Legal Suits to Make Benefit Great Firms of Lawyers

I have withstood the hype tide and not yet seen Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan*, but I have been keeping up on the pile of lawsuits heading the way of Sacha Baron Coen, et. al.. Over at FindLaw, Julie Hilden examines one of the suits and its chances for success. One part of the discussion I find particularly disturbing:

The plaintiffs say things happened as follows: Cohen and his producers plied them with liquor until they were intoxicated, and then got them to sign releases - based on assurances that the film would only be shown in Europe, and that it would not disclose their names, their college, or the name of the fraternity to which they belonged. (They also claim they relied on representations made on a purported website for the production, and believed they would have a chance to 'affirm or disaffirm' the releases after they were filmed.)

The plaintiffs also allege that while drunk, they 'engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in.' They say the film put them in a false light when it showed this behavior, and thus depicted them as 'insensitive to minorities.' But that's putting it kindly: Viewers of 'Borat' will witness them make blatantly racist and sexist statements. For instance, they agreed with Borat that slavery was a good idea.

The emphasis is mine. So, it's perfectly OK to get on camera and make "blatantly racist and sexist statements" as long as Mom and Dad aren't going to see it? Nice! So much for ethics and/or morality being what you do when nobody else is looking.

* For what it's worth, I saw Borat open Saturday Night Live this past weekend and wasn't particularly impressed. But SNL has a way of sucking the funny out of just about everything, so maybe that's not an accurate impression.