Palestinian files $110M libel suit over ‘Bruno’
1010WINS
by Brett Zongker
December 9, 2009

In this Sunday, June 21, 2009 file photo, British actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the part of Bruno, poses in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin as part of promotional activities of the movie “Bruno.” A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie “Bruno” is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander. The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $110 million in damages.


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‘Bruno’ brutally funny
by Zachary Woodruff
SignOnSanDiego.com (The Union Tribune)
July 10, 2009

Baron Cohen’s latest prank scores without the cruelty of ‘Borat’

If you look up the word “prank,” among the older definitions is this one: “A trick to make people stare.” Thanks to movies like “Bruno,” comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to “Borat,” a newer definition would have to add “or look away.” Prepare to squirm, or worse: As one of the subjects/victims in the film’s myriad setups says after falling prey to Cohen’s antics, “I wanted to poke my eyes out with hot needles.”

My own reaction also involved pain, not to the eyes so much as the stomach: “Bruno” is laugh-out-loud, sucker-punch-in-the-gut funny. With a comedic barrage of shock, irony, slapstick and ongoing discomfort, you probably won’t know what’s hit you, and you’ll likely lose your balance. Especially during a full-screen full-frontal of what in this case could appropriately be called a tallywhacker. (You’ve been warned.)

Obscenitywise, “Bruno” charts new territory. How much were members of the ratings board paid off to give this movie an “R”? (For a lesson in how far standards can sink in 20 years, look up 1990’s tame “Henry & June,” the first major NC-17 film.) But there’s intelligence and discipline behind the madness. Cohen and his collaborators, including director Larry Charles (the whiz behind “Seinfeld”), have refined their guerrilla game and learned a lesson their previous social experiment, “Borat,” lacked: That it’s enough to make fools out of people without being cruel. No need to call a man’s wife ugly at the dinner table. Let people humiliate themselves on their own. (more…)

The Art of the Prank
by Spencer Morgan
Maxim.com
June 29, 2009

From coast to coast, intrepid bands of merrymakers are staging hoaxes, stunts, and practical jokes like never before. Welcome to the Golden Age of the Prank.

This is for participants only,” announces a heavily bundled Charlie Todd through his trusty gray bullhorn. “If you didn”™t come to take your pants off today, you”™re in the wrong spot.” It”™s a frigid January afternoon in New York City”™s Foley Square, and hundreds of fearless pranksters are braving the elements to get together and shed their trousers for the eighth annual “No Pants! Subway Ride.”

Todd, a baby-faced 30-year-old from Columbia, South Carolina, is the mastermind behind this gathering, and on his command the assembled crowd scatters for the nearest subway entrances”¦and collectively drops trou. Even in a city like New York, riding the subway sans pants is a guaranteed eye-opener, and today is no exception: Straphangers stare, chuckle, even take photos. Around 1,200 men and women have come out clad in boxers, briefs, boxer-briefs, and bloomers, not just in New York, but in 21 cities across the globe. (“Three hundred take to the subway””shameless and pantless,” the Toronto Sun would inform its readers soberly the next day.) The mission ends with a group of agents celebrating in Union Square, making snow angels, still pantless. Improv Everywhere has struck again. Mission accomplished. (more…)

Update: Bruno’s prank revealed — “Bruno” and “Eminem” MTV Movie Award stunt was Staged, confirms Philip Odegard and others, Reuters, June 2, 2009

Believe it or not: Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen) invites Eminem to kiss his ass during the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, May 31, 2009, bringing to mind Pamela Anderson’s fake scenes in Borat.