Judge rejects attempts to halt 'Borat' DVD

An attempt by two students to have their scenes removed from the DVD release of the Borat movie has been defeated by a Superior Court judge.

The pair, both students at the University of South Carolina, sought to block the release of the DVD as well as have a scene removed, claiming that their appearance in the film had caused them "emotional and physical distress". Both requests were denied by Judge Joseph S. Biderman, who ruled that they had not met the standard for a preliminary injunction.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan features the students making racist and sexist comments, though they insist that they were unfairly manipulated into the situation. According to the two men, they were plied with alcohol by the producers and were told that the movie would only be shown in Kazakhstan before they allowed themselves to be filmed.

The students' move is one of a number of claims against the popular movie. Last month a pair of Romanian villagers filed a lawsuit saying that they had been told that they were being filmed for a documentary about poverty, only to discover their inclusion in Sacha Baron Cohen's satire.