Sacha Baron Cohen

[faceless]

Baron Cohen runs amok in America - again
www.chortle.co.uk

Sacha Baron Cohen has been causing a stir in Kansas, where he is shooting his new movie in the guise of flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista Bruno. Security at Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, was reportedly put on alert when ‘a German [started] stripping down to tight shorts and dancing in the lobby’.

'We were lied to,' assistant airport director Brad Christopher said after giving permission for the crew to shoot there. We were duped.' Wichita police are said to be investigating the prank, but airport officials concede it might not have been illegal, but was 'unethical and highly inappropriate for a public location where security is paramount'.

Nearby Central Community Church in the state has also reported that ‘a strange European camera crew’ showed up to their Easter play with their presenter dressed 'biblically' and in chains. Pastor Greg Smith saw them off, but reportedly said: 'Who knows what the crew was up to. [But] I don't want anyone to go through what we just went through. Or worse. Thankfully, God protected us.'

Bruno has also reportedly stung Ben Affleck with a bogus interview, asking such questions as: ‘How do you like niggers?’ The actor was said to be none the wiser until he called friend Sarah Silverman about the ‘weirdest interview’ with this ‘idiot’ – and she guessed it was Bruno.

His film, 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, is due out in October.

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I've only enjoyed a few of his things, but a prank like this gets a thumbs-up from me... haha

(note: that thumb isn't up anywhere it shouldn't be - errrm, not that people shouldn't do that if they like!)

[pirtybirdy]

I like the two New York Ranger players behind him in the picture. That's about it...LOL!

[faceless]

Sacha Baron Cohen to play Sherlock Holmes
By Paul Heath
Jul 2, 2008

Sacha Baron Cohen is to play Sherlock Holmes and funny man Will Ferrell is to play Dr. Watson in a new movie based on the crime-busting detective duo. Etan Cohen (TROPIC THUNDER) is writing the movie, according to Variety.

The film will be produced by Judd Apatow (SUPERBAD, KNOCKED UP) and Jimmy Miller. Guy Ritchie is directing the movie based on the classic series of novels by Arthur Conan Doyle. The two comedians last appeared on screen together in the Nascar comedy TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY.

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Guy Ritchie directing? That's just great.

[faceless]

Ali G star tricks Palestinian and Israeli spy into spoof debate on Middle East
07.07.08

Sacha Baron Cohen is best-known as colourful characters Ali G and Borat, whose gag interviews mock high-profile personalities and the controversial comedian is up to his old tricks again - this time using camp Austrian alter-ego Bruno to fool the unsuspecting victim into a spoof debate.

Dressed in studs and leather, the 36-year-old duped a former Mossad agent into comparing Islamic group Hamas to the chickpea dip hummus during an embarrassing interview. The cringeworthy interview saw Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher and his Palestinian partner quizzed for what they thought was a serious documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At one point, Bruno compared the Middle East conflict to the spat between Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, saying: 'Your conflict is not so bad.' Baron Cohen then forced the interviewees to explain the difference between Hamas - the political group ruling Gaza - and hummus.

Red-faced Alpher said afterwards: 'One of us mentioned Hamas, and the exchange that ensued went something like this: "Vait, vait. Vat's zee connection between a political movement and food. Vy hummus?" We exchanged astonished glances.' Baron Cohen then asked: 'Ya, but vy hummus? Yesterday I had to throw away my pita bread because it vas dripping hummus. Unt it's too high in carbohydrates.'

The Jewish comedian then suggested Israel and Palestinian settle their conflict with a time-share on the land. He asked: 'Vy don't you Jews and Arabs settle the conflict with a time-share on the land? Ven will you Jews return to the pyramids? Vy can't Jews and Hindus get along?'

Alpher said he learned only later that the interviewer was one of Baron Cohen's characters. In a letter to the the New York Jewish weekly, The Forward, Alpher recounted how he was led down a winding staircase and through long corridors to the interview site in Jerusalem. After he and his Palestinian partner found themselves answering other idiotic questions, they started to suspect the sophisticated team of several assistants and three cameras. But it was too late to pull out, Alpher wrote, because the two had signed release forms and received payment for the interview.

