Monday Morning Quarterback: Borat Shocker

By BOP Staff

November 8, 2006

Hey Borat, which direction is your salary headed?

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column

Borat likes you! Borat likes sex!

Kim Hollis: Though we know that people in the film signed releases, what do you think is the chance that some lawsuits (other than Mahir the I Kiss You Guy) come about as a result of Borat?

Tim Briody: I'm sure there's boxes and boxes of release forms. At least, Fox hopes there are.

Joel Corcoran: About 100%. Trust me, people will sue over anything, and I'm sure there are some attorneys out there willing to prepare the papers.

Reagen Sulewski: I think there may be a number of people that try, considering the oodles of cash that are present now, but these people needed to read their consent forms better.

David Mumpower: The film has an $18 million budget and appears likely to surpass $100 million. All of the creative accounting in the world can't hide those profits and some of these people are right to feel like victims. The woman who was fired as a tv producer in Jackson, Mississippi in particular has a case.

Reagen Sulewski: I feel for her to an extent, but as a producer, you're hired to be savvy and make things run smoothly.




Advertisement



Joel Corcoran: That is probably the strongest case out there, David, at least from what I'm aware of. But even then, if she signed the consent and release, she signed the consent and release. About the only argument she would have is that she was pressured into signing the form or deceptively was tricked into signing a consent and release disguised as some other document.

David Mumpower: How much vetting should a happy talk noon news show producer be expected to do? If you have seen the footage, you can see how outrageous his behavior was. It was reasonable of her to expect him to behave acceptably and she shouldn't be the fall guy for his actions. He got her fired and now he's making millions from the video.

Reagen Sulewski: if you read her story though, she was not directly fired because of this incident. There were several months between then and now. Now, if I were Cohen, I'd probably feel bad about the situation, but the buck ultimately stopped with her.

Joel Corcoran: I'm not saying it's right, but it's probably legal, David. If she signed the agreement, she signed it. If Fox used the typical film-maker's consent and release (which I'm sure they did), then she probably signed away any right to any recourse for any fall-out from the film.

David Mumpower: It was the starting point of the decline, the moment from which her every move became questionable to her bosses. These guerilla video situations create troubling legal questions and I can easily see Borat losing this one.

Kim Hollis: Right, Reagen. We have no idea what the whole story with the producer was, and I would imagine that the TV station has documented it well for legal purposes. There may be things there she wouldn't want to come out.


Continued:       1       2       3

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.