NEW YORK – While teaching American humor to a gregarious and absurdly out-of-touch foreign journalist, Pat Haggerty realized something was off – who was this guy?
Haggerty, a public speaking coach from Washington, is one of the unwitting co-stars of the surprise hit movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” Haggerty has no hard feelings toward Borat, aka comedian Sacha Baron Cohen – but the same can’t be said for others who were humiliated, thanks to the awkward fellow with the bushy mustache.
Their embarrassment over the film’s hilarious, cringe-inducing blend of fiction and improvised comedy is magnified by its success – “Borat” has topped the box office two weeks in a row, earning a total of $67.8 million.
Last year, Haggerty agreed to be filmed for what he thought was a benign documentary on his client’s journey across America. He hurriedly signed a release form, was paid $400, and the lesson began.
As cameras rolled, his client told raunchy stories in garbled English and laughed heartily at the expense of disabled people. “And then, I’m starting to smell a rat,” Haggerty told The Associated Press. “Each passing minute I’m going, ‘You know, this can’t be real.’ “
Confused, he ended up playing along. He later figured out – thanks to his son, an HBO-watching college student – that he’d been duped.
Duped by Borat.
“They were exercising a First Amendment right,” said Haggerty, adding that he enjoyed the movie. “And this Sacha Cohen guy’s going to make 87 gazillion dollars. You know, good for him. I’m just sorry that he had to do it in such a way that he allowed people to make jerks out of themselves exposing their character flaws.”
Two of Cohen’s targets – fraternity boys who made drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities – are suing 20th Century Fox and three production companies. The lawsuit claims that a production crew took the students to a bar to “loosen up” before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside the United States, and that they signed waivers after drinking heavily. Studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant said the lawsuit “has no merit.”
Cohen’s behavior also wasn’t funny to former TV producer Dharma Arthur, who claims she was duped into giving Cohen airtime on a morning show segment in Jackson, Miss. Cohen’s live appearance, in which he said he had to go “urine” and hugged a bemused weatherman, led her life into a downward spiral, she told the AP. She is seeking an apology.
Although Arthur has said she was fired from the show, she told the AP that she left the station.
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