'Borat' producer says Rudy Giuliani tried to have the crew arrested after appearing to put a hand down his pants in front of a young female actor
- Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to have the crew of the “Borat” sequel arrested.
- The film’s producer said on a Saturday panel that he accused the crew of extortion.
- In the film, Giuliani has his hand down his pants while talking to a woman he believed was a news reporter.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The producer behind the “Borat” sequel revealed on Saturday that Rudy Giuliani called New York City police to get the film’s crew arrested.
Speaking at a panel, producer Monica Levinson said the former New York mayor and attorney to President Donald Trump accused the crew of extortion.
“He claimed we were trying to extort him at the time, which we didn’t ask for anything,” Levinson said while on a Producers Guild of America panel. “He called all of his New York City cops and said extortion, which was a federal crime.”
The film, “Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm,” features Giuliani in a hotel bedroom with Tutar — a character played by Maria Bakalova, the daughter of film lead Sacha Baron Cohen.
Giuliani is seen in a hotel room with Tutar, a news reporter at this point in the movie who’s meeting Giuliani for an interview.
At one point in the scene, Tutar and Giuliani are drinking scotch when she takes him into a hotel suite bedroom for the interview.
Giuliani can be seen tapping the small of her back with his hand. Another angle shows Tutar trying to remove the microphone wire from Giuliani’s shirt as he’s sitting on the bed. He then lies down on the bed with his hand down his pants.
Bakalova at the time of the scene’s shooting was 23. Her character, however, was just 15.
The scene exploded on social media and the news. Giuliani, after the scene came out, tried to justify what appeared to be inappropriate behavior.
He said he had just been “tucking in my shirt” into his pants in the moment.
“The Borat video is a complete fabrication. I was tucking in my shirt after taking off the recording equipment. At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate,” Giuliani wrote in a tweet. “If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.”
The former mayor of New York City said the scene was retaliation for the work he’s been doing to help Trump get re-elected. (The footage was apparently shot in July, before Giuliani’s recent attempts to discredit Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.)
“They’ll do anything. They’ve attacked me over everything possible, investigated every business dealing I’ve ever had,” he said in an interview with WABC radio. “And now the idiot Borat is going after me with a totally sensationalized false account of a ridiculous movie I guess that he’s done.”
Insider’s Sarah Al-Arshani contributed reporting.
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