While the rodeo appearance of Ali -G character Borat in my hometown a few weeks ago wasn’t BNN newsworthy, it was something we discussed on the forums. Now, however, it appears there might be a reason behind the appearance of Sacha Baron Cohen’s foreign character, who pissed off audiences as he made Roseanne Barr’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner look like Mel Torme. Inflammatory comments regarding the war in Iraq didn’t help the situation.

It appears Cohen was secretly working on a film alongside Old School director Todd Phillips, but now due to a creative clash between the two, Phillips has abandoned the project. Part of this creative clash may be due to the way the Salem, Virginia rodeo appearance was handled, testing the relationship between director Phillips, and talent (and that’s a real stretch of the word) Sacha Baron Cohen.

What’s interesting about the announcement that Phillips has left the project is that nobody has even confirmed the project exists in the first place. Everyone is being tight lipped about anything going on. So Phillips has definitely left a project that may or may not exist, and they definitely plan on hiring a new director for this mythical project as soon as possible. They’ve even possibly gotten Fox to possibly distribute. But nothing’s going on.

Are we sure Borat doesn’t work for the United States Government?