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A gold-medal winning athlete from Kazakhstan was forced to stand through a national anthem that insulted other countries and boasted of her nation's "clean prostitutes" when organizers at a shooting competition accidentally played a fake anthem from the comedy film "Borat." Gold medalist Maria Dmitrienko never lets on that there's a problem and graciously poses for photos with the other medalists following the ceremony.

On Monday afternoon the victim-rights lawyer Gloria Allred took the stage with a fourth woman named Sharon Bialek alleging that pizza mogul Herman Cain sexually harassed her ten years ago while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association. She is reportedly the first such woman to publicly come forward. Allred’s long and impressive career has included representation of Scary Spice and various alleged Tiger Woods mistresses, and attacking the late Michael Jackson for child endangerment. Given the import of the moment, this seems like the right time for a roundup of some of her more important victories rooting out...

After an exhaustive and controversial production proccess, Sacha Baron Cohen and UNIVERSAL are finally set to unleash BRUNO onto the multiplex -- and gay groups are reacting with "deeply mixed" emotions! "Some people in our community may like this movie, but many are not going to be OK with it," Rashad Robinson, senior director for the GAY AND LESBIAN ALLIANCE AGAINST DEFAMATION, tells the NEW YORK TIMES in a planned Sunday expose. "Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others." Brad Luna, a spokesman for HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN, warns the movie...

Eminem has come clean, saying that he knew what was in store when bare-buttocked comedian Sacha Baron Cohen crash-landed on him at the MTV Movie Awards television broadcast Sunday. Eminem stormed out of the awards ceremony after Baron Cohen, in the role of the main character from his new movie, "Bruno," landed on his lap after a flying mishap, leaving the audience wondering if the rapper really was furious or if it was a stunt. The Detroit rapper told website RapRadar.com that he knew full well what was about to happen and that it was all staged, right down to...

Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued by a woman who claims she was left confined to a wheelchair after a comedy stunt for his as yet unreleased film allegedly went wrong. Richelle Olson says she was 'attacked' by Bruno - the fashion critic alter ego of British Comedian Cohen - at a Bingo hall in the US in 2007- In her lawsuit she says she collapsed and hit her head on the floor minutes after being unwittingly caught up in Cohen's mockumentary - allegedly leaving her with serious injuries.

Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film, Bruno, has succeeded in getting its age rating lowered in the US, despite initial objections from censors. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) wanted to give the film the restrictive NC-17 rating, banning anyone aged under 17 from watching it. But producers re-edited the movie and resubmitted it, achieving an R rating. Early reviews of the film, based on Baron Cohen's gay fashion TV reporter character, have largely been positive. "I saw Bruno last night. It beyond delivered," wrote Hollywood director Ruben Fleischer on his blog. "After Borat, I thought there was no way...

THE Sun has got its hands on the first trailer from what is sure to be the most outrageous movie of the year - Bruno. And from what we have seen it looks like SACHA BARON COHEN's follow up to Borat is ready to shock. To see the hilarious clip, watch below: In the film, which opens on July 10, British comic Cohen plays a gay Austrian TV presenter called Bruno. The trailer shows Bruno on a talk show with his black adopted baby saying: “I gave him a traditional African name - OJ.” A shocked Afro-Caribbean member of the...

[photo: Borat and 5 bikini wearing women] Sacha Baron Cohen, best known for playing “Borat,” has done it again. This time he talked his way onto an Alabama National Guard base by posing as the producer of a German documentary. Cohen was eventually busted after being recognized by a cadet. “It’s an embarrassment to the Alabama National Guard,” said Staff Sgt Katrina Timmons. “Since then we have put in protocols to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Embarrassed National Guard officials fear ...

The scene with Paul, filmed in early 2008, occurs about halfway through the movie, after Bruno gets the idea that you have to make a sex tape to become famous. (Stop reading here if you want to see the movie unspoiled.) Cut to a nondescript hotel suite where Bruno sits across from Ron Paul. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, a light blows out on the set. Bruno apologizes for the technical difficulties and suggests that he and Paul wait in the other room while the crew fixes the light. The other room, it turns out, is a bedroom. The...

