Oh Bruno! Tsk Tsk. So much beef! Everyone’s intent on getting your short-shorts into a twist. Converting that train of thought into action is Mike Skiff, an LA based cameraman who’s suing Sacha Baron Cohen, the acteur who plays Bruno (also [yay] Borat). The charges against new Dad Cohen and his production are pretty serious comprising assault and battery, violation of civil rights, and inciting a riot. Skiff is asking them to cough up $25,000 for all the alleged misdemeanors.
Bruno’s capers at a Prop 8 rally in LA is where the problem lies. Apparently Skiff was out shooting the demonstration which is when Cohen’s filming supposedly led Skiff to become, “injured in his health, strength, and activity, sustaining injury to his body and shock and injury to his nervous system and person, all of which injuries causes and continue to cause Plaintiff great physical, mental, and emotion pain and suffering.”
The legal statement, in a very legal-eagle (read: confusing) way explains the mishap. It reads, “In order to create dramatic content for it’s production, Bruno Productions’ intent was to promote violent discord between the assembled yes and no factions. In start contrast with the ‘ultra gay’ Bruno character, members of the crew of Bruno Productions
carried ‘Yes On Proposition 8’ signs contrived for the sole purpose of inciting and sparking unrest to enhance the dramatic effect of what they may capture on film…”
That was the easy part. What the rest of the lengthy document explains is that Skiff was apparently caught up in the scuffle that resulted from this “discord”. He was scared he was going to get beat up by all the wooden signs. Note: he didn’t say he was actually beat up.
Skiff also says that he’s gay and was in the process of trying to document an important moment in the community’s history when the Bruno team totally messed things up, and he believes that, “…Plaintiff sexual orientation was the very purpose of Bruno Productions perpetration of the violence and intimidation against Plaintiff: all for its own commercial benefit. Bruno Productions conduct was, inescapably, an egregious affront to the homosexual community, and a despicable example of discrimination, manifested by violence, intimidation and threats, perpetrated on Plaintiff.”
Ergo, pay up. Not the first time that Borat or Bruno have been dragged into court, so he should be used to it by now. Romanians and the Kazakhstan government have already tried suing Sacha.
[Photo: WENN]
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