Kazakhstan Making Unofficial Borat Sequel

It runs during medal ceremony for Kazakhstan woman

(NEWSER) - After Kazakhstan's Maria Dmitrienko won gold at the Arab Shooting Championships, she mounted the podium to hear her national anthem played. Problem was, Kuwaiti officials used the obscene spoof version from the Borat movie, reports the Telegraph . (Sample lyric: "Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region.") They swear it was an honest mistake. Dmitrienko was a good sport about it, and officials redid the ceremony with the correct anthem in place. Kazakhstan, of course, demands a full investigation, notes AP . More»

(NEWSER) - Sacha Baron Cohen is box-office gold, but he can’t pull it off again … or can he? Eric Ditzian looks at some possibilities for the Brüno star’s future.

• "A Fourth Wacked-Out Journalist." Some thought Brüno couldn't fly after the exposure Borat brought, but the multiplex says otherwise. "No doubt, Cohen and his mischievous team could make a fourth movie work." (First film Ali G Indahouse didn't make it to US theaters.)

(NEWSER) - Bruno catwalked its way to the top of the box office this weekend, taking in $30.4 million, the Los Angeles Times reports. That’s a better debut than Sacha Baron Cohen’s earlier button-pusher Borat saw, though Bruno faced a steep drop-off in ticket sales after Friday. Holdovers Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($28.5 million), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($24.2 million), and Public Enemies ($14.1 million) rounded out the top four. More»

Comedian appears as himself for once to discuss film

(NEWSER) - Sacha Baron Cohen made a rare appearance as himself last night on the Late Show, telling David Letterman about Bruno’s interview with a real terrorist, the Huffington Post reports. “When we were making this film, we thought, what could people see that they’ve never seen before on film?” Cohen said. “And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist.” More»

Fox may not be able to escape from this one unscathed

(NEWSER) - If Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno is anything like Borat, yesterday’s lawsuit is the first of many to come. But this one is different, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Unlike the Borat suits, mainly filed by people with gripes about release forms, the case is more serious: This lawsuit concerns a woman who, TMZ reports, says she was attacked by Cohen and his crew during a bingo game and left crippled after hitting her head. More»