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If hummous is bad, is tzatsiki good?

[faceless]

Brüno Causes Riot

SACHA BARON COHEN has sparked outrage in Arkansas after hijacking a cage fighting contest with a display of gay kissing.The Borat star infuriated fans at the Blue Collar Brawlin' event when the participants stripped down to their underwear and kissed. More than 1,600 spectators threw beer and chairs at the act.

It is believed the event was a stunt for Cohen's new movie "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"

Dwight Duncan, president of the Four States Fair Grounds which provided the venue said: "We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived." A spokesman for Cohen declined to say whether he was behind the prank.

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He's got some nerve doing all this stuff!

[luke]

[Twirley]

I can't believe he gets away with it all. Many Americans are so easily duped....maybe because a lot of them are so insular in their outlook and experience of life and the world.

[faceless]

Here's more details on what happened...

Comedian dupes thousands as fight ‘extras’
By Jon Gambrell,
Little Rock, Arkansas

LURED by $1 (63c) beer and the prospect of “hot chicks” and “hardcore fights”, thousands of Arkansans were duped last month into appearing as extras in comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film.

Cohen organised cage fighting over two days in Texarkana and Fort Smith. Both ended with two male grapplers (one was identified as Straight Dave and wore camouflage) tearing each other’s clothes off and, while in underwear, kissing down their opponent’s chest. This man-on-man action triggered Fort Smith fans to throw chairs and beer at the ring, according to police at the city’s Convention Centre.

The June 5 Texarkana promotion was advertised as Red, White, and Blood. The June 6 matches in Fort Smith were dubbed Blue Collar Brawlin’. Ads suggested that fans arrive early “for $1 BEERS!” Blue Collar Brawlin’ drew about 1,500 fans, who were greeted by signs stating the event was being filmed.

“We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived,” said Dwight Duncan, president and chief executive of Four States Fair Grounds. Matt Labov, a Los Angeles-based publicist for Cohen, said he had no comment about the faked fights.

An elaborate array of mounted and handheld video cameras caught the crowd’s reaction as the two men “went right up to the line” of the city’s morality laws. The audience, as well as local fighters drawn to take part in the show, became enraged. It took officers about 45 minutes to clear the convention centre, as the two actors sprinted away through a specially set-aside tunnel.

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A specially built escape tunnel! haha

[faceless]

'Bruno' strikes again
chortle.co.uk

Sacha Baron Cohen was bundled away in a police car after storming the catwalk at Milan Fashion Week. The incident comes after he sparked a security alert after getting backstage at a different designer’s show in the guise of Austrian fashion journalist Bruno.

In the latest scenes shot for his new movie, Cohen strutted past models during the show of designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada. Police were called when he refused to leave, and they eventually led him out of the building and into the police car. Earlier in the week Cohen, stormed into the backstage Italian label Iceberg's show, wearing a head-to-toe Velcro suit and blonde wig, and started hurling himself at the clothes rails. Security was called and, amid much confusion, Cohen was bundled out of the building. Later he similarly attempted to infiltrate the Dsquared show, but was denied entrance.

Cohen is in Milan working on his new film called Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male, due out in the spring. It is being shot in the same documentary style as 2006's hit Borat movie.

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Those poor unfortunate fashionistas - will nobody treat them with the respect they deserve?!

[bay]

[faceless]

A few pics from the other night...

[faceless]

[faceless]

'We're looking for a lockschmitt'

[faceless]

[faceless]

BRUNO'S VICTIMS SPEAK OUT!
HOW SASHA BARON COHEN FOOLED ANOTHER ARMY OF SUCKERS
By REED TUCKER
nypost.com
5th July 2009

THE scheisse is about to hit the fan. Following 2006's "Borat," Sacha Baron Cohen is about to unleash his latest theatrical project, Friday's "Bruno." And while devotees of the British comedian's ambush comedy will be in heaven, those who got duped into appearing in the film will probably want to move permanently into a potato cellar.

The Bruno character, a flamboyant Austrian TV host who's equally in love with his tiny Filipino boyfriend and shimmering thongs, gets fired after disrupting a fashion show in Milan. He heads to America and travels the country, interviewing (and occasionally making obscene, on-camera passes at) ministers, psychics and former presidential candidate Ron Paul. Like "Borat," it's full-on cringe-ertainment.

