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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...

In his only interview as himself, Sacha Baron Cohen talks about growing up kosher in London, inventing a new kind of comedy with Ali G and conquering Hollywood with Borat (snip) Since reaching star status in Britain in 1998 with his other alter ego, the wangsta jester Ali G, Baron Cohen has never done an interview in his home country as himself and has never done an interview this extensive anywhere. (snip) When Baron Cohen first heard that the Kazakh government was thinking of suing him and placing a full-page ad promoting the country in The New York Times, he...

Justin Seay, one of the many unwitting co-stars of "Borat," would prefer these days to be known only as "John Doe." The University of South Carolina graduate, 24, is one of two former fraternity members to file a lawsuit last week (using the fictitious Doe handle) against the comedy's producers and Twentieth Century Fox. -snip- A drunken Seay appears in the film with two fellow Chi Psi frat brothers, and the boisterous trio acquits themselves exactly as you'd expect. In his lawsuit, Seay contends that last October the "Borat" crew got him and his pals drunk and encouraged them to...

It takes a great stretch even for the DUmmie imagination to compare the fictitious Borat portraying an imaginary resident of Kazakhstan to wearing blackface. However, in the age of the politically correct I guess it is not surprising to finding loons who will take offense to almost anything no matter how ridiculous. On the subject of blackface, I was actually thinking about this yesterday before I saw this DUmmie THREAD titled, "How is BORAT any different than BLACKFACE?" The reason why is that I was watching The Jolson Story on cable late at night. I thought this subject would...

I'm a Muslim Kazakh woman who arrived in the United States two months ago to work on my master's in public administration. Almost every time I meet people and tell them where I come from, they ask me about the "Kazakh journalist" Borat, "the sixth most famous man" in Kazakhstan. I answer that Borat is a satirical fictional character who has nothing in common with Kazakhstan or its people. Many of my new American friends find Borat's adventures in "US and A" hilarious and his remarks about my country amusing. Unsurprisingly, not many of the real Kazakh people are equally...

"These people are poor and they were tricked by people more intelligent than us," he said. "They took one of our 75-year-old ladies, put huge silicone breasts on her and said she was 47. Another man they filmed to look like the poorest person in the world, and one of our men who is missing an arm had a plastic sex toy taped to his stump." "We are suing because they were not truthful," added Staicu, who said he saw parts of "Borat" and was disgusted. "They did not film reality," he said. "We've really had enough of this." Neither...

BORAT star Sacha Baron Cohen was beaten up by a passer-by after he tried to play a prank as his alter ego. He approached the man and said: “I like your clothings. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with it.” But the bystander didn’t see the joke. He took one look at Cohen and punched him in the face. The funnyman — known for his Borat catchphrase “Jagshemash!” — yelled for help but was slugged again and again. He was rescued by actor pal Hugh Laurie who had been on his way to a New York...

Their country has gained international fame as the butt of one man's jokes, so when a company of Kazakh horsemen arrived wielding swords it was only natural to wonder whether they had caught sight of their tormentor.Borat, the alter ego of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, was nowhere to be seen. That was a shame, since the Kazakhs were keen to introduce him to a traditional sport in which two riders wrestle until one is thrown from his horse. Some suggested that Borat might like to try another of the Kazakhs' feats, called audarspak ? swinging under the horse's belly and,...

When Sacha Baron Cohen wanted a village to represent the impoverished Kazakh home of his character Borat, he found the perfect place in Glod: a remote mountain outpost with no sewerage or running water and where locals eke out meagre livings peddling scrap iron or working patches of land. But now the villagers of this tiny, close-knit community have angrily accused the comedian of exploiting them, after discovering his new blockbuster film portrays them as a backward group of rapists, abortionists and prostitutes, who happily engage in casual incest. They claim film-makers lied to them about the true nature of...

(AgapePress) - If a deeply-accented reporter from Kazakhstan approaches you and asks to film the two of you while you use your occupation to teach him about American culture -- run. You are about to get punk'd. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is the creation of edgy comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who also is the man behind the character "Ali G." Borat's fan base consists of the kind of people who find funny immensely vulgar comedy which produces its laughs at the expense of often completely innocent people. Unfortunately, there are many such...

Fraternity boys sue movie studio over appearance in "Borat" SANTA MONICA, Calif. - The joke was on two unsuspecting fraternity boys who thought they were being interviewed by a Kazakh reporter named Borat and made racist and sexist comments on camera. But now that they've learned their encounter would appear in the No. 1 movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," they're not laughing anymore. A lawsuit filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary and "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in."...

This week, an immigrant who groped nine women was nicknamed the 'Polish Borat' after he told police such behaviour was normal in his country. But what does the original Borat make of Thomasz Stepniowski's antics?Here, DAVID THOMAS imagines what guidance he might have for immigrants visiting Britain. Proper Behavings with British GirliesIs very difficult foreign men to adjust British way of making sexytimes with girlies. Result? Many Poles, Kazakhs, etc in court, just for being friendly! Why this confusion? Simple - in Britain, impossible to tell which girls is prostitutes. In Kazakhstan, respectable girlies wear veil, yashmak, old fertiliser bags,...

Russia has banned the hit comedy film, Borat, which has been accused of poking fun at Moscow's neighbour and close ally Kazakhstan. The film stars British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as a spoof reporter on a trip to the US. A senior official at Russia's culture ministry has told the BBC it will not provide a distribution licence. The film has described as a "mockumentary" which follows Mr Cohen's travel across the US. On the way, he has a series of real life encounters with unsuspecting Americans in which he makes the most outrageous, sexist, racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic comments....

The two most important people in America today don't work in Congress — they work in comedy Not that the two are mutually exclusive. Mark Steyn's book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It is far more profound than anything Nancy Pelosi has to say. And Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan will do more to save America than any plodding pseudo-documentary by Michael Moore. Plus, unlike Michael Moore, Rosie O'Donnell, and every episode of Studio 60, Steyn and Cohen are actually funny. Two comedians. Neither of...

To the women he groped and grunted at, Thomasz Stepniowski's sleazy behaviour was no laughing matter. But for the 24-year-old Pole it was all perfectly acceptable. This, he claimed, was because such "cultural naughtiness" is entirely normal in Eastern Europe. And a court heard the factory worker - dubbed the Polish Borat by neighbours - was even backed by his female interpreter during a police interview. The case bears a startling resemblance to the sexist antics of the Kazakhstani TV presenter, the main character in comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's hit film. But wheras Borat's demeaning attitude to women is drawing...

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," 20th Century Fox's big-screen incarnation of Cohen's Kazakh journalist from "Da Ali G Show," took in $26.4 million during its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

UPDATED Saturday AM: (Keep refreshing screen for latest #s) All the box office guru predictions for this weekend went wrong. I'm told that Fox's Borat, though playing in just 837 theaters, shocked the experts and became the No. 1 movie in the U.S. Friday.Funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen's spoof took in a staggering $8.9 million for what should be an opening weekend of as much as $25 million. Based on the anecdotal evidence pouring in to me about long lines at the box office, sold-out screenings, and fans driving more than an hour to find a theater showing the pic, I...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Borat may not be the biggest star of the U.S. multiplex this weekend, but the fictional Kazakh TV reporter is getting huge buzz, rave reviews and seems likely to "make benefit glorious box office" in the long run. "Borat," starring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as the boorish, anti-Semitic alter ego he introduced to U.S. audiences on cable television's "Da Ali G Show," opened on Friday amid some of the most intense media hype of any film this year. Leading online ticketing service Fandango.com reported brisk business for the film, whose full title is "Borat: Cultural...