"Kazakh" reporter Borat pens book of travel advice
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fictional Kazakh television reporter Borat Sagdiyev, who made movie audiences around the world laugh and cringe as he toured the United States, is going into print with a book of travel advice.
Borat, the creation of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, has signed a book deal with Flying Dolphin Press, an imprint of Random House Inc.'s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group.
Suzanne Herz, publisher of Flying Dolphin Press, said it will be two books in one -- one half a guide to the United States for Kazakhs and the other half a guide to Kazakhstan for Westerners.
The book, to be released in hardcover, will have a dual title: "Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A." and "Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
"There is one and only Borat and we are honored to have him join our pantheon of international writers," Herz said in a statement.
It has been a year since the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to become a box-office hit that grossed over $250 million worldwide.
The fake documentary also earned an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay and Cohen won a Golden Globe for his performance.
Based on a character he created for his TV show "Da Ali G Show," the film stars Cohen as a cluelessly offensive TV reporter with a thick mustache, wild-eyed grin and phrases like "sexy time!" who goes on a cross-country U.S. trip.
The movie is driven by Cohen's improvised, unrehearsed encounters with ordinary Americans who become his unsuspecting comic foils.
