A rodeo spectator is alleging “Borat” exposed him to “contempt and ridicule,” joining a motley crew of fraternity brothers, Romanian villagers and a restaurant patron in the legal onslaught against the hit “mockumentary.”

The latest plaintiff to sue the makers of “Borat” attended a Salem, Va., rodeo where the title character, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, proclaims his support for the “War of Terror” and then launches into “our Kazakh national anthem” sung to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The rodeo's producer had agreed to let the cowboy-clad Cohen sing in the mistaken belief that he was a Kazakh journalist traveling across the country.

The Los Angeles Superior Court suit –- the fourth (see table) to be filed since “Borat” was released in the U.S. last month –- is vague about how the rodeo scene actually injured the unidentified plaintiff, saying only that it falsely portrayed him as “uneducated, racist, sexist and bigoted.”

The alleged injury must somehow be related, however, to footage of rodeo spectators applauding Borat's comments about the “War of Terror.” Among other things, he says,

• "May George Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child of Iraq."

• “May you destroy the country so that for the next thousand years not even a single lizard will survive in their desert.”

According to the Roanoke Times, Cohen and his film crew left the arena in a hurry as the crowd voiced its displeasure with his anthem performance.

The rodeo fan's case looks even weaker than that of the two South Carolina frat brothers, who are also represented by Beverly Hills attorney Olivier Taillieu. The frat boys, at least, are portrayed expressing their own racist and sexist views whereas, at most, all the rodeo fan does is whoop and holler at Borat's remarks.

A Los Angeles judge on Dec. 8 denied a preliminary injunction on the Chi Psi brothers' publicity rights claim.

Perhaps the only “Borat” plaintiff with a remotely viable claim is the patron of a Columbia, S.C., restaurant who alleges Cohen and his crew secretly filmed him using a Ristorante Divino urinal. The footage did not appear in the theatrical release but, the complaint says, was included in promotional material distributed to media outlets.

By Matthew Heller
12/27/06