Of Barr And Borat -- And a Fan

In the movie "Borat," a faux Kazakh journalist played by comic Sacha Baron Cohen learns about U.S. culture by interviewing unsuspecting Americans, including former congressman Robert L. Barr Jr. He offers the conservative Georgia Republican a wedge of cheese and, as Barr nibbles, says it was made from Borat's wife's breast milk.

Not surprisingly, Barr gulps and looks stunned.

Yesterday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on privacy, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) asked Barr, who was appearing as an expert witness on government data-mining programs, about his movie role.

"Information was gathered at that interview under false pretenses," Barr replied soberly.

"Did you have any rights to stop its showing or distribution because of the invasion of your privacy?" Specter asked.

"There may be," Barr replied. "I know that some legal actions by some other persons involved are being pursued. I elected not to pursue it, believing essentially that the more that one wastes time or engages in those sorts of activities, the more publicity you bring to something."

Specter asked, "Did you see the movie?"

Barr: "I have not. I know folks who have."

Specter told Barr that some people he had spoken to had said, "The interview with you was about the only part of the movie worth seeing."

Barr: "I'll take that as a compliment, Senator."

Later, Barr told a reporter that the interview took place two years ago and that his staff "checked out" the company requesting it. "They had a PR firm, a law firm, a Web address. We checked it out, obviously not as much as we should have.

"It became obvious after a few minutes that the guy was weird, and we threw him out of the office."

-- Ellen Nakashima