NATCHEZ &8212; Borat tried to make fun of Natchez in his big screen comedy, but the locals involved believe he didn&8217;t get what he wanted.

The journalist from Kazakhstan &8212; really a British comedian &8212; made a stop in town a year ago to film a segment for his movie &8220;Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.&8221;

The film was released Friday, but is not playing in Natchez. The locals involved do not know whether or not their segment is included in the film&8217;s final cut.

British Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen &8212; a Cambridge graduate &8212; traveled across America asking offensive questions attempting to provoke Americans into making racist, sexist and homophobic remarks.

He carried himself as a journalist, was polite and convinced those he encountered he was legit.

&8220;We were told it was a documentary on Southern culture,&8221; said Jim Coy, director of Natchez Pilgrimage tours. Cohen&8217;s crews contacted Coy to arrange the Natchez segment.

&8220;They wanted an example of a Southern family eating a Southern meal. I had a producer in California talk to Landsdowne, and they agreed.&8221;

Landsdowne is an antebellum house often on tour during Pilgrimage.

Coy said the whole operation seemed credible at the time.

Dinner party guests included Landsdowne owner George Matthews Marshall, his sister Devereux Slatter and her husband Bill, Slatter&8217;s daughter Marsha Colson and Ron and Mimi Miller of the Historic Natchez Foundation.

Coy was present for part of the night, but did not stay through dinner, he said.

&8220;They started dinner and everything seemed to be going appropriately,&8221; Coy said. &8220;I was there two hours. I guess they assumed I was watching things too closely.&8221;

When Coy left, the shenanigans started.

&8220;An overweight, gaudily dressed &8212; in a very short skirt &8212; woman who looked like a prostitute came to the door,&8221; Bill Slatter said. &8220;He welcomes her, asks &8216;is OK if my friend comes in.&8217;&8221;

The group welcomed her, Slatter said, because there was nothing else to do.

&8220;She sat on his lap, and Devereux was afraid they&8217;d break the chair. It&8217;s a very old chair,&8221; Slatter said.

Then the questions heated up.

&8220;He was obviously trying to egg us into saying something outrageous,&8221; Slatter said. &8220;He said &8216;wouldn&8217;t it be nice if you had slavery back.&8217;

&8220;We weren&8217;t playing his games because we simply didn&8217;t agree with what he was trying to do.&8221;

The group quickly realized this wasn&8217;t something they wanted to be a part of, and Ron Miller escorted Cohen and his crews to the door.

Since then, Marshall has been contacted by the Times of London and Miller has talked with Entertainment Weekly.

Marshall said he would rather forget about the dinner altogether.

&8220;It was just a very unattractive event,&8221; he said. &8220;He made efforts to elicit comments from us about ethnic groups and Jews.&8221;

Marshall said he does not plan to see the movie, whether Natchez is in it or not.

The Natchez group is among those listed in the credits at the end of the movie.

Miller and Slatter said they do plan to see the movie, and though the group consensus is that Cohen&8217;s jokes simply died on the table, they are aware of the power of editing.

&8220;They can cut and paste and show anything they want,&8221; Miller said.

&8220;They lied to us. They duped us,&8221; Miller said. &8220;I don&8217;t trust them not to lie to the people in the movie about us.&8221;

And there were funny moments at the dinner, Miller said.

What he regrets, however, is that the family and their home were violated.

&8220;He made fun of them,&8221; Miller said.

Coy wishes he&8217;d never taken the initial call, but feels good about the way the Natchez group responded.

&8220;They were hoping to have people talking against George Bush and against Jews and black people,&8221; Coy said. &8220;But they ran into a family that is very educated and has very compassionate views. They didn&8217;t really get anything.&8221;

The movie is currently playing in Baton Rouge, Alexandria, La., Hattiesburg and Pearl.

It is not scheduled to come to Natchez in the next week.

Joan Gandy

contributed to this report.