'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

[mergina]

Too funny.

[saltandwater]

I am getting sick of this thing that calls himself a man. How funny is it to try to ridicule and humiliate other people like he does? He just wants everyone to look at his almost absent ge nitalia and his sock stuffed crotch. If he knew how repulsive he is to the average woman he would crawl back under the rock that he came from.

[SparkyAdams]

Testify, sistah!

[Tommygun264]

I thought it was policy to label paid advertisements as such on this site.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

huh?

[KLordsha]

This guy sasha cohen is trying too hard to be funny.

[monstermash9]

And failing.

[zakwouldhave]

The damage done to these kids involved will lead to debauchary which will lead to economic disaster.
At least thats what Oklahoma says.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

Thank you Ms. Kern of Oklahomophoba!

[GotRights]

...which could lead to smoking, which could lead to drinking, which could lead to (horror of horrors) ...
dancing!

(Old Baptist joke.)

[MisterHands]

Just watched it online, not horrible. Watching HRC supporters drum-up faux outrage-- is much more entertaining.

[IrNa]

So much fun ....

[NoSillyName]

This guy is as annoying and ubiquitous as Palin.

Huffy please spare us!

[MtDavid]

Please! Lighten up.
Although I don't find Cohen very funny, one can recognize it as "humor" of a very juvenile variety.
Why is everyone so uptight!?

[tploomis]

We are so uptight because we are scared of our own unacceptable impulses.

[Sportswoman]

He should stop the damn charade. My son attended University HS where scores of movies were filmed. Owen Wilson once visited his football team practice and the boys were all thrilled, even though it was a common occurance for them to bump into actors. As parents who were forced to fund raise for absolutely everything on that team, we could not get an answer as to where the money from the film shoots went. We know it never reached classrooms or kids, never sports teams that had difficulty paying coaches. My sons' position coach waited a year to get paid. We often could not even park on campus when film shoots were being held. SUDDENLY Cortines cares about one photo of a them. The Rock used high school kids as did Adam Sandler and a host of other films, as well. This is about his paranoia of anything that can be construed as racy because of a long-standing policy in which administrators and teachers were transferred not fired over it and the LA Times exposed it. He should care more that he is firing 5000 teachers, not using stimulus monies to retain them, and is still hiring outside contractors to build offices for more administrators on numerous campuses while teachers are home from school this summer as he cut those classes, as well. Show us the $$ Cortines!

[JumpDownTurnAround]

Standing Ovation! Fanned & Faved!

[RuinedSaint]

Bravo!

[flamflurm]

Sportswoman? BravO? That you Sasha?

[Godweiser]

I don't find Cohen's work even remotely as amusing as the outrage it tends to provoke after it comes out. I'll probably have to sit through the movie, bored, but that'll be worth it when the asteroid-sized whinefest detonates.

I'm not sure what the problem is with Birmingham High doing its thing; they've been working with Hollywood for a long time. God knows, if they had to rely on the lame bureaucrat doing the whining, they'd probably be kidnapping their students and selling them to organ harvesters for the sort of funding the school has thanks to Hollywood.

[RuinedSaint]

Of his character Borat, Cohen said in a Rolling Stone article:

"Borat essentially works a tool. By himself pretending to be anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice."

Cohen's work seems to be more akin to the old Candid Camera show... It's not *him* that's really the subject of the film; it's how *everyone else* around him is reacting that's the point.

Much like this superintendent.

[Godweiser]

By pretending to be something, he draws out people who share the beliefs of the persona to talk about it openly; in America, a lot of people hide what they're really thinking and Cohen draws it out in the open.

It's probably unpleasant for some people, but I think he's doing the good work, by exposing the fact that while we publicly deplore certain things, the real sentiment exists, buried, hidden from public condemnation, festering and resentful that it even has to hide.

Cohen's fishing for bigots, it means having to use some bait.

[GotRights]

I'm with you on all you said up to "Much like this superintendent."

Schools are not supposed to let minor students' images be used for commercial purposes without parental knowledge and consent. As a promotion for Cohen's film, this photo shoot was definitely for a commercial purpose. I think maybe that's what the Supe is upset about.

[ddanimal]

hahahaha!

Goooooooo....BRUNO!

Ramon Cortines definitely has something to hide. Stick it where thesun dont shine, Cortines.

Like another person said, what if it was a female model in a bikini? He wouldnt be complaining.

[SparkyAdams]

Hom0phobia is not cool no matter how you twist it.

Sha me on you.

