Borat

ALTHOUGH IT has been the No.1 movie two weeks running, the true measure of the success of "Borat" may actually be found in the number of individuals and organizations who hate it. Or want a piece of it. There are the Kazakhs, who are furious at the way the film depicts them; the Turkish Web site creator who claims the character is based on him; the Jews who say the film's anti-Semitism will not be seen as the satire it's intended to be,...

Built for discomfort, the Borat movie squeezes squirms and politically incorrect laughter from disarmed audiences. Potentially offensive to women, Pentecostal Christians, frat boys, gays, and so many others, the new film comedy has a raft of nasty things to say about Jewish people as well. In the movie, Kazak peasants participate in the "running of the Jew," a festival in which a hideously caricatured puppet is chased before it lays a "Jew egg" that is beaten by townsfolk.

Producers of a film starring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen say that his alter ego Borat, a bigoted TV journalist from Kazakhstan, isn't about making fun of Kazakhs. They say the idea is to make fun of bigotry in Western society through a character who is outrageously open about his racist, anti-Semitic and sexist convictions. Kazakhstan was chosen because of its obscurity, they say. Maybe then we Kazakhs should welcome today's opening of the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan because the idea behind it is a noble one. We, too, are against anti-Semitism, racism and sexism.

ACCORDING TO radaronline.com, the man who plays the over-endowed son of "Borat" is gay porn star Stonie (aka Adrian Cortez). "Borat" producers contacted Stonie's manager, David Forest, in June 2005, he tells Radar. "They wanted to find someone who would look 13 or 14 but was actually of legal age and would do frontal nudity," he recalls. Stonie immediately sprang to mind, Forest says, because "he's a small-framed boy but has a large organ. " Uh, he's 25. He's not a boy. Stonie's role took one long day to shoot, and most of the time he just hung around the set. Alas, Stonie wasn't invited to the "Borat" premiere, nor to the private, members-only screening, but Forest says the role has still allowed the film community to see another side of the star of "Brig Brats.

WACKY SACHA BARON Cohen ("Borat," "Da Ali G Show") has gotten engaged to wacky Isla Fisher ("Wedding Crashers"). London's News of the World reported the news a la Borat: "Jagshemash, my News in the World friends - it Borat here with terrible reportings to make about infamous Jew Sacha Baron Cohen. "He has finally convinced Isla Fisher to make a marriage with him next summer after she choose to turn into a Jew last week. "She convert because he won't 'marry outside his faith' but I wonder why they want to get married in first place - he not even related to her. " Jude, Sienna, wassup?

What do you call a seminar on the legal ramifications of Borat? "Legal Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Lawyers"? As it turned out Thursday night, organizers went for the more prosaic "Is Borat Liable: Offensive or Inventive?" Let cinema buffs and sociologists debate the coarse humor of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the hit pseudo-documentary in which Sacha Baron Cohen's character, a boorish Kazak journalist, searches for America.

The news media haven't figured out what label to pin on James O'Keefe, the wily troublemaker whose hidden-camera sting could be the smoking gun that leads to a cutoff of further federal funding for NPR. The press has resorted to all kinds of fanciful descriptions, dubbing O'Keefe a conservative activist, guerrilla documentarian, gonzo journalist, modern-day muckraker, independent filmmaker, citizen-journalist, daredevil videographer and video-sting impresario....

Much as I hesitate to use the words "stimulus" and "package" in relation to "Bruno," I could see an economic benefit to the movie's production. Sacha Baron Cohen has taken a portion of the pile he made from "Borat" and plowed it into "Bruno," the purported story of a cartoonishly gay German fashionista encountering homophobia in America. The production must have been an incredible boon to the "adult novelty" industry - in one scene, Bruno attacks a karate instructor with no fewer than three of these implements.

Borat is many things: a sidesplitting triumph of slapstick and scatology, a runaway moneymaker and budding franchise, the worst thing to happen to Kazakstan since the Mongol hordes, and, as columnist David Brooks astutely points out, a supreme display of elite snobbery reveling in the humiliation of the hoaxed hillbilly. But it is one thing more, something Brooks alluded to in passing but which requires at least one elaboration: an unintentionally revealing demonstration of the unfortunate attitude of many liberal Jews toward working-class American Christians, especially evangelicals.

THE MOVIE "Borat," which opened on Friday, had me and the rest of the audience laughing hysterically from beginning to end. But I must admit I had trouble laughing at some parts in the middle. "Borat" is the latest offering from British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of HBO's "Da Ali G Show," which introduced American audiences to the character Borat, a hapless Kazakh television reporter in an ill-fitting suit. The movie's full title, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America to Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan," hints at the premise: that Borat travels to the United States to film what it is that makes America great.

