After the Borat movie came out just about anyone who was in it sued the film’s creators and star Sacha Baron Cohen. Okay well not quite, but close. It was a ton of lawsuits, which was frankly to be expected for a movie of that nature. Play a lot of pranks on people and/or make them look dumb in some way, and you can’t really expect that everyone’s going to be a “good sport” about the whole thing.

Luckily for Cohen, three of the lawsuits have been settled.

NEW YORK — A New York judge has tossed out lawsuits brought by a driving instructor and two etiquette school teachers who said the makers of the movie “Borat” deceived them.

Judge Loretta Preska says all three accepted money and signed agreements releasing the filmmakers from liability. She noted in a Sept. 3 ruling the agreements said the plaintiffs consented to appear in a “documentary-style” movie.

In the 2006 film “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays an uncouth and anti-Semitic journalist traveling the United States in pursuit of Pamela Anderson. Cohen often fools people with his gag interviews.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs haven’t returned phone messages seeking comment.

[From the Huffington Post]

Obviously there was no actual ruling, so it’s not like it set a precedent. Which would have been sort of nice actually, for there to be a more clear line between balancing free speech and individuals’ rights. However that part about the “plaintiffs consented to appear in a “documentary-style” movie” sounds like they were upset by the nature of their scenes or the film itself, but weren’t arguing that they were ever actually deceived.

I’d think that if the studio that put out Borat had any common sense they would have realized it was a potential legal disaster and protected themselves vigorously from the beginning.