Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, tried to indict the “Borat” team’s NYPD for “extortion” after they filmed him in an embarrassing scene reaching into his pants on a man’s bed. Manhattan hotel, revealed a producer of the film on Saturday.
The scene showed Giuliani lying on his back and reaching toward his crotch while “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” actress Maria Bakalova, playing a reporter, stood after an interview with him. Giuliani claims he was tucking in his shirt.
When he realized that the crew had played a prank on him, Giuliani “claimed that we were trying to extort money from him at the time. [but] we don’t ask for anything, ”said film producer Monica Levinson at a Producers Guild of America panel, which was first reported by Deadline.
“He called all of his New York City cops and said ‘extortion,’ which was a federal crime,” Levinson added. It was “smart to mention that”
he added, indicating that it could get the attention of the police, even though it was a completely false claim.
After the dust piled up, the hotel locked the “Borat” crew outside the suite where Giuliani had been filmed, Levinson said. But the crew had already transferred the images out of the room. “That’s always first,” he explained. “There are always ways to make sure we get the data.”
But his equipment remained locked in the room and they were forced to rent new equipment, he said, Deadline reported. “It was a very stressful moment that night because the hotel wouldn’t let us take anything out of the rooms,” he added.
Giuliani told the New York Post’s Page Six last summer that he called New York City police after “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen entered the hotel room in a pink thong.
“This guy comes running in, dressed in a madman, what I’d say is a pink transgender suit,” Giuliani told Page Six, in a transphobic speech. “It seemed absurd. He had a beard, his legs were bare, and he was not what I would call an attractive distraction. “
He said that “only later did he realize that it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought of all the people he cheated on before and I felt good about myself because he didn’t understand me. “
Giuliani did not provide Page Six details about his conversations with city police. And it ended in “Borat”.
Nothing came of Giuliani’s complaints, but Levinson was concerned at the time after spending about 19 hours behind bars while filming the original 2006 “Borat.”
“We ended up chatting with our attorneys,” Levinson said. “I called the production team and said, ‘Let’s get everyone to New Jersey tonight.’ It was 11 at night. I didn’t want the whole team to repeat what happened to me in the first movie. ”
Levinson was interviewed along with several other Zoom nominees as part of the lead-up to the PGA virtual awards ceremony on Thursday. Levinson and Borat co-producers Anthony Hines and Cohen have been nominated for the Best Theatrical Film Producer award.
Bakalova has been nominated for an Oscar for her role in “Borat.” The film won the best comedy award and Cohen won the best comedy actor award at the Golden Globes.
Giuliani has earned a Razzie nomination for worst supporting actor. He could not immediately be reached for comment on Levinson’s comments.
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