The news media haven't figured out what label to pin on James O'Keefe, the wily troublemaker whose hidden-camera sting could be the smoking gun that leads to a cutoff of further federal funding for NPR. The press has resorted to all kinds of fanciful descriptions, dubbing O'Keefe a conservative activist, guerrilla documentarian, gonzo journalist, modern-day muckraker, independent filmmaker, citizen-journalist, daredevil videographer and video-sting impresario....

Much as I hesitate to use the words "stimulus" and "package" in relation to "Bruno," I could see an economic benefit to the movie's production. Sacha Baron Cohen has taken a portion of the pile he made from "Borat" and plowed it into "Bruno," the purported story of a cartoonishly gay German fashionista encountering homophobia in America. The production must have been an incredible boon to the "adult novelty" industry - in one scene, Bruno attacks a karate instructor with no fewer than three of these implements.

Bill Maher demands proof. What he gets as he spans the globe interviewing religious fundamentalists of various faiths are testimonials offering no tangible evidence of a deity. Don't tell him it's called faith precisely because there is no tangible evidence. The millennial incarnation of Doubting Thomas, Maher - controversialist and host of HBO's Real Time - is a devout skeptic. And he is undeterred. In Religulous (rhymes with ridiculous), he impiously demands that true believers - Christian, Jew, Mormon, Muslim, even the pothead priest at Cannabis Ministry in Amsterdam - tell him why they believe.

GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.'s recently appointed chief executive, Andrew Witty, found lots of inspiration as he ran the London Marathon in April. There was a blind man running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Another man carried a sign that read: "I've run 35 marathons in the last 22 days. " But what really got Witty and other runners kicking was a man in a "Borat mankini," the low-slung one-piece swimsuit for men made famous in the movie Borat. "That was the biggest incentive for everybody to speed up," he said, grimacing to suggest that runners were eager to get away from the dubious choice of sportswear.

IMAGINE that the ad at the right had run in the Daily News. And assume that fans of extreme fighting packed a Philly venue and got tanked up on $1 beers in anticipation of watching some cage-fighting and hot chicks. Then, after a couple of matches, things took a strange twist when two guys entered the cage and started to embrace and remove each other's clothes. What would've been the Philly reaction? Imagine if 20,000 people came to a wing-eating contest and this occurred?

Back in the classic '60s sitcom, bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams) was wont to say, "Missed it by that much," when, in fact, he had missed something by a country mile. You could apply the same observation to this facile big-screen remake starring Steve Carell: "Missed it by that much. " The movie cannibalizes the basic framework of the old TV spy spoof: the premise, the main characters, the catchphrases, and many of the sight gags, including the series of slamming steel gates Max has to pass through to enter C.O.N.

Grammy wins are great. And for Dave Grohl, outrunning the legend of his first band, Nirvana, by making his own music memorable is even better. Despite selling out the Wachovia Spectrum on Thursday night, though, with the lure of the Foo Fighters' quiet verses, blaring choruses, and wary-yet-romantic lyrics, Dave Grohl isn't comfortable as an arena rocker yet. Grohl strode the stage's extended catwalk like a Project Runway vixen, barking through...

Despite all the negative chatter the issue of immigration generates, the fact is that Americans love the trial-and-error tragicomic saga of fresh-off-the-boat immigrants who try to fit like square pegs into America's round hole. The latest proof is the runaway success of the movie Borat. Before there was Borat, there was Taxi's Latka Gravas, Andy Kaufman's lovable mechanic of mysterious Eastern European descent. In between, there was, and for that matter is, Gogol Bordello, led by human-cannonball front man Eugene H?tz, perhaps best known for his role as Alex in the movie version of Everything Is Illuminated.

AFTER TATTLE spoke with Mamie Gummer a few weeks ago in NYC, we spotted the 23-year-old actress complaining to a man in the Regency Hotel hallway about another member of the press. "They asked me how my mother does dishes," an exasperated Mamie said. That's what happens when you have your first major movie role and your mom is Meryl Streep. It was only a few years ago at Northwestern that Mamie had her first stage role - as a golf club-wielding woman in a fur coat - but she's now starring with a powerhouse cast in "Evening" (review on Page 49)

If you thought the hotel-room wrestling scene in Borat was extreme (and extremely funny), check out Taxidermia. This wild, multigenerational saga from Hungary's Gyorgy Palfi makes Sacha Baron Cohen's potty-humored faux-doc look like a kid's trip to the candy store. Visually dazzling and outlandishly obscene, Taxidermia begins in old Red Army days, with a lowly orderly prowling around the farmhouse of his lieutenant, spying on the officer's daughters as they undress and bathe. After a not-to-be-believed scene that brings new meaning to the phrase "hot sex," the orderly Vendel beds (in a manner of speaking)