The actor best known as "Borat" tricked the Alabama National Guard into allowing him onto a post, giving him a military uniform and briefly letting him train—all, supposedly, for a German TV documentary. The ruse, which included comedian Sacha Baron Cohen exposing his thong underwear while changing clothes, was going well until a young cadet recognized Cohen and notified older officers who weren't familiar with the actor. "It's an embarrassment to the Alabama National Guard," Staff Sgt. Katrina Timmons said Monday. "Since then we have put in protocols to make sure this doesn't happen again." ... Footage from the visit...

NEW YORK - Leonardo DiCaprio is bringing out the big guns to get out the vote. Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg and Justin Timberlake are among the celebrities starring in a new public service announcement produced by the actor, who also appears in the spot. The video shows the stars struggling to grasp the concept of using reverse psychology to get young people into voting booths... Finally, Ford says, “You know what? I can’t do it. It’s not true, I don’t believe it — 537 people decided the 2000 election, and you want me to...

She laughed. I had invited Cheryl Hall to the screening of “Religulous” to get a faith-based reaction to comedian Bill Maher's diatribe on the divine. Hall's credentials: longtime member of the United Methodist Women and faithful San Diego churchgoer whose husband teaches a weekly Bible study class. Surely, she would be offended at roasting religion as if it were a Hollywood has-been. But she laughed. Several times. Her defense: “I think God has a sense of humor.” And then she added: “If his point was to make religion look ridiculous, then he did a very good job.” It did not,...

DHP Review: Religulous Posted by Dirty Harry on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 While more entertaining and better paced, director Larry Charles‘ Religulous can’t help but remind of Morgan Spurlock’s dreadful Where In The World Is Osama bin Laden?, especially at the end where both films are undone by their attempts to close on serious points the preceding 90 minutes of antics simply can’t sustain. It’s surprising Charles let this one get away from him. After all, he also directed Borat, and one of the few saving graces of that humiliation-fest was that it never lost sight of the fact that...

This is the Apocalypse of St. Bill the Stoned. Though funny, smart and often profane, Religulous doesn't want to send you out of the theater with a smile on your lips. The final moments of the film aren't laugh out loud funny, but a parade of images of death and destruction. This, Bill Maher says, is what humanity is in for if it doesn't get rid of the nuerological disorder that is religion. You probably know my bias going into this film. I believe that religion is not just irrational but anti-rational, a Bronze Age worldview that should have been...

Akansas cage fights turn gay for new Sacha Baron Cohen movie. ULY 8--Lured by $1 beer and the prospect of "hot chicks" and "hardcore fights," thousands of Arkansans were duped last month into appearing as extras in comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest staged mayhem. Cohen and his confederates organized cage fighting programs on consecutive days in Texarkana and Fort Smith. Both cards ended with two male grapplers (one was identified as "Straight Dave" and wore camouflage) tearing each other's clothes off and, while in underwear, kissing down their opponent's chest. This man-on-man action triggered Fort Smith fans to throw chairs...

For those familiar with the antics of shock comic Sacha Baron Cohen , it was a case of déjà vu, all over again. On May 28, he outraged a crowd of unsuspecting guests at a Carrollton office park by luring them to what they thought was a new talk show on "family values." [Click image for a larger version] Hello, Arkansas. As an encore early last month, he outraged a crowd of 1,600 by luring them to what was billed as cage fighting. Police say the show was designed instead to capture the reactions of the unsuspecting to the sight...

They took us down winding stone stairs and through long corridors, ostensibly to have some make-up dabbed on our noses for the cameras, in fact to meet the interviewer and test his disguise. We confronted a tall, blond-ish man in his thirties, dressed in leather and studs, his face heavily powdered, his arms and chest shaven. He spoke in a heavy German accent, his movements and mannerisms ultra-gay. He tried to write down our names, but they came out dyslexic. “This guy is going to interview us?” “Don’t worry, he knows what questions to ask you,” an assistant producer replied....

The sicko who cops say masqueraded as a livery driver so he could rape young women in his Lincoln Town Car is no stranger to playing the part. Torkieh Sadagheh, 28, had aspired to be "the next Borat," a neighbor said. The accused rapist played a character akin to British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's wildly popular Borat - a bigoted reporter from Kazakhstan - in a homemade film, neighbor Joseph Polemeni said. "He was trying to make a movie," said Polemeni, 49. "Apparently, the kid is trying to be a Borat-type guy." Polemeni said he once went with Sadagheh to...

Q: Who do you favor for President in the United States? A: "I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A - in Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun - very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier."