[wordhorder]

you should know

[Nzingha]

I think most of you, in your zeal to label the superintendent a homophobe, are missing the point, which is that these are underage children. Whether Cohen was a man or a woman, straight or gay, it's still inappropriate. The superintendent and the school district has an obligation to protect these children and keep them from being exploited. Cohen crossed the line here.

And the "what if it were a woman argument" is weak.

[SparkyAdams]

They are attacking the man for being gay. Allegedly.

It's sic kening reading the hom0ph0bia here.

So what if the superintendent is gay?

[JumpDownTurnAround]

It's not homophobia regarding the superintendent. The thing is he is presumed to be closeted, like Larry Craig, and there inlies the hypocrisy of the situation is what people are trying to point out.
I don't think there's any homophobia being spread, at least not yet Sparky, I don't see it.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

protect them from what? eploited how? Permits were pulled for the parents approval - it wasn't the right permits, but they were pulled for parents approval. Perhaps each football player's mommy should have been at the shoot to make sure their big burley football player didn't get exploited.

[Sportswoman]

This district has made $$$$$$$ over the years for films shot on their campuses ,and has never felt the need to reveal what has happened to those funds. Anybody with a brain or at least some current knowledge of film knows that Cohen ALWAYS crosses the line. Your point is?

[goplayrabbit]

a child is usually a person between birth and puberty. most certainly these high school football players are young adults. they're also not stupid, so to insinuate such is certainly missing your target.

it was approved by two apparently knowledgeable, professional adults (principal, athletic director).

and the school has a history of hollywood filming.

to be childish, i'd say your "argument" is weaker.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

local news here said that permits for parents were pulled too, the wrong permits but they were pulled and supposedly the parents knew their kids were being used in a film photo shoot.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

local news here said that permits for parents were pulled too, the wrong permits but they were pulled and supposedly the parents knew their kids were being used in a film photo op.

(sorry if this posts twice) I used a word that I think gets held up for moderation - I used "op" instead....

[JLennon4Life]

Yes we should compleately segregate and place a restraining order on all gay people from coming within 2 miles of an underage youth. (LOL, this is ridiculous) "Let us remember Greece"

[HarlemFreeThought]

Would the superintendent voice his opposition if the shoot was at Beverly Highs HS?

[SparkyAdams]

Anyone else find borat's portrayal of gays as mincing effeminate drama queens offensive?

Who is the real h0mophobe?

[JumpDownTurnAround]

Can one answer that without having seen the movie yet? And for the record it's Bruno, not Borat. Sasha's last movie was Borat. Just for the record.

[SparkyAdams]

Thanks for the update. It's been decades since I was 13 years old and on top of this kind of stuff.

[ibivi]

SBC made a pile of money with his last movie. So now it seems that have given him carte blanch to do whatever silliness he comes up with. Frankly the PR is incredible. He is everywhere as Bruno. But these pranks are ridiculous and juvenile. Enough already!

[Nzingha]

I think you're onto something.

[ddanimal]

no.

Cohen is portraying bruno. And itrs funny.

where do you get this silly idea that he's portraying all gays?

[SparkyAdams]

Are you really this thick?

[goplayrabbit]

sparky, i think you misunderstand his form of irony. in the end, his purpose is to question our own reactions to gays. he's proposed a stereotype that SOCIETY created (not Cohen) and is taking it to its extreme. as far as i can tell.

this is akin to taking sexist stereotypes to their ridiculous conclusions: women, birthing constantly; men flexing muscles or ejaculating all day. this form of parody takes the metaphor to a grotesque conclusion that can spark important debates.

don't underestimate comedy to change minds. cohen's not your enemy.

full disclosure: i am gay.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

me too! I'm gay, and I think that's exactly the intention here too! I hope it is. Like I said before the Eminem bit at the MTV awards was brilliant, and it was a set up! Half the people thought it was for real, half thought it wasn't. It was brilliant! And I thought funny as Hill!

[SparkyAdams]

Yes, his strategy is really doing a great job of building acceptance for us amongst the conservative and religious.

THANK YOOOOOO!

[HarlemFreeThought]

Sasha Baron Cohen portrays Bruno , and two other characters.
As a gay man I find the "Gay Pride Parade" even more offensive.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

do you mean "Gay Pride Parade" in general as offensive, or is there a Gay Pride Parade scene in the movie that's offensive?

[henrypapillon]

Aren't some of them underage.

[JumpDownTurnAround]

underage for what?

[JumpDownTurnAround]

Do you now have to be 18 to have your picture taken with a fictional gay movie character who is fully clothed?