Call the Waaambulance ::: Gay Hollywood Comes Out ... Against 'Bruno', Gets Reshoots

By Dominic Patten

Hollywood’s gay community is reacting with anxiety and suspicion to Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming satire, “Bruno,” saying that the film excluded gays from the filmmaking process and that when they were consulted, filmmakers did not address their concerns that the film was a distortion of homosexuality.

The filmmaker conducted "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.

Universal Pictures, which is opening the film on July 10, declined to confirm or deny the report. In a statement the studio said the "overwhelming majority of the audience" would understand that the film seeks to lampoon homophobia.

But additional filming -- including an ending shot this spring with the participation of Elton John, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and other music celebrities, which seems to promote gay marriage in a spoof charity video -- may have come too late in the process to impact the tone of the movie, which many in the Hollywood gay community are finding offensive.

Writer-director Mike White (“School of Rock”), who is gay and part of Hollywood’s comedic power circle, was shown the film weeks ago and found the Bruno character to be a depiction of fetishism rather than a comedic stereotype, according to the individual involved in the production.

The writer-director told Cohen and producer Jay Roach, according to the individual, “’I felt like I was going to throw up the whole time.”

White would not discuss the report, but told TheWrap: “People are going to have a range of reactions to the film. I’m excited for people to see the movie, because it’s going to generate a lot of interesting discussions.”

White said that he gave the filmmakers suggestions for edits and reshoots, but he didn’t know whether they had taken his advice.

Other reactions in Hollywood go far beyond the apprehensions reported in a recent New York Times article on feedback in the broader gay and lesbian community.

At an event honoring "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black on Sunday, numerous gay celebrities -- some of whom had seen an early cut of the film -- compared Baron Cohen’s depiction to a white person appearing in blackface.

“I agree,” said actor Jack Plotnick (“Meet the Fockers”), when asked about the comparison. “I’m very concerned. I saw a rough cut. I just don’t want to comment until I see the finished movie, but I’m concerned.”

“When you see a Bruno clip in a room full of gay men, everyone laughs and it’s fine,” added Peter Paige, from “Queer as Folk.” “When you see a Bruno clip in a room full of straight men, they’re all laughing, and it’s a different thing. You start to go, ‘Hmmm, I don’t know how I feel about this.’”

Brian Graden, MTV Network's president of entertainment as well as the president of programming for Logo, Viacom's gay and lesbian TV channel, noted his worries about Bruno potentially crossing the "fine line between satire & stereotyping.”

Gay Hollywood Comes Out ... Against 'Bruno' | The Wrap