polymania

Stilly giddy after seeing the Democrats retake control of the House *and* the Senate last week, I came across an article describing a lawsuit recently filed by two college frat boys from South Carolina who appeared in the surprisingly successful movie Borat. They contend that they appeared unwillingly, but the really amusing nugget is included below:

The scene at issue in the lawsuit depicts Borat conducting a drunken interview with three college frat boys in a motor home. As the four grow increasingly inebriated, they make racist remarks about slavery and how minorities in the United States "have all the power."

Before filming the scene, the lawsuit says, 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 presented with consent forms, which they signed, it said.

According to the complaint, the frat boys were then 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."

"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 suit says.

"They took advantage of those kids for their own financial gain," plaintiffs' lawyer, Olivier Tailleiu, told Reuters.

Fallout from the movie, Tailleiu said, cost one of the students a job at a major corporation and another "a very prestigious internship."

So let me get this straight - you guys exposed yourselves as being racist assholes, and now you're upset that there are consequences? You're saying that you wouldn't have said things you truly believed if you thought people you know - human resource managers and mentors - might see you? My, how honorable.

This is what is called being sorry not for doing something wrong, but being sorry that you got caught. And how Republican-like to not own up to their own bad behavior, and instead trying to blame someone else for "tempting" them into saying obnoxious things. This lawsuit of course will go nowhere, and it's no wonder that these jerks want to remain unnamed in the suit. Borat is making a good chunk of money ($60M at last count so far) at the boxoffice and garnering no small amount of critical acclaim as well. I can't wait to see it myself.

tags: Borat, movies, Republicans