Legal News

The Lawsuit Generator that is Sacha Baron Cohen

By Ashby Jones

Seriously. Who needs mortgage-backed securitization work when the nation’s got Sacha Baron Cohen? His 2006 movie “Borat” generated some real work for 20th Century Fox’s outside counsel, namely Hogan & Hartson’s Slade Metcalf and Katherine Bolger. And it appears that his forthcoming movie, “Bruno,” has already triggered the need for some litigation help (though we’re a bit saddened to see that Eminem won’t be filing suit over the stunt pulled the other night at the MTV Movie Awards).

The apparently first Bruno-inspired lawsuit: A woman named Richelle Olson sued Cohen and NBC Universal late last month, claiming an incident at a charity bingo tournament that was filmed for the upcoming “Bruno” left her disabled. Olson claims she was severely injured after struggling with Cohen and his film crew at the event, held in Palmdale, Calif., two years ago. The lawsuit states she now needs a wheelchair or cane to move around. Click here for the AP story; here for Gawker’s take.

Messages sent by AP to publicists for Cohen and NBC Universal weren’t returned on Wednesday.

On first blush, we know, the terms “charity bingo event” and “left her disabled” don’t exactly seem to go together. According to the AP, Bruno and his crew finagled his way into a Lancaster, Calif., bingo event. As might be expected, some mayhem ensued and Olsen fell to the floor, hitting her head.

As Gawker points out, it does seem a little odd that Olson would only claim $25,000 in damages, especially given the claim that she suffered brain bleeding. Maybe it’s Olson’s clever way of ensuring that heavyweight BigLaw lawyers won’t be handling the case for the defendants.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 04, 2009 (boomark / email).