The first lawsuit is in.Variety reports that on May 22 a woman from Palmdale, CA, sued Sacha Baron Cohen and NBC Universal over a stint at a bingo game two years ago.
Cohen was filming a segment for his upcoming Brüno, due in theaters July 10, when Richelle Olson "struggled" with the film crew. She claims Cohen used obscenities in front of an elderly audience, at which point she tried to take a microphone away from him. She says that Cohen's crew then attacked her, resulting in Olson leaving the event in tears. The lawsuit says she subsequently fell to the floor hitting a concrete slab and is now "seriously injured" and in need of a wheelchair or cane.
We expected something like this sooner or later, after what happened three years ago. As a result of his antics in Borat, Cohen received lawsuits from several of the movie's victims, including a driving instructor, two etiquette teachers, and perhaps most famously, a group of frat boys who made racist and sexist comments on camera in a drunken stupor.
Courts dismissed several of the suits, claiming that contracts were signed relieving the filmmakers from liability. Although Olson signed a similar agreement, her lawsuit claims that the contract contained misrepresentations and that she signed under "duress."
It's unclear whether the episode made it into the movie, but we wouldn't be surprised if we suddenly hear about other lawsuits in the weeks and months following Brüno's release.