Our next president shouldn’t be a person of faith but a person of doubt. So says Bill Maher, one of the country's most outspoken doubters. His new film, Religulous, directed by Borat’s Larry Charles, follows the irreverent humorist as he travels the globe talking to people about God and religion. Maher and the crew employed self-described guerrilla filming to get their shots (at the Vatican, at the Wailing Wall), and the prospect of watching them in action seems too good (and controversial and potentially offensive) to resist.

While the film didn’t hit its anticipated Easter release, it's currently slated for a June 20 opening. Here’s Maher talking to Larry King about the film.

If you're unfortunate enough to join the growing ranks of stranded air travelers, cross your fingers for the mother of all diversions: Sacha Baron Cohen was recently spotted in the Wichita airport filming his latest faux doc, Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt. (So far the only other credited cast member is Real World alum Trishelle, as herself. Watching a flaming Austrian reporter get into trouble with a trashy fame whore sounds like it has the comic potential to outdo even Borat's kidnapping of Pamela Anderson.)

Check out the prankster king doing what he does best -- unleashing his squirmalicious hijinks on the public without breaking a sweat. (And keep your eye on the guy behind the guy, Bruno's apparent Azamat. You go, boy.)

Very Nice, Very Nice: how much? Borat is going to have to add one more point of interest to his travel guide to Kazakhstan: The country's first ever kosher restaurant. That’s right, a new kosher restaurant has made its debut as part of Kazakhstan’s grand “Seriously, we’re not anti-Semites!” campaign, generated in response to the (apparently false) contrary evidence provided by the Borat movie. Says Ran Ichay, Israeli ambassador to Kazakhstan, “This is the one place in the world where there is no anti-Semitism. It’s not only because of official government policy but also thanks to the natural openness of the people. And this is where Sacha Baron Cohen chose to set Borat! This is the most tolerant country I have ever seen.”

The restaurant’s grand opening was attended by top Kazakh diplomats and Israeli foreign ministers, surely providing a plethora of handshakes and feel-good photo-ops. It just goes to prove: nothing can bring cultures together like a nice pastrami on rye.

Related: Kosher GPS, China Jumps on Kosher Bandwagon, Ultra-Kosher Energy Drink for the Ultra-Orthodox Rock Star, Kosher Vending Machines

Words I thought I’d never say: The new Adam Sandler movie (trailer below) looks kind of…good. And not totally-competent-romantic-comedy good like The Wedding Singer, or look-at-me-I-can-do-indie good like Punch-Drunk Love. Don’t Mess with the Zohan, about a Mossad agent who fakes his own death so that he can pursue his secret dream of becoming a hairstylist, might actually be funny.

This is probably due in large part to Sandler’s co-writer, Judd (Knocked Up ) Apatow. But I think it’s also because this might be the first time a mainstream comedy has tapped into Israel’s inherent comic potential.

Americans tend to find the hallmarks of Israel’s pop culture—the tight jeans, the Euro-disco music, the machismo—completely hilarious. Then again, we’re equally amused by any country where men wear tight pants. But what makes Israel funnier than, say, Spain, is the lethal military gloss over the entire nation, and the fact that everyone’s Jewish, which in America has become a kind of lazy shorthand for comedy.

Borat has pretty much killed the genre of jokes about how non-American males are more comfortable with their bodies. Years of bad news have made it difficult to say anything truly funny about Israel’s military situation. And Keeping Up with the Steins may have tossed the final scoop of dirt on the coffin of Yiddish shtick (OMG she said "shtick"! FUNNY SOUNDS!) But when you combine those three elements, you get something new. Something fresh-feeling. Even if it stars Adam Sandler.

When I started working at Jewcy yesterday, I found a DVD on my desk titled The Baba Best of Baba Alla, which a (supposed) Ukrainian filmmaker named Yakov Levi (supposedly) directed. Wikipedia says that Levi is a real person, but someone might be pulling a Sacha Baron Cohen.

The DVD collects a half-dozen of Levi's sick masterpieces, including Shameless, which chronicles the adventures of an octogenarian Eastern European prostitute named Baba Alla, "the Sexy Babushka." (If you view Shameless, you will puke by the end -- and probably by the end of the first five seconds.)

Courtesy Jew School:

Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued by a British woman who claims he called her a “bitch” and a “minger” in an Ali G sketch.

The comedian also falsely said he got her pregnant as he interviewed novelist Gore Vidal for a show broadcast in 2004, the woman’s lawsuit alleges.

She says she met the star 20 years ago on a trip to Israel with Jewish youth group Habonim, but that they never engaged in any sexual activity and “over time they went their separate ways”.

