Bruno
In Theaters July 10
How could Sacha Baron Cohen follow Borat, both as a hit comedy (it earned more than $260 million worldwide) and as shock therapy to the more sensitive parts of the body politic? He'll play a gay Austrian fashion guru in another shock-mock doc. By now Baron Cohen is so identified with his alter egos (he did most of his Borat publicity in character) that it's hard to tell who's who. So he must get controversy but getting audiences to ask, in horror or laughter, What's that? An early cut submitted to the MPAA ratings board contained a scene in which, according to an industry website, Baron Cohen "appears to have anal sex with a man on camera." That earned Bruno a prohibitive NC-17 rating, which is now being negotiated. But if celebs from Pamela Anderson to Paris Hilton can stoke their careers with sex videos, then why not Baron Cohen — er, Bruno?
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