Two college frat brothers who appear in the “Borat” movie are suing the studio and producers for fraud, saying filmmakers tricked them into being in the film – where they made racist and sexist remarks – by getting them drunk…
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court with the plaintiffs named John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. Both students, who are from South Carolina, agreed to be in the film after producers promised it would never be shown in the United States.
The movie scene they are suing over shows Borat getting drunk with three college frat boys in a motor home. As they become increasingly drunk, they make racist remarks about slavery and remark how minorities in the United States “have all the power”.
The lawsuit states producers interviewed the college students at their frat house, then took them “to a drinking establishment to ‘loosen up”‘ and plied them with alcohol. After a period of “heavy drinking,” the students were shown consent forms which they signed.
The frat boys were then allegedly escorted to a motor home for the filming of what they were told would be a documentary-style movie and “were encouraged to continue drinking, which they did.”
Their complaint claims “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 lawsuit also states their appearance in the “Borat” movie cost one of the students a job at a major corporation and another “a very prestigious internship.”
A third frat brother in the scene did not take part in the suit.
A spokesman for the film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, declined to comment except to say, “The lawsuit has no merit.”
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order requiring footage of the plaintiffs to be removed from the film.
If the consent forms were signed while the Frat Boys were inebriated, they may not be legal – however [update] this case, like every lawsuit resulting from the Borat movie, was ruled or otherwise decided in favor of the studio.