Yet another victim of the 'gotcha' humour of the mega hit movie 'Borat' is taking Sasha Baron Cohen to court - or at least is having a go. Alabama woman Kathie Martin, who runs an Etiquette School, has filed a lawsuit against the actor and also 20th Century Fox, saying she was emotionally assaulted by Cohen in a scene from the movie. The segment involved Cohen, masquerading as the fictional Kazakh reporter, showing her a photo of a naked man and telling her it is his son. Clearly unamused, Martin's Manhattan Supreme Court suit seeks unspecified damages, citing 'commercial misappropriation,...

Apparently, Fred Thompson had lapses of judgment during his trip to Iowa last week. No, he didn’t suggest he would bomb Pakistan. He didn’t state that he was going to “take” anybody’s earned profits, nor did he make any similar political faux-pas. That was someone else. He did, however, wear Gucci loafers and ride around in a golf cart. That’s right. According to Fox News, Thompson’s Iowa travels involved mistakes such as “wearing Gucci loafers at a country fair.” Really? That’s the mistake? Before we even get to the merits of wearing Gucci loafers (which in the video look a...

Administration of the city Kazan, which is considered the Muslim hub of Russia, has extensive plans of turning the city into an influential centre of business and religious tourism and to attract pilgrims from around the world, like Mecca.

A new film, The Genius Club, directed by Tim Chey, is catching headlines. The film is about 7 geniuses who are forced to try to solve the world's problems in 1 night. Does this sound radical? The geniuses attempt to solve world hunger, war, oil deficiencies, and God.

Fictional gay cowboys and a faux reporter from Kazakhstan suffered human rights abuses in 2006 as crackdowns on flesh and blood victims were extended to the Internet, award-winning films and noted plays worldwide, the State Department says. From the movies ``Borat'' to ``Brokeback Mountain,'' foreign governments banned or restricted access to a variety of big and little screen entertainment as well as live events, the State Department says. British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen - creator of Borat, the crass Kazakh chronicler of the American condition - and the gay cowboy love story that won three Oscars were hit with what...

ALMATY (Reuters) - Fictional Kazakh TV reporter Borat has made an unexpected cameo appearance as a victim of censorship in a heavyweight annual human rights report issued by the State Department. ADVERTISEMENT The 2006 report, released in Washington on Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, criticized the real Kazakhstan, a vast oil-producing Central Asian state, for increased restrictions on freedom of speech and other abuses. The State Department, which says Kazakhstan has no independent judiciary, also listed the murder last year of Kazakh opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly, his bodyguard and driver as "unlawful deprivation of life." The report...

19 February 2007 | 11:28 | Source: B92 JERUSALEM, ZAGREB -- The Simon Wiesenthal Center has asked Croatia to stop the distribution of sugar packets featuring Hitler’s image. The Center has called on Croatian authorities to put an end to the production and distribution of sugar packets with Hitler’s image and printed anti-Semitic jokes. The Center has issued a statement signed by its director Ephraim Zuroff, expressing its “disgust at the fact such a product could have been made at this day and age, in a country where the Holocaust was for the most part perpetrated by the local Nazi...

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record), citing the legacy of Abraham Lincoln, pledged on Saturday to bridge the partisan gridlock in Washington, end the war in Iraq and transform American politics as the first black U.S. president. Launching his 2008 White House campaign outside the building in where Lincoln began his fight against slavery with a famous 1858 speech that declared "a house divided against itself cannot stand," Obama said it was time to "turn the page" to a new politics. "Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation,"...

Sacha Baron Cohen has signed up to do a sequel to his popular Borat movie based on the controversial Kazach journalist, according to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, whose film division last year released the first Borat film. The Borat movie has generated huge earnings for News Corp, and its film division reported record earnings on Wednesday. Mr Murdoch, speaking at a conference organised by McGraw-Hill, said he had seen the first Borat movie three times and “laughed like hell”.

The minister of a Baptist church in South Portland asked for forgiveness Monday for frightening members of the Jewish community with a provocative newspaper advertisement that promoted his Sunday sermon about anti-Semitism. The ad for the First Baptist Church appeared on the Religion & Values page of the Portland Press Herald on Saturday, touting a sermon titled, "The Only Way to Destroy the Jewish Race." The sermon was supportive of Jews but the words in the ad generated fear and anger, as well as complaints to the church and the newspaper. "Dear friends, please forgive me for causing alarm in...

