Borat is back, only this time Sacha Baron Cohen’s alter ego is parading around in prosthetics and wigs during the time of President Trump. While fans of outrageous pranks may find the new movie set to air on Amazon Prime just what the pandemic ordered, others are saying the Borat format is broken and there is no need to trick people into saying something absurd on camera when plenty of people do that in real time, on their own, every day.
One of those people wishing there was not a sequel to Cohen’s first film is Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer–and the man spear-heading the hunt on Hunter Biden and his alleged involvement in pay-for-play deals by garnering access through his father, Joe Biden–finds himself part of this story.
Giuliani was pranked by Cohen’s character and caught in a questionable situation on camera with an actress. The movie captures an interview in a hotel suite near the end of the film with Giuliani and 24-year old actress, Maria Bakalova, who plays Cohen’s onscreen 15-year-old daughter, Tutar. The plot has Borat wanting to “gift” his daughter to Giuliani to pay respect to President Trump, though he ultimately has a change of heart, and Cohen (as Borat) attempts to disrupt the interview disguised as a boom mic operator.
Then things get strange. After Borat leaves, Giuliani and the actress go into a bedroom to have a drink, and he asks her for her name and address. The camera captures Bakalova retrieving the microphone Giuliani was wearing as he gives her a pat on the back. Next, Bakalova turns away, while Giuliani lays on the bed and reaches into his pants. Cohen then storms into the room wearing a wig, beard and women’s lingerie and exclaims, “She’s 15, she’s too old for you.”
On Wednesday, Giuliani called the video a “total fabrication,” and warned that “If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise, he is a stone-cold liar.”
Giuliani claimed on his radio show that he was led to believe the interview was legit, and said the reason for the odd scene in the bedroom was because some of his electric equipment became dislodged. “Some of it was in the back and my shirt came a little out, although my clothes were entirely on,” he explained. “I leaned back, and I tucked my shirt in, and at that point, they have this picture they take, which looks doctored, but in any event, I’m tucking my shirt in. I assure you that’s all I was doing.”
Once Giuliani realized the interview was a hoax, he spoke with his security team and called the police. He pointed out that he’s not very popular in Hollywood, which he feels led to him being targeted, saying “Everybody in Hollywood hates me.”
Giuliani believes it’s not a coincidence that this happened right in the middle of his efforts to expose Hunter Biden regarding his dealings in the Ukraine, saying in a tweet: “It’s not an accident that it happens that I turn in all this evidence on their prince and darling Joe Biden, who’s one of the biggest crooks of the last 30 years.”
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