Borat gets a New York beating
Tue, 14 Nov 2006
Borat was beaten up in New York after making what could be construed as a sexual advance at a passer-by.
Sacha Baron Cohen, in character up as the fictional Kazakh journalist he created, approached a man in the street and said: "I like your clothings. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with it."
The New Yorker failed to see the joke and reportedly punched the 35-year-old comedian in the face.
The scuffle took place after Cohen had appeared on 'Saturday Night Live', the popular US sketch show, to promote his new film, 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan', The Sun newspaper reported.
Although the comedian shouted for help, the New Yorker punched him repeatedly before Cohen's friend, actor Hugh Laurie, came to the rescue.
The 47-year-old 'House' star pushed the man away while Cohen got back onto his feet.
Laurie, also known for his role in 'Black Adder', had joined Cohen on 'Saturday Night Live'.
The actor friends had been headed for a late dinner in the city when Laurie suggested they pop into a Manhattan bar.
"Sacha couldn’t resist playing the fool as Borat, but picked on the wrong person," a friend of the comedian told the British tabloid.
"I guess this guy thought he was being attacked by someone unstable and lashed out. Sacha is very lucky he didn’t get a much worse beating."
Cohen did not receive any visible wounds, but was said to be seriously shaken up, and Laurie reportedly told friends he was afraid the 'Ali G' star would be beaten up badly.
The comic has since been warned by studio bosses to refrain from appearing as Borat on the streets, but the comedian has continued to promote the film in character.
He is currently in Australia doing promotional work and at the movie's premiere claimed he was searching for an Aussie wife.
"I would very much like to find Australian wife… ladies, please send me photograph, preference erotic," Borat revealed.
"My preference is for a woman who has more hair on head than back, and teeth that grow only on inside of mouth," he added.
"There is one lady I particular fond of — please if anyone has the number of Colleen you must give it to me," he said of a character in Australian soap opera 'Home and Away' played by the 70-year-old Lyn Collingwood.
Ironically Cohen is engaged to Australian actress Isla Fisher who appeared on the soapie before rising to international recognition with her role in 'Wedding Crashers'.
Borat also praised Dannii Minogue as "very nice".
But he claimed to be in love with the country too.
"I like very much Australia, I am a huge fanny of your country," he revealed.
The 'Borat' film, opening in South Africa on Friday, has topped the US box office for the past two weeks — luckily, Borat claimed.
"If the film was not a success my government made it very clear that I would be execute," he said.
Despite the film's success, however, it has run into trouble in Russia where it will not be released for fear of inciting racial hatred. And in the US, the filmmakers are facing a lawsuit from two anonymous students who appear in the film.
They claim they were misled into being filmed by being told the footage would never be shown in North America and coerced into signing release papers while drunk.
The pair are demanding financial damages of over $25 000 for humiliation and mental distress suffered.