But in August 2004 friends told her they had heard her name mentioned by the Ali G character, who allegedly said: “Me used to go out with this bitch called Heddi Cundle.”

For the full scoop, click here. To see the plaintiff's document (and it's worth it), click more.

The segment quoted in the lawsuit reads:

"Ain't it better sometimes, to get rid of the whole thing rather than amend it (the constitution) cos like me used to go out with this bitch called Heddi Cundle and she used to always trying amend herself. Y'know, get her hair done in highlights, get like tattoo done on her batty crease, y'know have the whole thing shaved – very nice but it didn't make any more difference. She was still a minger and so, y'know me had enough and once me got her pregnant me said alright, laters, that is it. Ain't it the same with the constitution?"

Warning: You have to sit thru 56 seconds of Reese Witherspoon's contrived Southern girl-next-door routine, waiting for her to announce the winner, but watching Sasha Baron Cohen joke about testicles and assholes makes up for it.

I'll make Emily Blunt fall in love with me in my next screenplay... Wasn't Sacha Baron Cohen's memoir of man-Bagatov love, but the look on Zach Braff's face when he lost for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. By the time you read this, Braff will have blogged about how his feelings of apathy and disassociation at that moment of defeat should be experienced collectively by Generation Y, preferably with the Decembrists playing in the background. And that pseudo-smug leer he aimed at the camera during the nominees call not only instantaneously burned up the pseudo but warrants a link to Josh Levin's Slate piece on why the lead Scrub is, in fact, a category A tool:

What has Braff's keen ear picked up about the nation's young people? If Garden State is to be believed, they spend their days squinting and staring wistfully while slowly learning that it's OK to feel and, like, live. When they do speak, yearbook quotes come out. For example: "Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people who miss the same imaginary place." In The Last Kiss, Braff furrows his brow solemnly and ponders a question that's paralyzed millions: Should I replace my incredibly hot girlfriend with an incredibly hot college student? This time, OC starlet Rachel Bilson gets the Ferris Bueller-esque pearl of wisdom: "The world is moving so fast now that we start freaking out way before our parents did because we don't ever stop to breathe anymore." Never has the voice of a generation had so little of substance to say.

Filmmaker Andrew Goldberg's latest documentary, "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century," which airs tonight, was reviewed by The Boston Globe today and while it seems a bit like replayed narrative:

Out in the world, as filmmaker Andrew Goldberg shows, there are still people who believe in an almost mystical set of falsehoods. A young woman in Cairo says there were no Jews in the World Trade Center on 9/11; she knows this for a fact since she was in America at the time.

A young boy, perhaps 3 years old, is asked what he thinks of Jews. "They are apes and pigs," he says.

"Who said they are so?" says an off-camera female voice.

"Our God

Nonetheless, however rehashed a theory and unoriginal in insight, it might be worth a cursory watch. As Globe critic Joanna Weiss poignantly points out thru a number of Borat comparisons, "We'd like to think that "Borat" is a powerful way to combat hateful ideas. 'Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century' reminds us that the power of fiction can be used to spread hatred, as well."

Amy and I discuss cultural learnings for make publicity glorious box office weekend. We sit exactly one Craig away, yet we Skyped our Ebert-and-Roeper routine. How antisocial is that? Jagooye!

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:01 PM
I found Borat offensive. The stuff more about women than Jews.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:02 PM
But isn't the point that he's lampooning backward bigots and misogynists?

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:02 PM
Yes, it is, but I found myself forgetting that because I was surrounded by 17 year-old boys who seemed to be laughing at the fact that he was ridiculing women/Jews rather than the fact that he was playing a backward-ass character.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:07 PM
But that makes the 17 yr-old boys too stupid to get the joke. Why does that reflect poorly on Cohen? If anything, I thought he was cruel to certain people who weren't really deserving of his satire. That Southern woman at the dinner party who tried to show him American bathroom etiquette (or really, just how not to be a savage). Funny as it was, she was being very kind, assuming there was a cultural disconnect and that this poor guy from an ex-Soviet satellite needed a tutorial in assimilation. Also, the nice old Jewish couple who ran the B&B. I wonder how they felt being used like that to make a point about Antisemitism. That stuff made me cringe, to be honest.

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:08 PM
Right, I agree with you on those points. I did find the humor rather cruel in that sense. And yes, the 17 yr old boys are too stupid to get the joke, but it's still disturbing that that's the message they extract from it.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:10 PM
They probably thought that RV full of frat guys came off looking okay, too.

