British actor Sacha Baron Cohen as the gay Austrian fashionista character ‘Brüno’ crashes a prestigious fashion show in Milan, Italy, late last year while filming his movie. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
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‘BRÜNO’ HIT LIST
Sacha Baron Cohen has set up more than 30 fake companies to help him deceive web-savvy marks, but his exploits for his upcoming film “Brüno” — about a gay Austrian fashionista — have been well documented through media and social networking sites. He’s created his own www.meinspace.com/Bruno page, a Facebook page and is also Twittering as “Brunovassup” which has only one tweet as of press time: “Heisse news! Ich have just made a movie. It’s basically ze most important documentary made about a hot vhite guy since Passion Of Ze Christ.”
A list of suspected pranks Cohen pulled as Brüno from various published reports include:
• Crashing several runway shows in Milan and Paris, including one show in which “Brüno” wears a Velcro suit that attracts several garments before he stumbles onto a runway.
• Los Angeles police attempted to keep Cohen away from several Proposition 8 rallies because he was shooting commercially without a permit.
• Cohen staged a fake talk show in Texas where he showed off an African-American baby he said he adopted.
• Cohen staged two cage matches with another male in Arkansas that ended in simulated oral sex.
• YouTube footage shows Cohen and another man graphically making out in a Wichita, Kan., airport.
• Republican Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul was the target of Cohen who tried to seduce him in a hotel room.
• Cohen goes hunting with non-actors and attempts to sneak into another man’s tent while naked.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s new mockumentary “Brüno” purports to expose Americans’ bias and homophobia surrounding gay men, but gay groups are split whether Cohen’s flamboyantly gay character helps or hurts the gay rights movement.
In his new movie from Universal, rumored to be fully titled: “Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt,” Cohen portrays a gay Austrian fashionista seeking fame.
The movie is due out July 10, but when it first went to the Motion Picture Association of America this month, it received an NC-17 rating for simulating anal sex, oral sex and various naked misadventures, according to media reports. As in his previous movie, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” Cohen plays a character who preys on unsuspecting non-actors and captures them in oftentimes embarrassing situations.
As “Brüno,” Cohen ambushes unsuspecting straight people — many of whom are Southerners — baits them with an over-the-top display of man-on-man affection, and then films their seemingly homophobic reactions.
The national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is calling the movie an important piece of satire that helps the gay rights movement. However, Alabama Equality, a gay rights group that had to contend first-hand with some of Cohen’s filming, said GLAAD is out of touch with the serious homophobia that exists in the South. And victims of Cohen’s pranks told Southern Voice that, yes, people were angry at the actor’s antics when they were revealed, but more from being duped rather than the display of homosexuality.
PRAISE AND ADMONISHMENT
GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Director Damon Romine said “Brüno” shines the light on the undercurrent of homophobia in America.
Romine has written extensively about how it is not acceptable to make LGBT individuals the butt of a joke, or use stereotypical gay humor for laughs. While a number of writers have called “Brüno” “flamboyantly gay,” Romine said “Brüno” is a character “who happens to be gay” and that his jokes are neither stereotypical nor aimed at gay people.
“That’s not stereotypical behavior, kissing is not a stereotype, so if that’s the setup then that’s not stereotypical,” Romine said.
Romine also defended “Brüno,” calling him “a giant cartoon character,” but balked when it was pointed out that Peter Griffin on “Family Guy,” which GLAAD recently criticized for the “Gay Gene” episode, literally is a giant cartoon character.
“That’s not my point,” Romine replied. “‘Family Guy’ was playing on stereotypes, ‘Brüno’ is not.”
When asked if punking intolerant heterosexuals is an effective way to start a conversation, Romine said, “Yes.”
“In this circumstance it most definitely can,” he said. “When other people see what is going on in their community, and say, ‘I can’t believe this happened and want to be a part of larger movement or alliance and be part of a greater dialogue.’”
Alabama Equality Chairman Dr. Bob Palmatier said GLAAD vastly underestimates the strength of the dialogue already taking place in Alabama, and said Brüno does more to set back gay causes than advance them.
“[I]f they’re saying ‘Brüno’ is a good thing for us, I feel they’re out of touch with Alabama,” Palmatier said.
Palmatier said that while “Brüno” exposes a reaction, it’s not one entirely unfamiliar to gay people in the South, but not one they encounter often, either.
“Are there people here that wish I wasn’t here? Sure,” he said. “Do they confront me? No. There are so many people here that are welcoming me, it doesn’t matter.”
A MISLEADING PICTURE?
Romine insists that “Brüno” is a valuable project because of the reactions it captures. One of the scenes in a 22-minute preview Romine watched at the South by Southwest Film Festival includes a staged cage match fight in Arkansas.
“While the premise itself is funny…it really is shocking, and a real example of how real a mob mentality can take over,” Romine said.
According to event organizers, the cage matches proceeded as usual until Cohen and another male actor began kissing.
“When you see the anger and the look on these people’s faces, they get violent, and as a viewer of the film knowing that the audience are not actors, and the two people in the ring are actors facing danger, and you fear them,” Romine said. “It’s shocking, and it’s scary, but it’s also real in its own way.”
The “Cage Match” scene is actually not one match but two, spliced together to appear as one seamless event, according to Karin Hobbs, the sales director for the Fort Smith Convention center.
On back-to-back nights, Cohen’s ...
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