round one in lawsuit goes to Borat

By Stone Martindale Dec 13, 2006, 12:27 GMT

In “BORAT …” Sacha Baron Cohen - star of HBO’s hit comedy “Da Ali G Show,” takes his outrageous Kazakhstani reporter character Borat to the big screen. In this hilariously offensive movie, Borat travels from his primitive home in Kazakhstan to the U.S. to make a documentary. On his cross-country road-trip, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences. ...more

Sacha Baron Cohen has crossed one legal hurdle. 

The beleaguered funnyman has won in an L.A. Court against two frat boys who blamed him for manipulating them via alcohol to expose their racist tendencies.

You could almost here Cohen's inappropriate reporter Borat Sagdiyev saying "Sexy Time!"

Two college fraternity guys are shown in his movie, Borat, downing booze and uttering racist remarks. 

Yesterday they lost their bid for a court order to cut the scene they claim has "tarnished their reputations," court papers revealed on Monday.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the two sued 20th Century Fox and Borat producers last month, claiming they were duped into appearing in "Borat" by intoxicating them into a drunken stupor and falsely promising the film would never be shown in the United States.

The South Carolina college boys lost when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph Biderman ruled they had failed to show a reasonable probability of success on the merits of their case or that money damages alone would be insufficient to resolve their claims, according to the Times.

These arguments were meant to block the DVD release of the hit movie, ‘Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.’

The lawyer for the students, Olivier Taillieu, said last week to the press that the DVD will inhibit his two clients to find work.

The Los Angeles Times reports that attorney Taillieu said the "movie had cost one of the students a job at a major corporation and the other a prestigious internship."

Latest box-office figures according to Fox say the movie has grossed more than $120 million at the North American box office.