Borat, a film once banned in its "native country" of Kazakhstan, has actually done wonders for the former Soviet republic, according to Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov.
This is video of Maria Dmitrienko, member of Kazakhstan's shooting team, receiving her gold medal at a ceremony in Kuwait. You might also recognize the song — which should be the Kazakh anthem and is instead the spoof anthem used in the film Borat. While Dmitrienko seems to take it pretty well in the video, the team has demanded an apology.
Besides biting zookeepers so that the police kill you, and eating frozen mealworm novelties, what are the most effective ways to beat the heat? Well, I don't personally know of any other methods besides those two, sorry. But St. Louis motorcyclist Jacob Southard seems to have adopted a winning coolness-keeping strategy, and it's even making him micro-famous!
It only took Kazakhstan four years to respond to Sasha Baron Cohen. My Brother Borat is an attempt to redeem Kazakhstan of the negative attention that has plighted the country since Cohen donned a bad mustache in 2006's Borat.
During the release of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen and Fox faced a bunch of lawsuits, most of them claiming the film's irreversible damage to reputations, none of which were even moderately successful. Now, Bruno's first litigation failures have arrived.
An ad currently running on Variety is promoting something called Carmen Meets Borat, a documentary about a Romanian girl whose life is thrown into upheaval when Sacha Baron Cohen and co. substitute her village for the title character's Kazakh hometown in Borat. We use the term "promoting" loosely, however, unless you consider "inviting a lawsuit by alerting Cohen to your existence" is promoting:
Borat helmsman Larry Charles says he intends to "destroy" organized religion with his newest flick, Religulous, starring Bill Maher. "I don't think 'debunk" is the right word,' he says. "I want to destroy more than debunk, just destroy the whole system." Maher chimed in: "I was raised a Catholic. But by the time I became an adult, scientific thought and rational evidence led me to believe otherwise. You know, when I was a kid and got a cavity I had mercury drilled into my teeth. Then, when I got older, they drilled it out-you can do the same with religion." Such mavericks! The fact that it's a Borat-style "documentary" in which dumbasses are strung up by their own words has dumbasses everywhere complaining even before it hits theaters.
The inflow of foreign cash to Hollywood may look stalled with the DreamWorks/Reliance deal held up in all these fashionable new bank implosions, but as discovered earlier this month, the oil barons of Abu Dhabi have enough stashed under their mattresses to greenlight some $1 billion worth of film projects over the next five years. The guy the emirate brought in to spend it, ex-Disney overlord Edward Borgerding, has hinted at a few of his more modest goals in recent weeks — "[Abu Dhabi Media Company] is fulfilling its ambition to become a global player in the media industry," he told the Financial Times — but only finally spelled out his real plot for world conquest in a new interview with Sharon Waxman:
Borat Walks Free: A judge in New York threw out a trio of lawsuits accusing Sacha Baron Cohen, director Larry Charles and the rest of the sadistic Borat braintrust of duping interview subjects into infamous levels of stupidity while making the 2006 hit film. "Judge Loretta Preska said all three accepted money and signed agreements releasing the filmmakers from liability," reports the AP. "She noted in a Sept. 3 ruling the agreements said the plaintiffs consented to appear in a 'documentary-style' movie." Of course you saw it coming, but hey. The plaintiffs — including Borat's driving instructor and his feces-scandalized etiquette coach — could not be reached for comment, but are said to plan handwritten thank-you cards for Her Honor's consideration and an armed vigilante drive-by not to exceed 25 miles per hour. [THR]
When choosing between months of intensive studies spent hunched over a Torah preparing for your kiddushin (that's betrothal for you goyum, which are non-Jews for you...non-Jews), and becoming a big star, it seems Isla Fisher has decided to go with the latter. As the Daily Mail reports, the potential redheaded successor to Lucille Ball's slapstick throne has put off the conversion process in order to complete filming Confessions Of A Shopaholic. And fiance Sacha Baron Cohen's ultra-religious parents just don't see what all this movie stardom fuss is all about. The wedding date has reportedly been postponed, Cohen's gone back to making Israelis cry as Bruno, and the wee Cohen baby is presumably in the hands of the only au pair they could find who hasn't seen Borat. But Fisher isn't the first actress to undergo conversion to Judaism for a guy — from Liz Taylor to Connie Chung, a diverse handful of stars became Jews in the name of love, though not every shattered wine glass led to a happy ending...
Can't wait until May 15, 2009 to learn what Sacha Baron Cohen has cooked up for Bruno, only the latest swarthy foreigner from the comedian's repertoire to star in a feature-length film? The internet is teeming with sightings detailing the fictional Austrian TV personality's exploiten and vëreabouts. Some you may have spotted in our very own PrivacyWatch; but the latest comes to us via The Jewish Daily Forward, where recent dupee Yossi Alpher—an Israeli political blogger—describes his run in with Eurofashion greatness in Jerusalem:
We now know when to expect an answer to the "Bruno: Borat-level triumph or $42 million Universal folly?" question eating at Hollywood since first learning that the studio had shelled out that unconscionable sum for a feature-length prankumentary starring the heterosexually-threatening Sacha Baron Cohen character. From Variety:
"Kazakhstan's sole communication satellite, used by many of the nation's TV broadcasters, is out of control due to a computer glitch and may be lost altogether, officials said." At least they won't be able to see all the "Borat" jokes that are coming. Ha, who's running the space program over there, ha? [NYP]
We didn’t think it was possible, but the insanely dateable John Krasinski is not looking so hot these days. Due to an upcoming role in the Sam Mendes-directed Farlanders, John is sporting a nasty beard that resembles something one of the Geico cavemen would wear. And while we’d never judge an actor for tossing out their razors for months for the sake of their craft, this terrible beard inspired us to take a look back at the most cringeworthy facial hair in cinematic history. From one actor’s frizzy salt-and-pepper rat's nest to one mustache’s journey inside another man’s taint, our top five lie after the jump:
The Daily News reports new revelations about the (accused) rape-y unlicensed livery car driver who picked up women and assaulted them—sometimes outside the Box cabaret! Torkieh Sadagheh had dreams of being the "next Borat," and apparently his actions were a too-literal interpretation of the Sacha Baron Cohen film. Somebody should get an American-humor translator to tell him that Borat was supposed to be a joke. The scene where he stuffs Pamela Anderson into a sack? A joke, dude. See the video!
It's Fameball season. Blogger Erin Horgan is now "famous" for taking photos of John Mayer in a Borat thong. When the singer-songwriter pranced around in front of a crowd on a cruise ship wearing the neon green shoulder-strap swimsuit, totally to his surprise someone blogged it. Normally the story ends with "blogger sells photos to gossip magazine," but Horgan kept blogging about the attention her photos were getting, enough to interest the Cape Cod Times. Now getting a video interview (embedded after the jump omg click) on the windswept-white-people broadsheet's web site doesn't constitute fame, I know, but then gossip blog Just Jared ran a post made of exclamation marks about said interview, and now my editor is making me write about it here, so Erin Horgan is rolling up a little fameball.
Remember Stonie, the gay porn star whose jail-baity looks were capitalized upon by the makers of Borat, casting him as the Kazakh journeyman's naked teenage son in a series of sexually suggestive Polaroids? No? Then the fact that he just got a sex change (but will continue to pursue a career in the adult entertainment field) will probably do nothing for you. Still, makers of Bruno: He's She's one featured role away from earning a SAG card. Think about it. Link NSFW. [WOW Report]
