Sacha Baron Cohen (Bruno) Sued for putting Bingo Hall Lady in a Wheelchair

Sacha Baron Cohen (Bruno) is being sued by bingo hall worker Richelle Olson after a 2007 charity bingo incident where, while in character as Bruno, he assaulted her, resulting in injuries that left her confined to a wheelchair.

The suit claims Sacha Baron Cohen used “vulgar and offensive language” while he was calling the numbers at the charity bingo event, prompting Olson to try and take the microphone from him. That’s when a “physical struggle ensued” where she was “offensively touched, pushed and battered” causing her to fall to the ground.

Three camera men then rushed the stage … “where defendants attacked [her] for a period of one to five minutes to intentionally create a dramatic emotional response … while [they] recorded her humiliation and embarrassment,” the suit claims.

Olson says she retreated to a back room where she became so emotionally distraught that she fell and hit her head on the concrete floor, resulting in minor brain damage that has caused her to require the use of a wheelchair or cane to get around.

Beating up an old lady at a charity bingo would have made for some good comedy, but was it all staged? Sounds too bizarre not to have been. And why didn’t this lady come forward 2 years ago immediately after the incident?

[Source: TMZ]