Sacha Baron Cohen • Bizarre reporter • Rudy Giuliani • Borat Sagdiyev

Borat Comes Out With Message of Support for Embattled Rudy Giuliani

In a short video clip posted to Twitter, Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh alter ego warns off the "fake news media" from misreporting about a compromising hotel scene involving President Trump's personal attorney and a young woman.

With Rudy Giuliani the center of controversy over a compromising bedroom scene in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, the former mayor of New York and present personal attorney to President Donald Trump has been given a message of support from an unlikely source: Borat Sagdiyev.

Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh alter ego posted an official statement on Twitter on Thursday night just before the final presidential debate. In the short clip, Borat says, "I here to defend America's Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. What was an innocent sexy time encounter with a consenting man and my 15-year-old daughter has been turned into something disgusting by fake news media."

He continues, "I warn you, anyone else tries this and Rudolph will not hesitate to reach into his legal briefs and whip out his subpoenas."

Giuliani has faced a litany of questions over a scene in Baron Cohen’s mockumentary Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a sequel to 2006's global hit Borat. 

In the scene in question, Giuliani is in a New York hotel room expecting to be interviewed about COVID-19 and the Trump administration's response to the pandemic. He then follows a young woman named Tutar, who he thinks is a journalist, into a bedroom rigged with several hidden cameras. They are seen to flirt and Giuliani asks for her number and address. The young lady then helps Giuliani take off recording equipment, he lies back on the bed and has his hands in his pants when Baron Cohen, disguised in women's underwear, bursts in yelling that the woman is underage.

Giuliani addressed the controversial scene on his weekly radio program Wednesday afternoon, and described the film as "a hit job." "I am tucking my shirt in, I assure you, that’s all that I was doing," he said. He added that he realized he was being set up when the woman asked whether he wanted a massage.

In tweets on the same day, Giuliani said, "At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise, he is a stone-cold liar."

Baron Cohen himself also responded to Giuliani's comments, telling Good Morning America on Friday, "if the president's lawyer found what he did there appropriate behavior, then heaven knows what he's done with other female journalists in hotel rooms."

"I just urge everyone to watch the movie. It is what it is. He did what he did," Baron Cohen added. "And make your own mind up. It was pretty clear to us."

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM BORAT SAGDIYEV pic.twitter.com/vM92Lam5vV

— Borat (@BoratSagdiyev) October 23, 2020

Back in July, when the Borat sequel was being filmed, Giuliani told Page Six that he had foiled a prank being played on him by someone who he later realized was Baron Cohen.

Giuliani says he did not immediately recognize the British comedian. "I only later realized it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought about all the people he previously fooled, and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me," he said. Giuliani called the NYPD, but Baron Cohen was not apprehended.

The former mayor held no grudges and told Page Six he is a fan of the chameleon-like actor. "I am a fan of some of his movies, Borat in particular, because I’ve been to Kazakhstan," he said before adopting the Borat accent and adding, "'She is my sister. She is number four prostitute in all of Kazakhstan.' That was pretty funny."

Oct. 23, 9:17 a.m. This story has been updated with Baron Cohen's response to Giuliani.

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