Borat’s Real Life Co-Stars

Sacha Baron Cohen’s comic creation Borat, the Kazakhstani reporter with a penchant for asking inappropriate questions, has not only attracted enough people to theaters this past weekend to make Borat: Cultural Learnings On America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan the number one picture at the box office, but to set people talking about which scenes were improvised in the film and which scenes were scripted.

Now, many of the real life people who crossed paths with Cohen’s Borat have started speaking out about their unintentional brush with fame. Reactions range from cautiously enthusiastic to embarrassed to anger at feeling duped.

• Writer Emanuel Levy has a great piece on his website about the making of the film.

• This BBC report talks to feminist Linda Stein, public speaking coach Pat Haggerty and Virginia rodeo manager Bobby Rowe.
• FHM Magazine spoke with Bobby Rowe, Maryland car salesman Jim Sale and frat boy David Corcoran.
• Newsweek also spoke to numerous folks who encountered Borat.
• Linda Stein also wrote about her experience for the Manhattan weekly Downtown Express.
• Some encounters did not end well for their participants, as news producer Dharma Arthur relates.
• Here’s another participant in the rodeo scene giving their impression of what happened when Borat paid them a visit.
• One of the three frat brothers from the University of South Carolina talks to The State about how he and his frat brothers became involved with the film.
• And here’s a story that details what might have been an alternate ending to the film with Pam Anderson.