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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Isobel Lewis

Rudy Giuliani tried to have Borat 2 crew arrested for extortion, producer claims

Photograph: Getty/Shutterstock

Rudy Giuliani reportedly tried to have the Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm crew arrested for extortion.

Trump’s personal lawyer and former New York mayor Giuliani was an unsuspecting participant in 2020’s Borat sequel, having agreed to take part in an interview with Tutar (Maria Bakalova), Borat’s teenage daughter.

After the interview had wrapped up, the pair went for a drink in Giuliani’s hotel bedroom, where the lawyer and former New York mayor appeared to adjust himself in Tutar’s company.

Giuliani later accused Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen of being a “stone-cold liar”, for implying that the scene showed anything other than him simply “tucking in his shirt”.

Appearing at a Producers Guild of America panel on Saturday (20 March), Borat 2 producer Monica Levinson said that Giuliani had tried to have the crew arrested during the production process.

Giuliani and Bakalova in Borat 2 (Amazon Prime)

“He claimed we were trying to extort him at the time, which we didn’t ask for anything,” Levinson said.

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“He called all of his New York City cops and said extortion, which was a federal crime. Very smart to bring that up.”

While the team weren’t arrested, they were locked out of the suite they had been filming in, with Levinson admitting that they had luckily already taken the footage out of the room.

“That’s always out first,” she said. “We would hide tapes in our pants. There’s always ways to make sure we got out the data.”

The team ended up relocating to New Jersey on advice of their legal team.

Borat star Cohen ripped into Giuliani while accepting the Golden Globe for his role in the film earlier this month, joking that the movie “couldn’t have been possible” without him.

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