After only being a U.S. Senator for a couple of years, Barak Hussein Obama, Democrat Senator from Chicago, has managed to catapult himself to the status of a messiah in the Democrat Party. The result is that, ever since, he's been walking on water toward the White House. Obama says after his visit with friends and family in Hawaii during the 2006 year-end holidays, he'll announce if he's going to run for president in 2008. Bets are that he will. Who is Obama and what has he done? Independent columnist, Andy Martin (Out2.com) says he believes Obama is a political...

Howie Carr live thread

Until now Sacha Baron Cohen has insisted on being interviewed in character. Roland White discovers he’s not the man you expect We remember him fondly as the hip-hop king of Staines. We have briefly been introduced to him as Bruno the fashion reporter, the campest man in Austria. And some of us are still reeling from the sight of that bikini-style thong that he wore as Borat, the glorious reporter make much comedy benefit Kazakhstan. Yet it’s rare that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who last week won a Golden Globe as best actor in a comedy, puts on a performance...

Of Borat, America, anti-Semitism, Israel, ADL, and Kazakhstan By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- January 16, 2007..... Every so often we are enlightened with a truly "gifted" movie. A cinematic Hollywood adventure which actually make us think, laugh and even shed a tear. Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is one such movie. Borat is a movie about a fictional Kazakh TV news reporter who is dispatched to the United States to report on the "greatest country in the world." British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays the role of Borat who...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Franklin Graham arrived at a poor village in Turkmenistan to film a segment for an upcoming World Wide Pictures release, he and his film crew were pelted with rocks, sticks and other detritus. "Borat makes difficult tapings of missionary work among formerly friendly peoples," quips a World Wide Pictures crew member who was chased out of the village with Graham. Nobody was seriously hurt, but Graham and the team confronted an uncomfortable new reality. Fearing ridicule like the kind portrayed in the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, some...

ALMATY, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov has resigned, forcing the entire government to step down, a government source told Reuters on Monday. "The prime minister has resigned," the source said, giving no reason for Akhmetov's resignation. Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, is rich in oil and gas which it pumps mainly to the West.

Like a mother hen jealously guarding her flock [less flattering but unmentionable metaphors also come to mind], the New York Times is loath to see any government program escape the clutches of the state. And even if Social Security is a sick chick, the Times zealously holds her close because she is the biggest money-pot of the bunch. For the Times, the fox stalking the social security henhouse has been privatization, epitomized by the social security system of Chile, which was privatized more than 25 years ago and has served as a model for many other countries. Even Borat has...

Let's talk about Borat. I finally caught up with it at my local theater here in Rancho Mirage not long ago. It made me laugh a few times, but basically I hated it. Here's why. 1.) The auteur and star of the movie, Sacha Baron Cohen, is a Jew of high degree in England and now in Hollywood. But much of the movie is viciously anti-Semitic. This includes not just some but many "jokes" about killing Jews, about how Jews are the devil, about how Jews will kill for money, about how Jews are like cockroaches (the last a direct...

To a lover in the thrall of blissful delirium, there is nothing that doesn't relate to his beloved. Frank Rich is the morose mirror image. Not a leaf falls but that it reminds him of Iraq and the perfidy of the Bush administration. The ostensible topic of Rich's NY Times column of this morning was Time magazine's solipsistic choice of "you" as person of the year. What this has to do with Iraq might not be apparent to you. But you're not Frank Rich. Let's see how Rich managed to make the connection with some annotated excerpts: "Like Time today,...

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Valentina Sivryukova knew her public service messages were hitting the mark when she heard how one Kazakh schoolboy called another stupid. “What are you,” he sneered, “iodine-deficient or something?” Ms. Sivryukova, president of the national confederation of Kazakh charities, was delighted. It meant that the years spent trying to raise public awareness that iodized salt prevents brain damage in infants were working. If the campaign bore fruit, Kazakhstan’s national I.Q. would be safeguarded. In fact, Kazakhstan has become an example of how even a vast and still-developing nation like this Central Asian country can achieve a remarkable...

Two British animal rights campaigners, wearing only bikinis made of lettuce, have urged Kazakhs to stop eating horses and go vegetarian. Kazakhstan's national cuisine is almost entirely meat-based, and horse sausage and boiled sheep's head are considered delicacies. Lamb and offal are part of the staple diet and the activists braced freezing temperatures in the country's largest city, Almaty, to push home their message. Kazakhstan has recently been made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof TV reporter Borat. It has led campaigners from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to urge the public to go veggie. One of the...

