SACHA BARON COHEN - MURDOCH DOES A BORAT

Demonstrating once again that reporters can't trust a single source -- even if the source is as estimable as the chairman of News Corp -- news organizations on Thursday quickly spread the word that 20th Century Fox was planning a sequel to its 2000 hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. During a conference call on Thursday morning, Rupert Murdoch said that after Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen completes the forthcoming Bruno for Universal, "then he'll come back and do a Borat 2" for Fox. "He's signed up to do a sequel for us." (He added that he had seen the original film three times and "laughed like hell.") Murdoch's announcement was news to 20th Century Fox itself, which, after reports of the deal hit the news wires, released a statement through a spokesman saying that while there had been "casual discussions" with Cohen about a sequel, "it remains too preliminary to discuss."

09/02/2007