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Ali G sued over TV row

26/02/2007

Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued by a woman who says she was defamed on his Ali G show.

The woman claims that he referred to her by name and called her his "bitch" during an interview with Gore Vidal in 2004.

Ali G, the tongue-in-cheek gangster leader from Staines in west London, then allegedly went on to call her a "minger", made crude remarks about her body and said he had got her pregnant.

The woman, who was born in the UK but now lives in California, met Cohen on a youth group trip to Israel in 1987.

Although her name was edited out, a clip of the show with her name still in it emerged on the internet video site YouTube.

She is now suing Cohen and his production company for libel, slander, fraud, invasion of privacy, misrepresentation and emotional distress. Her writ, which was filed in a Los Angeles court, is seeking global recall of the material.

It is not the first time that Cohen's on-screen antics have upset people. Romanian villagers attempted to sue him after they claimed they had been misled about their role in his film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, and an Israeli comedian plans to sue over a phrase Borat uses which he says he created.

He also upset Americans who he poked fun at in his Borat film.

When accepting his Golden Globe award last month, he thanked "every American who has not sued me so far".


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