The Post talked to six people involved with the film -- including four victims duped into appearing -- to get their stories and figure out how, even after the massive success of "Borat," there are still people unfamiliar with Cohen's shtick. One didn't even know he was in the film until The Post phoned.

Victim: Dr. Paul Cameron, chairman of the Family Research Institute, Colorado

Scene: Bruno comes to him for advice on going straight.

"I did a German thing a year ago. Is that this? I wondered what had happened to that. I'm in this bloody film? Well, I'll be jiggered. I guess you never can believe when people are in distress. I had to go to Kansas City. I was told that this chap was a homosexual in Germany, had a popular TV program in Germany, was perhaps suicidal and wanted to [become straight]. And I was supposed to see if I could help him in some way.

His producer was telling people what to do. He'd say, 'Here's the setting. This will be your office. He'll come in, give him the kinds of advice that will be useful for him.' It took about two and a half, three hours. To put it mildly, a few of his questions seemed strange. When he tried to sit by me and he wanted to give me a b - - w job, that kind of stuff pushed it. "If it's a gag, it was pretty well staged. I'll be another laughing stock. Oh, well."

Victim: Lloyd Robinson, talent agent, LA

Scene: Bruno comes to Robinson for help launching an acting career.

"In March of last year, I was dealing with German Television. I said, 'I'm looking for a German/English-speaking person to [host a show called "Tub Talk"].' I got a phone call- from a guy there saying, 'We've got a company we're dealing with in LA called Cold Stream Productions. They have some guy.' They want me to meet this [Bruno].

"Bruno shows, and he was in his silver lamé, red jockstrap, and I'm going, 'What? Get out of my office!' From my standpoint, he was overdoing it. I get a call back later, and [the producer] said, 'Bruno wants to show you he can act.' They show up with a camera crew again, and [his acting] was the worst piece of s - - -. But there was never a time when I sat there and thought I was being made a stooge. Bruno was always incredibly respectful.

"No one recognized who this guy was. I'm a literary agent. I'm not of the age group. I never went to see 'Borat.' I don't even have HBO. About three weeks ago, I'm driving home, and all of a sudden on the corner of Sunset and Doheny, here's a full building-scape of Bruno. My jaw dropped to the bottom of my car. Now in retrospect, realizing what he did, I think it's brilliant."

Victim: Chris Stevens, deputy sheriff of Madison County, Ala.

Scene: Bruno is arrested for lewd behavior and taken to jail.

"We did not arrest him, no. I think that's a ruse as part of the movie.

"I was aware that he was in town prior to his coming. Because of his type of humor, one of his security detail gave me the heads up that he was in the state and would be coming up here. That kind of in-your-face humor can put us in an interesting position. But we had no problems with him.

"We had some discussions about his attire. In the Deep South, it's different what would be accepted versus what might be accepted elsewhere. A member of his production staff called Huntsville and said, 'We're going to film this scene.' Bruno wanted to wear a purple thong or whatever it was. The guy at the city said, 'Oh, no he's not. Not on our property.' "

Victim: Richard Bey, talk-show host, New York City

SCENE: Bruno makes an appearance on a fictional version of Bey's show with his adopted baby.

"There are people who asked me if I was duped into it, and I generally respond with, 'I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guild and get paid through residuals.' [In other words, he was in on it, but the reactions of his audience were real.] I basically did a talk show with them down in Dallas last year. We shot several different shows on the same topic with different audiences. The topic was unusual parenting, so we had other unusual parents. We had a Wiccan. There were husbands upset that their wives were working as strippers. Bruno came out as the last guest.

"The thing that surprised me most was that the audience was fairly liberal in their attitude toward unusual parenting. But Bruno would make even the most liberal parent's hair stand on end. I don't think [he made it into] the film, but I went up to one guy and said, 'Do you have any questions?' He said, 'I don't. But Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson do.' [Cohen] is an incredibly intense actor. He's got incredible concentration. I'm a fan. I only met him out of character after the whole thing was done."

