The "black hooker" speaks; Twentieth Century Fox fires back at some of the plaintiffs suing it, calling it a "fatuous" attempt to thwart free speech; two Romanian villagers sue for US$30 million and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan encourages everyone to laugh along with Borat.

From The Toronto Star - Luenell laid it all out here for Borat:

It may have been the role of a lifetime for Luenell, a fortysomething comedian, singer and actor who has had small roles in only a handful of feature movies. But she didn't know it at the time.

"I was petrified," she recalls, from her Los Angeles home base. "These are white people who had probably never had a black person on their front porch ever."

In the end, that was the dinner party that stuck — the one where Borat managed to charmingly insult just about everyone at the table before returning from the washroom with a bag of human feces. And, finally, bringing a prostitute. The prostitute was Luenell and the trick, she said, was keeping up with the crazy faux-Kazakh.

"The camera crew was petrified to death," she says. "(Borat) and fat-ass Azamat (Borat's producer in the film, played by Ken Davitian) are running through these hotels, naked, across the country, with police being called on us and camera crews running behind. It was insane."

Also, it turns out, potentially libellous, as several of Borat's unwitting dupes are currently threatening lawsuits. "All they're mad about is that their racist, sexist views are now on screen for the world to see how they really feel when they think nobody's looking," Luenell says. "There was no trickery or anything like that. They just got busted."

From Yahoo! News - Fox rebuffs 'fatuous' Borat lawsuit:

"Plaintiffs may claim that they were tricked 'into making fools out of themselves' and becoming 'unsuspecting players' in the movie 'Borat,"' the studio said in opposing the request. "They never contend ... that bigoted and misogynistic statements were put into their mouths."

The studio and three production entities are being sued by a pair of University of South Carolina students whose seemingly drunken on-camera interviews were included in Sacha Baron Cohen's outlandish mockumentary about a tour of America by a faux news reporter from Kazakhstan.

A temporary restraining order against the film's continued distribution was denied November 9, when the suit was first filed. A hearing has been set for December 7 in the Santa Monica branch of California Superior Court on the students' subsequent request for a preliminary injunction.

The essence of the legal argument comes down to whether consent forms signed by those interviewed will stand up against suggestions that subjects were improperly duped into cooperating with the production. The plaintiffs' attorney also has pointed to his clients' apparent inebriation as a possible issue in the case.

From the L.A. Times -- 2 villagers in Borat sue Fox, filmmakers for $30 million:

Two residents of Glod, Romania, who claimed they were tricked into participating in the satirical film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," and were then depicted as thieves, racists and "simpletons," sued 20th Century Fox and the filmmakers for $30 million Monday alleging fraud and civil rights violations.

Filed in federal district court in New York by Nicolae Todorache and Spridom Ciorebea, the suit claims the plaintiffs fall under a class of people protected by the laws of the U.S., the United Nations and other international laws.

"This film didn't use a make-believe village or actors. It used a real village, with real-life [villagers] and affected real lives," said attorney Edward D. Fagan, who filed the lawsuit.

The Romanian villagers "are unlike other persons who are portrayed in the film," the suit states. "They do not speak English. They do not read English."

Gregg Brilliant, a Fox spokesman, said the village was used as a set to portray a fictional village in Kazakhstan. "And this scene and the entire movie uses satire to expose racism, bigotry and intolerance."

This marks the second lawsuit filed against Fox and "Borat," which has grossed more than $90 million in the U.S. in its three weeks in release.

From the Times Online -- Let's all laugh with Borat, says Kazakh president:

... At a press conference intended to emphasise bilateral relations, alternative energy supplies and the fact that 128 British companies were investing in Kazakhstan, the first question of the press conference was about the film.

Mr Nazarbayev, round-faced, clean-shaven and dressed in a sober blue suit with bright blue silk tie, chose to come out fighting. “The film was created by a comedian, so let’s laugh at it,” he said.

But, he noted sharply, Mr Borat had never been to Kazakhstan; the film had been made “in an impoverished part of Romania”, using local gypsies to play Kazakhs and an American student to play a particularly drunken one. Mr Nazarbayev noted that some of those who had appeared in the film were now taking Baron Cohen to court.

“There is a saying that any publicity is good publicity,” the President said. “By asking this question you already want to know more about Kazakhstan, and I invite you to visit.”