UPDATED: In what may be his most outrageous prank yet, the new “Borat” film from comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen features an embarrassing scene starring Rudy Giuliani that could raise new questions about his role in President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.
The Guardian and Daily Beast report that the mockumentary, to be released Friday on Amazon Prime, shows Donald Trump’s personal attorney and former New York mayor lying on a bed in a hotel suite and reaching into his trousers.
Giuliani is in the presence of actress Maria Bakalova, who is playing Borat’s teenage daughter, Tutar, the Daily Beast said. In the plot of the film, Tutar is posing as a conservative TV journalist, “in the mold of Tomi Lahren.” She is sent by Baron Cohen’s bumbling Kazakh journalist character to lure a member of Trump’s inner circle into romance and even marriage.
The seemingly intimate moment comes after Giuliani, 76, participates in an obsequious interview with Tutar, who pretends to represent a conservative news program, The Guardian said. At the suggestion of Tutar’s faux reporter, she and Giuliani retreat to a hotel suite for a drink.
The suite is rigged with concealed cameras, which show Giuliani lying back on the bed, touching his untucked shirt and reaching into his trousers, The Guardian said. At that moment, Baron Cohen’s Borat enters the room and yells at Giuliani: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”
“After she removes his microphone, Giuliani, 76, can be seen lying back on the bed, fiddling with his untucked shirt and reaching into his trousers. They are then interrupted by Borat who runs in and says: ‘She’s 15. She’s too old for you.’” https://t.co/uxHj96Xd3y
— Matt Pearce 🦅🇺🇸 (@mattdpearce) October 21, 2020
Later Wednesday, Giuliani called into WABC radio in New York to say that nothing inappropriate happened and that he was simply tucking in his shirt after removing microphone wires.
“I had to take off the electronic equipment,” Giuliani told WABC, the New York Times reported. “I leaned back, and I tucked my shirt in, and at that point, at that point, they have this picture they take which looks doctored, but in any event, I’m tucking my shirt in. I assure you that’s all I was doing.”
“The Borat video is a complete fabrication,” Giuliani tweeted after he got off the air. “At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.”
When asked if about scene, Deputy White House Press Secretary Brian Morgenstern said, ““ have not seen it. … I will say that I’m very proud to call Mayor Giuliani a friend & a patriot & hardworking, a zealous representative of the president.”
Deputy WH Press Secretary Brian Morgenstern was asked about Giuliani’s “compromising” appearance in Borat film: “I have not seen it…i will say that I’m very proud to call Mayor Giuliani a friend & a patriot & hardworking, a zealous representative of the president…” pic.twitter.com/bh1Qi46k5C
— Laura Figueroa Hernandez (@Laura_Figueroa) October 21, 2020
Giuliani offered another take on the scene in July when he told Page Six that he called the New York police on Baron Cohen. He explained that the prankster comedian interrupted his interview with a female reporter about the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by bursting into a room at the Mark Hotel wearing what he described as a “pink transgender outfit.” Giuliani said the interview took place in a room that was fitted out with a professional set-up of lights and camera.
Giuliani told Page Six he didn’t recognize Baron Cohen at first, who was wearing “a pink bikini, with lace, underneath a translucent mesh top, it looked absurd.” Guiliani continued: “I thought this must be a scam or a shake-down. … I only later realized it must have been Sacha Baron Cohen. I thought about all the people he previously fooled and I felt good about myself because he didn’t get me.”
The Daily Beast said the film, titled “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” makes it clear that Baron Cohen most certainly did “get” Giuliani. Baron Cohen also wrote the film, which is directed by Jason Wolinar.
Sacha Baron Cohen tricks Rudy Giuliani into going back to hotel room with 'Borat's daughter' https://t.co/DcVF1ytbIe pic.twitter.com/eAMxzcRbFt
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) October 21, 2020
The release of the film comes as Giuliani has made himself a key figure in efforts by the Trump campaign to push what they say is damaging information about Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Giuliani has said he came into possession of information found on a laptop that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden. In interviews, he has tried to push a narrative about Hunter Biden’s alleged corruption, personal excesses and drug addiction.
In another tweet, Giuliani said that the early release of the scene was a scheme to discredit his accusations against Hunter Biden and his ability to serve as a Trump surrogate.
The Guardian said there were other ways Giuliani doesn’t “acquit himself well” in his encounter with the young woman, as he appears to believe that he is genuinely being courted. He becomes flirtatious, drinks Scotch, pats her and at one point boasts that Trump’s actions in the spring saved millions of lives from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Baron Cohen’s first “Borat” mockumentary, which made $262 million on its release in 2006, relied on a similar premise of his iconic Kazakh character traveling to the United States and interacting with real people, often with the result of revealing their hypocrisy, prejudice or corruption.
In this new film, Borat is dispatched by the Kazakh government to present a bribe to an ally of Donald Trump in order to ingratiate his country with the administration. Borat’s daughter ends up being the bribe.
This story has been updated to include Rudy Giuliani’s response to the “Borat” scene and a comment from the White House.