Victim: Filipa Bleck, model manager for Elite Paris

SCENE: Interviewed at a Milan fashion show

"I was backstage and I was talking with my girls and I had a guy approach me and ask if he could do an interview with me. It was not Bruno. I asked what the interview was for. I think he said Austrian TV. The minute Bruno started to do the interview was when I saw him for the first time. I thought it was weird. I was laughing to myself, like, 'Who is this guy with this horrible accent doing the most stupid questions?'

"I found out it was Bruno straight after the show. All the team of hairdressers knew who he was, so they were having a laugh with me, 'Oh, Filipa. You're going to be famous now.' I have a lot of sense of humor. I'm not feeling hurt. Although I can understand some people are. This is funny, but at the same time, this can hurt people. I'm going to be looking a little ridiculous in this thing, but I don't care. It's very easy to look stupid, because he asks such stupid questions."

Victim: Pastor Jody Trautwein, Alabama

Scene: Trautwein counsels Bruno on how he can become straight.

"I was first contacted on Jan. 30, 2009, by a gentleman named Todd Lewis, claiming to be with Amesbury Chase Productions. He wanted to see if I was interested in participating in a documentary revealing the conservative, moral values of America. I asked him how he received my information, and he told me he Googled 'biblical traditional marriage.'

"Mr. Lewis revealed that he had a young man who said he was ready to come out of the homosexual lifestyle. I traveled to Huntsville to meet him at [a] home they had temporarily converted into a television set decorated as a counseling office. After two hours of counseling, I asked Bruno if he was ready to give his heart to Jesus, and he told me he wasn't ready to pray the prayer yet.

"Having counseled those that have been in the homosexual lifestyle and understanding the perversion and deception that accompany that lifestyle, I did not think him that unusual. I had encountered those things before. Recently, I began to see Bruno appearing on previews and realized it was the man I sat with. I tried to contact Todd Lewis by leaving a voice mail. No reply came, and now his name is no longer on the voice mail.

"No one likes to be deceived. But the bottom line was, whether it was Bruno or the man I now know as Sacha Baron Cohen, I knew that the truth of God's word was going straight into his heart. I pray God has mercy on Sacha Baron Cohen."

Cohen's scam sheet - a guide to how "Bruno" duped the ignorant

1. The production set up numerous shell companies, including Amesbury Chase Productions, Chromium Films and Cold Stream Productions. Each had its own realistic Web site, though they're all blank now.

2. "Bruno" producer Todd Schulman would set up interviews with potential dupes, identifying himself as "Todd Lewis," Lewis being his middle name.

3. Victims were told the interview would air in Germany or Austria, though they were made to sign releases allowing use for any and all purposes.

4. Director Larry Charles was on hand to personally oversee some filming, but he was introduced as simply "Larry," a lowly segment producer. He also shaved his trademark beard so as to go incognito.

5. Victims never met Bruno until the cameras started rolling, giving them no opportunity to back out.

Bruno'S cutsNOT everything that was filmed made it into "Bruno." Here are a few scenes you won't see in the movie, but might find on YouTube.

-- Reed Tucker

Scene: Bruno crashes an anti-gay-marriage rally in California.

He carries a handwritten sign reading, "Shvanten are bad, even zough zey're nice." When asked by protesters which side he's on, Bruno says he's for Proposition 8 and explains, "Arschers are for doing only a dirty, bad wind -- not for making a sex with a man."

Scene: Bruno interviews La Toya Jackson.

While sitting on Mexicans serving as human chairs, Bruno asks to see La Toya's BlackBerry. He then finds Michael's number and calls it out to his assistant in German as La Toya asks, "What are you doing?" The scene was cut after Jackson's death.

Scene: Bruno asks a fashionista if she's given him herpes after a kiss hello.

"Should I put on cream?" Bruno asks the horrified woman. "Is it just face herpes you have or is it va-geenah, as well?"

Scene: Bruno crashes the Stella McCartney show in Paris.

Wearing a sleeveless leather vest and a red thong poking out of his jeans, Bruno sits in the second row and sneers at what's presented on the runway -- all while sucking on a tampon. Rumor is: McCartney invited him to the show