Lawsuit Against Sacha Baron Cohen aka. ‘Bruno’ Heats Up

Posted on June 10th, 2009

The recent lawsuit filed against British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has received extensive press coverage on both sides of the Atlantic. Richelle Olson’ has filed a lawsuit against Cohen aka. ‘Bruno’ for an incident that happened at a Palmdale California charity bingo game. Olsen alleges that Cohen and his camera crew assaulted her when she tried to take the microphone away from Cohen after he used obscenities while serving as a ‘celebrity’ bingo caller. Olsen claims that after the incident she ran offstage and sobbed uncontrollably and fell and hit her head on a concrete slab causing brain bleeding confining her to a wheel chair.

For those not familiar with Cohen’s ‘Bruno’ character, Bruno is an outrageously gay Austrian fashionista. Cohen is no stranger to lawsuits. He has been sued by two people over incidents in his hit film Borat. Now it appears that Cohen’s lawyers are willing to play hardball against Olsen. The studio producing the film has not only publicly denied Olsen’s allegations; they have launched an all out offensive. The lawyers are demanding Olsen drop her lawsuit or face the wrath of Hollywood heavyweights.

Cohen’s lawyers sent Olsen a letter that states, “If you do not file a voluntary dismissal of the complaint with prejudice, and if you do not do so by this Monday, June 8, our clients will avail themselves of every legal remedy against you and your clients.” The letter also contains a denial of claims made by Olsen. In the letter the lawyers state, “Mr. Baron Cohen never touched Ms. Olson, much less assaulted her. To the contrary, Ms. Olson assaulted Mr. Baron Cohen, grabbing his arms from behind and attempting to pull him out of a chair.”

The lawyers are also questioning claims made by Olsen that she was attacked by the camera crew. They also deny that Bruno’s allegedly vulgar language offended anyone. Addressing both claims the letter further states, “Putting aside the impossibility of the camera crew physically attacking Ms. Olson while at the same time filming her, the actual footage reveals that the number of crew members and other persons who attacked your client is zero. The footage shows that most of the bingo players were relatively young (like the plaintiffs), and that Mr. Cohen offered only lighthearted comments that were met with general laughter from the audience, and even applause.”

The attorneys also claim that Olsen signed a consent form absolving their client of any wrongdoing. They also cite the failed lawsuits over the movie ‘Borat.’ “If you believe the agreements your clients signed will not be enforced, you are mistaken. The agreements contain virtually the same language as the agreements in the various Borat litigations, in which courts from California to Alabama to New York have enforced those same contractual provisions in the face of claims not as weak as the bogus allegations of your clients.”

It is hard to believe that a simple bingo game could lead to a lawsuit like this. Maybe if all involved had played online bingo this would have not happened. Playing online bingo can be much more profitable than the land based version thanks to bigger bingo bonuses and bigger jackpots…and fights are unknown!