Will we be hearing about lawsuits against the Borat movie for the next few years? On the heels of frat boys and transit workers suing the producers of Borat last year, a New York City businessman is suing Twentieth Century Fox for the "unauthorized and blatantly illegal use" of his likeness in the movie. Jeffrey Lemerond is best known to Borat viewers as the New Yorker who runs away from the faux Kazakh reporter played by Sacha Baron Cohen. The Smoking Gun posted the federal lawsuit; here's the explanation of exactly which horrified New Yorker Lemerond is:
Results tagged “centuryfox”
We saw Spider-man take over the city for a week, now get ready for The Silver Surfer to take over your change purse.
The obvious 800-pound, 2000-pound or even 20-ton gorilla in the room is anyway. Just brave the crowds and get it over with already.
The holidays are upon us. Tomorrow sees the release of two of the more eagerly awaited films of the season, and we haven't even hit Thanksgiving yet! We've been hearing fantastic things about the Johnny Cash biopic ; Phoenix sings all the songs himself. We're not really sure whether that's a plus or not, though, no matter how well he sings.
Hollywood has repeatedly opted to film blatantly New York movies in other locales and specifically Canada (such as Rent, Rudy: The Rudy Giuliani Story, Jackie Chan's Rumble in the Bronx etc), and now they've even relocated our city's great Museum of Natural History. According to the Vancouver Sun, Ben Stiller is set to star in Stephen Sommers' A Night at the Museum, a family comedy, loosely based on the children's book by Milan Trenc, about an incompetent security guard at the Museum of Natural History who accidentally triggers an ancient curse, causing the display exhibits to come back to life. Supposedly, 20th Century Fox was prepared to shoot the $140-million film in Montreal, but Stiller demanded the filming be shifted over to Vancouver. Brian Baker, from Quebec film technicians union, called the recent move a total disaster, insisting the significant amount of work and money lost to the city is "heartbreaking." Gothamist can't help but think the only real heartbreaking issue is that Stiller didn't request the film be shot where it belongs -- New York City. Photo credit: Jake Dobkin

Aaron Karo, author, Ruminations on Twentysomething Life