A genuine TV reporter crew from Kazakhstan found covering the recent US elections something of a struggle.A TV crew from Kazakhstan's Channel 31 was in Columbus to make a documentary on the US political system. But the crew got a wary reception from press secretaries who feared public humiliation by Sacha Baron Cohen. It didn't help that the Kazakh cameraman's first name was 'Bolat', reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Cohen's 'Borat' movie - featuring a fake Kazakh TV reporter humiliating Americans - was then No 1 at the box office. Press secretaries for both Republican and Democratic parties were suspicious...

Pamela Anderson's involvement in the "Borat" movie reportedly not only resulted in a foul-mouthed spat with rap/rocker Kid Rock, but it may have also ended their short-lived marriage. The couple reportedly entered into a blazing fight after watching "Borat" at a private screening together.

Borat is many things: a sidesplitting triumph of slapstick and scatology, a runaway moneymaker and budding franchise, the worst thing to happen to Kazakhstan since the Mongol hordes, and, as columnist David Brooks astutely points out, a supreme display of elite snobbery reveling in the humiliation of the hoaxed hillbilly. But it is one thing more, something Brooks alluded to in passing but which requires at least one elaboration: an unintentionally revealing demonstration of the unfortunate attitude of many liberal Jews toward working-class American Christians, especially evangelicals. You know the shtick. Borat goes around America making anti-Semitic remarks in order...

Movies are one of my passions, and as I’ve matured, I’ve been able to broaden my viewing choices. I’m willing to sit through films that are disturbing, that challenge my thinking, and that are over the top comedically. Comedy is one genre I’m willing to give a very wide berth when it comes to offensiveness. It is the nature of comedy to poke fun, offend, and outrage, because it often works when it relies on taboos. This season, there are a lot of promising movies to see, and my “must-see” list is growing. The Prestige, The Queen, The Departed, For...

Although Sacha Baron Cohen's new blockbuster comedy, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, has received laughs from its American audiences, not everyone found the movie so funny--especially many of the film's actors. From humiliated University of South Carolina fraternity brothers to destitute citizens of a remote Romanian village, Cohen has made enemies across the globe. In fact, a few of the disgruntled people who appear in his film are now lining up to take legal action against Twentieth Century Fox, the studio releasing Cohen's movie. At issue is the damage caused to the lives...

Downing Street has refused to say if Tony Blair has seen controversial comedy film Borat, as he meets the Kazhakstan president at Number 10.The prime minister's official spokesman said: "I don't do book reviews and I don't do film reviews." Mr Blair is currently meeting President Nursultan Abish-uly Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan's ambassador to the UK has said Borat, which stars British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, "grossly misrepresented" his country. The film, whose full title is Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, depicts Kazakhstan as a racist, sexist, violent, primitive and oppressive country. It features a...

Britain said a huge jagshemash! to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan yesterday as he arrived in London for official visit making benefit for two glorious nations.President Nazarbayev, great leader of the Central Asian republic, who achieved 90 per cent of votes in an allegedly rigged election in December 2005, will meet the Queen, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown today. An audience with the Queen at Buckingham Palace will be followed by a lunchtime meeting with Mr Blair in Downing Street. In another sign of Mr Brown's increasing influence, he will meet the Chancellor next door in the afternoon. The Prime...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot and killed a television comedian Monday who was famous for mocking everyone from the Iraqi government to U.S. forces to Shiite militias to Sunni insurgents. Walid Hassan's slaying came as the Iraqi death toll rose to more than 1,300 for the first 20 days of November — the highest for any month since The Associated Press began tracking the figure in April 2005. In all, 22 Iraqis were killed Monday in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baqouba, police said. The bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured also were...

The owner of an etiquette business who was handed a plastic bag supposedly containing feces in the hit movie "Borat" says she was told the filming would be used for a documentary in Belarus...

Sacha Baron Cohen has stepped out of character to answer critics of his alter ego, Borat, explaining that the comic creation should not be taken literally but that it "works as a tool" for exposing prejudice and racism. The 35-year-old British actor, who has played the lewd and dim-witted Kazakh journalist throughout all the publicity for the hit film, defended his comedy against the complaints and lawsuits it has generated. The comedian said the target of the film was not Kazakhstan, which has talked of suing him over his portrayal of the country, but those who believed such a place...