"Borat" faces complaints

By Peter Prengaman
The Associated Press

The owner of an etiquette business who was handed a plastic bag supposedly containing feces in the hit movie “Borat” says she was told the filming would be used for a documentary in Belarus.

Cindy Streit said she filed a complaint Thursday with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, requesting an investigation into possible violations of the California Unfair Trade Practices Act.

Streit said that a representative from a Los Angeles-based company called Springland Films contacted her Birmingham, Ala., company, Etiquette Training Services, about arranging an etiquette session for an “international guest from Belarus Television.”

Attempts to find a contact for Springland were not successful.

The attorney general’s office had not received a copy of the complaint, spokesman Nathan Barankin said late Thursday.

Springland put in writing that the second of two scheduled sessions “will be filmed as part of a documentary for Belarus Television and for those purposes only,” said Gloria Allred, Streit’s lawyer.

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