[UPDATED:] Gay Cameraman Sues Sacha Baron Cohen Over Prop 8 Riot in Bruno


Update, November 26, 3:51 p.m.: A cameraman has dropped his lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen over an alleged assault at a Prop 8 rally in West Hollywood.

Mike Skiff, who is openly gay, cited his own “emotional
well being” as being the reason for ending the legal claim filed last month in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
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The situation had become too difficult for Skiff, according to his lawyer, who said his client had made the point he wanted to make simply by filing the lawsuit.

Original Post, October 27, 4:28 p.m.: This time “Bruno” went too far, claims a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen's
alter ego and his crew assaulted a man at a Prop 8 rally, alleges the
suit that seeks $25,000 in punitive damages and reimbursement for
medical expenses and general damages.


Mike Skiff, a gay cameraman who often films LGBT community events,
says he was “shoved, pulled and wrestled in a vicious and blatant
attempt to keep him from filming the event” in West Hollywood in 2008.

Bruno
filmmakers “deliberately incited at riot by carrying 'Yes on
Proposition 8' signs,” claims the suit, which acknowledges it was done
to “enhance the dramatic effect of what they may capture for their
film,” but in doing so they violated Skiff's “right to go about his
business free from violence and intimidation directed at his sexual
orientation.”

Bruno/Cohen
may have thought the realityish comedy about an Austrian fashion
reporter who's a bit light in the loafers would expose gay haters. But
even before it was released, the Human Rights Campaign, the Gay and
Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and other groups complained parts
of the film were problematic and offensive, and that it should have
began with a disclaimer informing viewers it is not okay to beat on
members of the LGBT community.

You know, like Mike Skiff.

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