Sacha Baron Cohen, aka “Borat” aka “Ali G” made some jokes about a girl on TV. He’s paying for it three years later …
Sacha Baron Cohen, the British actor now best known for playing Kazakh reporter “Borat” in the feature film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is being sued for libel by an ex-girlfriend for jokes he made about her three years ago on his TV series, Da Ali G show.
The woman claims that while his character Ali G was interviewing Gore Vidal, he said “Me used to go out with this bitch called Heidi Cundle,” claimed that she became pregnant with his child and called her a “minger,” (an English expression for someone who smells or is ugly). Cohen made these comments while in character as “Ali G,” an English junglist in the often unscripted program Da Ali G show where Cohen satirically interviews guests who believe his interviews to be sincere.
Cundle and Cohen met in 1987 while travelling in Israel as part of Jewish youth group Habonim. They split after the tour and Cundle asserts she never became pregnant from their liaison. Cundle is seeking damages from Cohen, HBO and his production company for ‘libel, slander, invasion of privacy, fraud, misrepresentation and emotional distress’. She is also requesting injunctive relief. The writ, filed in Los Angeles, where Cundle now lives, asks for a global recall of the television material in question.
Cundle had already made a settlement with HBO, requiring the channel to remove her name from. all “future global broadcasts.” However, she later discovered unedited versions of the offending materiel on the YouTube web site and on Finnish television. Cundle claims this material has caused her loss of reputation, stress, physical pain, humiliation, shame, mortification and hurt feelings.
This article was published Friday, March 2, 2007.
