Sacha Baron Cohen is a kosher Jew, so he pretty much had carte blanche to do all the Jew jokes he wanted in Borat.  Unfortunately he’s not gay, so you can imagine what that means for the Brüno movie – a lot of whining by people who know nothing about comedy.  A site called theWrap (via /Film) recently reported that Brüno was reshot in response to concerns from some of Hollywood’s gay community, notably School of Rock’s Mike White, who supposedly “found the Bruno character to be a depiction of fetishism rather than a comedic stereotype,” (whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean). Which in turn led to…

The filmmaker conducting “significant reshoots” to temper the troubled reaction of  insiders from the Hollywood gay community, according to one person involved in the Bruno production who declined to be identified.

But take the reshoot part of this story with a grain of salt, as multiple sources have called BS on some of the things TheWrap have written recently, calling them “reckless and irresponsible.”  It’s also weird they use an anonymous source and don’t even mention director Larry Charles by name.  But as you can see in the above video, some “notable” gays are “concerned.”  Which is another way to say “wanting to appear PC without taking the trouble to actually form an opinion.”  Says Queer as Folk‘s Peter Page at the 1:29 mark:

“When you see a Brüno clip in a room full of gay men, everyone laughs and it’s fun.  When you see a Brüno clip in a room full of straight men, everyone laughs and it’s a different thing.  And you start to go, ‘Hmm, I don’t know how I feel about this.’”

Wow.  Gosh.  That is… damning.  I’m seriously starting to rethink this whole thing.  Everyone knows the first rule of comedy is to find the stupidest person in the room and gear all your comedy towards him.  It’s like this one time I was listening to the Beatles, and I said to Charlie Manson, “isn’t this awesome?”  And he was like, “Yeah, man!  It’s about the coming of the race war!”  And from then on I couldn’t listen to the Beatles because the Beatles are racist.  And now Bruno.  Gosh, I think I’ll just watch Leno until everyone’s the same.

Brüno posed for GQ.  I dunno, these pictures seem kinda gay. |more pics here|

Paramount bought Honey Pot, from Liz Meriwether, the writer of (not making this up) Sluts and F*ckbuddies.  Plot is described as “what happens when a bunch of hot, funny women get their ‘Bourne’ on.”  I can’t wait for her next film, A Penis Entering a Vagina.  |Variety|

Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to a script about Costa-Rica based online casinos, from the writers of Rounders.  In related news, Brett Ratner is attached to a script he spilled Kool Aid on.  Seriously, can someone help get him unstuck?  That was the only copy. |THR|

Don’t believe the hype about Tarantino being asked to cut 40 minutes from Inglourious Basterds, yo.  Though to be fair, they could trim it by at least 10 minutes just by removing the extraneous letters.|ThePlaylist|

Yeah, you’ve probably already seen this, but I’m always up for a good Entourage bashing. “Dude, but there’s hot girls in it!”  Hi, I’m internet porn, have we met? |CollegeHumor|

This is a really scholarly and erudite review of James Franco’s poetry-influenced student film, and what I took away from it was that it shows a dude getting poop smeared on his face. |Movieline|

And just for fun, 8 Popular Movie Titles Over the Years. |ScreenJunkies|

The New York Times did an article on the Brüno movie over the weekend, focussing on the film’s overt political message. Surely it must have one.  Because comedy is propaganda, you see.

Gay groups are reacting with deeply mixed emotions, heightened by the recent triumphs (Iowa) and losses (California) in efforts to legalize gay marriage. Is the film then vulgar, inappropriate and harmful? Or bold, timely and necessary? All of the above?

Why is it any time someone uses the word ‘inappropriate’ I want to make a hole in their throat and poop in it?

Ultimately the tension surrounding “Brüno” boils down to the worry that certain viewers won’t understand that the joke is on them and will leave the multiplex with their homophobia validated [which I've heard you can redeem for free parking].
“Some people in our community may like this movie, but many are not going to be O.K. with it,” said Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for GLAAD. “Sacha Baron Cohen’s well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others.”
“We strongly feel that Sacha Baron Cohen and Universal Pictures have a responsibility to remind the viewing public right there in the theater that this is intended to expose homophobia,” said Brad Luna, a spokesman for Human Rights Campaign.

We have a right to ensure stupid people aren’t laughing at jokes for the wrong reasons!  Don’t you see? The chicken only braved the dangers of the road because she was fleeing discrimination!

Holding the opposite view are people like Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out magazine, who said he plans to put Mr. Baron Cohen on the August cover. “The movie does something hugely important, which is showing that people’s attitudes can turn on a dime when they realize you’re gay,” Mr. Hickland said. “The multiplex crowd wouldn’t normally sit down for a two-hour lecture on homophobia, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I’m excited about that.”

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I hope they saved some jokes for the film, because there’s a crapload of new footage in these three new TV spots from Sacha Baron von Cohen’s Brüno movie.  I know a lot the commenters here are Brüno haters, but if the line (at the 0:14 mark) “Your king Osama look like a kind of dirty wizard, or a homeless Santa” didn’t at least make you smile, you’re probably a terrorist.
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Brüno’s lawyers have issued a response to the wildly-implausible-sounding lawsuit filed by the “waah, bruno paralyzed me” lady.  And the nice thing about Sacha Cohen’s lawyers is that they do not F around.

Your clients’ claims are demonstrably and ludicrously false. The actual footage demonstrates that Mr. Baron Cohen never touched Ms. Olson, much less assaulted her.  To the contrary, Ms. Olson assaulted Mr. Baron Cohen, grabbing his arms from behind and attempting to pull him out of a chair.  The footage shows that Ms. Olson never ‘fell to the ground,’ nor was she injured in any way.

Putting aside the impossibility of a camera crew physically attacking Ms. Olson while at the same time filming her, the actual footage reveals that the number of crew members and other persons who attacked your client is zero.  The footage reveals that your client’s allegations are a complete fabrication.

If you do not file a voluntary dismissal of the complaint with prejudice, and if you do not do so by this Monday, June 8, our clients will avail themselves of every legal remedy against you and your clients. [original letter, via E!]

I don’t usually like to side with highly-paid studio lawyers, but it’s nice to see people not just cave and pay a settlement to some butthole filing a frivolous lawsuit.  I don’t have a lawyer but I find it still helps to refer to myself in the third person as ‘my client.’   My client thinks you’re being really mean.  My client wishes you would reconsider.  My client really didn’t mean any harm, he just thought you smelled nice is all.  Now look what you’ve done, you’ve made my client cry.