Ali G gets $17,000 from bingo player
A long running court case has finally been settled, and the winner is actor Sacha Baron Cohen, better known for his roles as Ali G, Bruno and Borat. This case was started due to an incident in the filming of the 2007 hit film Bruno, where Richelle Olsen claimed she was attacked and crippled during the filming of scenes at a bingo hall.
In the film Cohen, playing the role of a gay Austrian fashion journalist, was to call the numbers at a charity game that Olsen run for pensioners in Palmdale, California. When Olsen started the lawsuit in June 2009 she said that Bruno was “extreme, outrageous, offensive caricature of a gay man dressed in sexually revealing clothing with an Austrian accent” and used “vulgar and offensive language”. When she tried taking the microphone from Bruno, a “physical struggle ensued” and she was “offensively touched, pushed and battered” before falling to the ground. Olson claims three cameramen then took to the stage “where defendants attacked [her] for a period of one to five minutes to intentionally create a dramatic emotional response … while [they] recorded her humiliation and embarrassment.” She then claims she went to another room where she was “sobbing uncontrollably” before becoming unconscious and “falling forward onto the
thinly covered concrete slab, passing out and causing her to hit her head.” She was rushed to hospital with a diagnosis of 2 brain bleeds, which led to the lawsuit against Cohen and NBC Universal.
She later withdrew her assault claims but did continue to claim damages for emotional distress, for which she wanted $25,000. The court though has now ruled against her, and has said that she must pay Cohen’s legal fees, which amount to $17,000.
To add insult to injury the bingo game scene never made the final cut of the film and ended up on the cutting room floor during editing.
Related bingo news:
- Mecca Bingo bans epileptic player
- Lucky player wins £10,000 at Beach Bingo Hall.
- Richard E Grant fighting to save film set Bingo hall
- £42.5 million refund for Rank
- Kenneth – The Bingo King!
