Landline TV’s videos keep getting better, which is nice, because they save me the trouble of expending all my energy on brilliant industry analysis and photoshopping Paula Abdul on top of Mexicans. Anyway, this is their first video since Megan Fox is CGI, and this one’s about the special Homeland Security task force created to deal with an increase in movie quoting caused by the release of Brüno. Haha, stupid frat boys with their beer bongs and their movie quoting. What a bunch of losers. (*looks around*) (*whispers*) Psst, Big Lebowski quotes are still cool, right?
Brüno recently did a photoshoot for the latest issue of GQ in which goofed around with L.A.’s Birmingham high school football team. Now the school superindendent is angry about it because… uh… it takes the attention away from the fact that most of his students can’t read?
The stunt has incensed Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, adding fuel to a debate over whether Birmingham, in Lake Balboa, should be allowed to convert to a charter school. The charter conversion is up for a vote before the school board Wednesday. “This recent GQ thing has not helped matters,” Cortines said today. “We’ve allowed our students to be used, and not in the most glamorous circumstances, either.” [LATimes]
Actually, the students used you. Namely your jerseys. Wait, what’s this about charter school?
[Birmingham HS] has broken away from the nation’s second-largest school district. The move came one day after officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District disciplined two administrators over violating the district’s policy on using the school’s name in the film. The charter proposal ends the district’s authority over school employees, so the disciplinary action will be moot. [Yahoo]
Wow, so a school gets one magazine spread and suddenly it’s too good to hang with the schools it grew up with? Sounds like L.A. alright. Stay tuned for next week, when Birmingham High develops an eating disorder and f*cks David Spade.
NY Mag recently obtained some production notes from Brüno, which for once are actually interesting (production notes are usually just a collection of the cast and crew’s embarrassing, sycophantic praise for each other, like a daisy chain in print form). You can check them all out over there (and some are spoilery), but this is undisputed highlight:
According to whoever wrote the production notes, it was “stunningly easy” to get both Paula Abdul and LaToya Jackson to use Mexican gardeners (who were really actors) as chairs, despite Abdul’s claims to the contrary. “Both were very game,” allegedly.
Of course they were. I try to avoid American Idol as much as humanly possible, but every time I hear Paula Abdul talk she sounds like Kirk Douglas on a whippet binge, which is generally a good indication that a person’s taking a stiff cocktail of reality-avoidance pills (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Bottom line, if you can’t feel your face, you’re probably not going to feel a Mexican’s shame. Poor guy. Sources say he was so embarrassed that he told Abdul, “Ju can seet right here long as ju want, chica,” while pointing at his crotch and making kissing sounds. True story.
The New York Daily News reports that Pauly Shore is upset that Brüno’s black-baby adoption is hogging all the press while Shore’s own Afridoption-themed film flies under the radar (despite, I must admit, looking pretty funny), and is even considering legal action.
There may be more trouble brewing for Sacha Baron Cohen. Comedian Pauly Shore is the latest person to threaten the “Bruno” star with legal action, claiming that an adopted-baby bit in the upcoming “Bruno” bears a striking resemblance to the trailer and tag line for his 2007 film, “Adopted.” Shore tells us he has contacted his attorney and is waiting to take legal action against Baron Cohen…
The tagline to which Shore seems to be referring (if he was even being serious, when they quote these things without context it’s hard to know if the person was taking a pensive drag on a rolled cigarette or humping a soda machine when they said it) is the “First there was Angelina, then there was Madonna, now there’s Pauly!” bit from the Adopted poster. Which is a lot like Brüno’s voiceover, “Angelina’s got one, Madonna’s got one, now Brüno’s got one,” at 1:30 of the Brüno trailer, which came out a couple months after the Adopted trailer. Still, it’s hard to prove someone ripped you off when your idea was pretty obvious to begin with. I think the obvious solution here is for each of them to train their respective black kid in a winner-take-all fight to the death. That’s how settled things back in the good old days.
On Friday I reported that Universal had cut a scene from Brüno featuring LaToya Jackson a few hours before the Brüno premiere in LA. At the time it was unclear whether the scene would make it into the theatrical version. They’ve since confirmed that it won’t be.
The studio confirmed the scene would be out of the theatrical version of the movie, and said removing it won’t be expensive because the prints have not yet been made or shipped.
Sacha Baron Cohen interviews an unsuspecting LaToya Jackson about a number of topics, including her brother. Among the gags is a joke about the King of Pop’s high-pitched voice, as well as a reference to his trademark white glove, all done in Baron Cohen’s characteristically absurdist tone. [THR]
Oh no, not his voice or his glove! Too far, you guys. That’s the Ronald Reagan of pop you’re talking about. Lot of people think you can make fun of dead people, but really, that’s the best time to make fun of them. For one they can’t chase you and for another you can dress them in silly outfits. Haha, why you hittin yourself, Billy Mays?
