Man Sues for More Than $110 Million After Movie 'Bruno' Labels Him a Terrorist

By PopEater / Wire Services Posted Dec 10th 2009 05:37PM

A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie 'Bruno' is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander. The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $110 million in damages. In the movie, Baron Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist trying to make it big in the United States. To achieve worldwide fame, Bruno travels to the Middle East to make peace. He interviews Abu Aita, and a caption labels the Bethlehem shopkeeper as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Abu Aita is suing CBS and Letterman's company Worldwide Pants over an interview before the film's release where the Late Show host and Baron Cohen discussed Bruno's encounter with a "terrorist."

In the interview, Baron Cohen, 37, said he set up the meeting in the West Bank with the help of a CIA agent. Baron Cohen said he feared for his safety and interviewed the "terrorist" at a secret location chosen by Abu Aita. A clip was then played on "The Late Show with David Letterman."

According to the lawsuit, however, the interview with Abu Aita took place at a hotel chosen by Baron Cohen and located in a part of the West Bank that was under Israeli military control. Film distributor NBC Universal and director Larry Charles are also named in the lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for Universal Studios declined to comment. Tom Keaney, a spokesman for David Letterman, also said he would not comment.

Baron Cohen, a British comedian, also faced multiple lawsuits after his earlier movie, "Borat," including one for $30 million filed by residents of a remote Romanian village who said they were misled into thinking the project was a documentary about poverty. Most of the lawsuits were thrown out.

Abu Aita is prominent businessman, a Christian and a "peace-loving person who abhors violence," the latest lawsuit states. Before the film, he "enjoyed a good reputation for honesty and a peaceable nature" in his community, Abu Aita's lawyers wrote.

They go on to write that any accusations or insinuations that Abu Aita is or ever was associated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, or any other terrorist activity is "utterly false and untrue."

Attorney Joseph Peter Drennan said Abu Aita was never offered a release to sign to appear in the film. "This is an important lawsuit because it is about the dignity of a specific person. It is about his reputation, about his standing in the community," Drennan said.

"It addresses a very corrosive and calumnious slur against any young Palestinian who would be a political activist on the West Bank" who would be called a "terrorist" because of his activism.

Hatem Abu Ahmad, Abu Aita's Arab-Israeli lawyer, said Baron Cohen made millions "on the back of my client."

The film drew disdain from the Israelis and Palestinians portrayed in a place Bruno calls "Middle Earth." Abu Ahmad has said the gay associations in the movie could cause danger for Abu Aita.

"This joke is very dangerous. We are not in the United States, we are not in Europe," he said. "We are in the Middle East and the world operates differently here."

An Alabama pastor who tries to talk Bruno out of being gay in the movie has said he was duped into appearing in the film through phone calls and fake Internet sites set up by Baron Cohen's cohorts. Pastor Jody Trautwein believed he was helping a German TV crew.

Drennan said he expects a hearing on the Abu Aita's complaint in late January.

Tags: Bruno, david letterman, DavidLetterman, SaschaBaronCohen

Comments

(42)

Thursday 10 December

By leroy

Lowest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

Well..Just look at him..He looks just like a terrorist..I thnk he`s just mad because Bruno exposed him for what he is..hE PROBABLY WANTS ALL THAT MONEY TO INVEST IN WEAPONS....UH UH UH I AM # 1 TWO IS NOT A WINNER AND THREE NOBODY REMEMBERS...

Friday 11 December

By Ericsons news

He looks like B.Laddin brother or decoy idiot.
Report to FBI!

By richard

Highest Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

You're one troubled soul, dude...

By gobluespartyon

This is a baseless lawsuit and just for the money everything this guy saids is a lie.

By 81840

These people that Cohn "interviews" have no idea who he is. He represents himself as whatever will get the response he wants and then edit for the biggest laugh. I don't blame anyone for being pissed off at him and I too would sue him.

Your in it for the greed which is wrong and these people know for a fact that there being interview by Cohen so they have no right being pissed off or suing since there lies and slandering Cohen.

By pugz

doesn't David Letterman know that in America were not allowed even to call them terrorists? that such a term is considered so biased and so politically un-correct among the far-left kooks who populate most talk shows now that even the sugestion that someone is a "radical activist" is just code. maybe when mr. letterman's friends get back from their vacation in GTMO, he can have them over to the house for a BBQ while that farce of a "trial" is played-out for the cameras.

By peter

he is not british, he is a welsh jew.

Ha ha ha...

By CC

Vote down Vote up Report this

Suckers! He could be the pope of freaking Rome in Blahnick rhinestone heels and a reichstag hat and I'd say you deserved to feel stupid for talking to him on camera. Close your piehole and you won't need a lawyer to make you feel better about looking like an arsehole.

By Buster

You need to learn something...Wales is part of the British Empire, as such they are BRITS by citizenship. Then again, ignorance is bliss I guess.

By Dave

High Rank Vote down Vote up Report this

SUE THAT 'MO FOR ALL HE CAN GET!!...LUV IT!

You're dead wrong Dave this person has no right to sue his lawsuit is baseless and should be throwen out of court that is what I would if I were judge.

By Sherry

Low Ranked Vote down Vote up Report this

Is this guy 4 real? Get over it...!

By stinknthinkin

"Your king Osama looks like a dirty wizard, or a homeless santa claus"... HAHAHA... Excellent.
Bruno was so much better than Borat.

By Ben from Baltimore

I hope that this guy wins his suit. If they can't prove that this guy is a terrorist, then they are in big trouble. It is called slander. I have a few Muslim friends, one of which I dated for about a year, and they are NOT terroists or terrorist supporters. You can't go around calling somebody a terrorist because of their religious, ethnic, racial background, or where they live/came from. I can't stand people who assume things without the proof to back them up.

You don't know the facts of this story the guy is in it for the money everything in this article back up Cohen. It's a baseless lawsuit and that is a fact and the guy is greedy.

By Jakob Goldstein

This is another example of a jew gone wild destroying someone's reputation. It's time for another holocost!!

By Tripp

Oh Please!!!! Get a life!

PLEASE Jakob! If we have another "Holocost" can it be to rid the world of STUPIDITY and begin with you!?!

Page 1 of 3