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:10 PM
Yeah, I was AMAZED at how backwards those Southerners were. You know it's out there but to actually see it like that is so disturbing.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:13 PM
Right, and it's not like a comedy looking to scandalize Americans is going to show you as many thoughtful and decent people from the red states as it is the Confederate flag-flying yokels and racists. The guy at the rodeo, for example. He was certainly the worst of the bunch, but I remember reading an article somewhere about that "Throw the Jew down the well" sketch that aired on the HBO show. The question asked was, “Were those patrons of the honky-tonk bar REALLY advocating killing Jews, or were they so in thrall to the act of a performer that they didn't register what it was they were clapping and singing along with – they just mouthed whatever chorus he told them to?” If you or I met any of these people, would we necessarily find them malicious rednecks?

As much as this is supposed to be cinema verite, I think filming somebody causes them to say and do thing they otherwise wouldn't, or at least not as badly as they do in front of a camera.

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:15 PM
See, I would think people would be a little camera shy. But like the guy at the gun shop--when Borat asked, "What's the best gun for killing a Jew?" It seemed to very honestly answer, "Oh, use this one." But the scene at the rodeo where he riled all those people up— they were clearly feeding off each other. But I thought he was very smart about how he escalated their response--very well-calculated

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:19 PM
I mean, clearly, we’re dealing with some form of abject stupidity. The only distinction is whether these people really don’t hear what they're being asked/told -- are they filtering out everything except that which demands an immediate response? Or are they sympathetic to this hate-mongering foreigner? (Actually, one thing that did impress me was how friendly most people were to Borat. What is he, after all, but a low-down Commie trekking through America's heartland? Wouldn't they have run him out of each and every town he visited, if this anthropological thesis -- Americans are short-fused reactionaries -- were true?)

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:20 PM
I think they see him as someone they can influence. The frat boys are a perfect example: I think--they just wanted to get him wasted. And the lady at the dinner--she wanted to teach him about American/civilized culture.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:21 PM
I couldn't quite tell what was semi-scripted and what was completely improvised...

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:21 PM
Yeah, I was wondering about that too--like the Pam Anderson scene?

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:22 PM
Right, and I didn't like that he invited Linell [sp?] - the black prostitute - to that house. Was the intention to say, look -- they live on a street called Secession Drive! They're racists! Or was it just lowbrow mockery: here’s a whore in this genteel palatial home? She could've been white and dressed like that and I’d still think the hosts would have been within rights to call the cops.

The Pam Anderson scene had to have been planned. He'd have gone to prison otherwise. Also, wouldn't she have bodyguards at a book signing?

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:23 PM
Well couldn't she have just called her PR rep ahead of time or something? I wouldn't expect Pam to be that good of an actor. I thought she seemed pretty real.
My guess would be it was planned- maybe she didn't know about it but her people did But I think that was a strength of the film overall--it all seemed very real.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:24 PM
There was something on Slate to the effect that she's been pranked by Borat before, or at least knew what his character was about before filming began.

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:24 PM
Oh, I didn't know that. She did well then. What did you find funniest?

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:26 PM
The Running of the Jew. Oh, and the garage sale where he thinks he's haggling with a gypsy. Don't know why I found the latter SO funny, but I did.

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:26 PM
Ah yes, I forgot about the gypsy. That was very good. I found the streaking scene funny, I won't lie. Not the super disgusting parts in the hotel room.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:26 PM
Probably because it was out of some weird, Central Asian Grimm fairy tale, the way he approached her using cautious, rehearsed language.

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:27 PM
Yes, that was GREAT.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:27 PM
The hotel room scene... How on earth that got past censors. They had to block out the puppets having sex in Team America!

Amy Odell 11/6/06 4:27 PM
Well, they did censor it. Sort of.

Michael D. Weiss 11/6/06 4:28 PM
(Though did you notice the size of the black bars covering their dicks? A bit on the hyperbolically long end, I’d say. The little touches like those are what made the film worthwhile.)

 
Don't know if you've heard, but this little movie about a funny Eastern European man comes out tonight. Borat is like the Star Wars of gotcha-mockumentaries: if this is the kind of thing that gets your engines running, you're going to go opening night regardless of the reviews. But the New York Times comment on the movie is worth reading, both because it's smart and because of this moment of total college-paper-esque self-referentiality: Movie critic Manola Dargis says Borat sports “the kind of mustache usually now seen only in 1970s pornography, leather bars and trend articles." Trend articles? What trend articles?

Borat. Tomorrow. Get pumped (we are). Enjoy Letterman's Borat interview.

Of note: a) Paul Shaffer is King Awkward; b) Letterman interviews Cohen as if he's a small child and c)Letterman proves he is as creepy as we all suspected by laughing hardest at some rather inappropriate moments...