'Bruno' Enrages LA Schools Chief

LOS ANGELES — The chief of the nation's second-largest school district is fuming over comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's magazine photo shoot with high school football players.

Los Angeles Superintendent Ramon Cortines isn't amused by the GQ magazine photos shot at Birmingham High School that feature the "Borat" star in his new incarnation as gay Austrian fashionista "Bruno."

The GQ cover story features pictures of Baron Cohen wearing shoulder pads, tight red shorts, an athletic cup and little else as he poses with football players at the school in the San Fernando Valley.

Cortines says the district "allowed our students to be used." He says the photos violate the district's policy on use of the school's name, and he has punished the principal and athletic director. Cortines would not provide details.

Comments

[Winston Smith]

If you're not familiar with the Bruno character from the Ali G show then I would ask you to give him a chance. He started out as my least favorite character but ended up as my favorite. He's one of those characters that grows on you as he addresses superficiality and pettiness and challenges American ideals of "male sexuality".

[merrill1]

Cohen has one joke, over and over and over and over. In the end, it is always about biting the hand that feeds him. When will they learn?

[SuperBenFranklin]

I think i'm Gay'd out on gay humor.

It used to be funny, but nowadays, so over done, there are just too many typical gay characters, typical gay humor... it's like, "oh, here comes the funny gay guy. I bet he'll be effeminate!"

I liked Borat, but I think Cohen is actually taking a step backward with this character. It doesn't say much. Yes, gay people are funny. Yes, straight people around gay people are funny. Yes, straight people who think a gay person is hitting on them is hilarious! Yadda, yadda, yadda...

Plus, I don't know how any gay person could support this movie, much less, not protest it. I'm sure it is showing how stupid straight people are, but the main thrust of it is 'look at that funny gay guy, doesn't he act weird!'

Anyway, enough with the gay yuck yucks... getting old.

[Winston Smith]

Well. he's not just making fun of the gay issue but also the fashion industry and showbiz and the general emptiness of Hollywood culture.

[CologneCitizen]

Exactly, I don't get it that many people simply oversee the mocking of the empty haute couture world. They are so glued on the gay stuff, typical American, forbidden fruits sort of.

[KYZipster]

I dunno, I thought that stunt with Eminem at the MTV awards was a riot.

[marred]

Ich thinks NFL is soooooo gay anyway1

[ModernTimes1]

Ja,ja, wat ist mit 'tight end' schei$$ anyvay?

[deluk]

Ooooh!! Ich thinks you are soooo right, NFL is for the kinder. Rugby is for der hommen.

[MajorKong]

High school football takes itself waaaaay too seriously much of the time.

[HoldenLitgo]

If anyone's being "used" it's the people of Los Angeles who pay school tax. Cortine should be outraged that these football players can't read this article to see how lame he is.

[Eriq]

And that is DEFINITELY the truth.

[LeonBNJ]

I find the humor style of Cohen to be very unconfortable and offensive so I choose not to watch him. His humor is also very adult, tends to trap people in very weird circumstances, and like here involving a public school, may put them at risk of litigation for endorsing his humor and opinions.

[Rogan]

I'm with you, in that I personally don't find it funny, much, and often find it offensive, though I'm not easy to offend (I love early John Waters movies, for instance).

But it must be admitted, that the streak of real genius in this guy's work, is coming from exactly the same place. That is to say, it takes some ingenuity to offend me; and how he operates, uncomfortably dragging reality into his fictions, forcing real people to help him satirize them, that technique, or group of techniques, is deserving of the praise and success it has earned, even if it isn't always funny, and it is often questionable.

[rini]

That about sums up my feelings also.

[deluk]

Ich liebe Bruno und der knuffige kleine Tasche Tragen zu seinem ballensac !

[zizyphus]

Hilarious. Cohen does it again. LOL

[Michele Himmel]

Sasha is over exposing his character and is a big bore now. He needs to move on.

[rini]

I don't think that the character is the only thing that he is overexposing, if you know what I mean.

[IrNa]

Outstanding!

[tploomis]

Cortines should lighten up. He's certainly good at playing the disapproving father role. Maybe Bruno stirs some unacceptable feelings in him.

[powertothepeople]

This photo make me literally sick.

[SparkyAdams]

Werd~ Testify, sistah!

[Goefel]

You must be from the mid-west. Who spells like that anymore.

[deluk]

Bruno is a very healthy role model for young men. He IS the new Michael Jackson.

[daedelus]

Sounds like you need to talk to a doctor about it.

[solid]

Huh? Super weak stomach?

[Meggie]

Lighten up!
This should be good publicity for the school. The athletes look great and probably had a lot of fun.

[CologneCitizen]

Cohen has been doing stuff all over the world.

What I think is really funny that ONLY IN AMERICA he can polarize and get people excited over almost nothing. IMO this shows the warped mentality of many Americans regarding sex, gays, etc.

[SparkyAdams]

Yes, they love him in the muslam world.

[CologneCitizen]

When we say "world" in Europe regarding humour or jokes, we don't necessarily include the muslim world as their cultural background is too different. We are never politically correct, that's why your comment proves you are an American of course.

[daedelus]

Religious freaks of all persuasions find his humor unacceptable.

[dalkaveli]

Exactly.

[SparkyAdams]

Listen up people, no one is gayer than your friend Sparky Adams.

And I find Cohen a big h0mo-ph0be.

Think about it.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

Girlfriend!

[Meggie]

OK, so I think I learned a new word over the weekend.
Is Bruno a twink?

[LeftLeanWing]

No.....Bru­no is not a Twink.

Twinks are between 18 and 24.

[Rogan]

It was some of the weird gay "jokes" in Borat, that disturbed me enough to shut the movie off before it was over.

I hope this Bruno movie uses similar material more, how shall I put it, judiciously? - Borat, occasionally, functioned as the best social satire, and Bruno could be, similarly, pointed and "incorrect" in productive and positive ways...

...but I fear you're right, there's a nasty kind of gay joke or joking that Cohen often draws on or from, that is, if not homophobia, genuinely offensive, and aimed at homosexual­s... it's sort of an East Coast intellectual version of anti-gay boy's locker room humor, and a couple of those wrong kind of jokes already ruined Borat for me.