Hanging With Brüno At The Brooklyn Academy Of Music

by Jett Wells

Watching Sacha Baron Cohen being Brüno is like watching a psycho with a personality disorder. For the time being, he isn’t the popular entertainer who rose to prominence in the United States with "Da Ali G Show" and "Borat": he is Brüno. And he wasn’t going to break character when he made an impromptu appearance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last Tuesday.

Brüno was a surprise guest at a MySpace-sponsored screening of his new movie at BAM. He slipped in from the back of the theater and jumped right into the crowd. Not quite on the level with his shocking appearance -- and run-in with Eminem -- at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards in May, but close enough.

He wasn’t wearing a naked body suit. No animal costumes either. Really, none of his previous movie premiere outfits. He did show up in full black and red leather body suit. It looked vaguely like Michael Jackson’s red “Thriller” jacket. Before starting the movie, Brüno stood in front of the audience and explained why he made the movie, peppering his chatter with plenty of gay jokes. After a few minutes, he took off into the hallway he had popped out from.

MTV Movies Editor Josh Horowitz was on the scene to interview Brüno briefly, and I accompanied him to take photos. Before and during the interview, the Austrian fashionista was recycling the same jokes he performed for the audience. People say Brüno is our modern day Andy Kaufman but it's clear that Sacha Baron Cohen can only take his character so far.

Josh asked Brüno to judge the style sense of a few celebrities. The celebs being judged were Robert Pattinson, Miley Cyrus, Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie, Joe Jonas and Sacha Baron Cohen, sans alter ego. Brüno was a good sport and said everyone had it wrong, including himself. He did, however, say he was a huge fan of Pattinson. Big surprise.

The best part had to be at the end of the interview, when Brüno told Josh to kiss his black leather glove. At first, Josh said no. Brüno insisted, and Josh gave in, kissing the glove reluctantly. Josh looked like he needed a shower after that, but the the fashion reporter wasn't finished. Brüno then challenged Josh to bend over; Josh didn’t budge that time. I’m glad Josh was a good sport, although I really wish he'd let Brüno spank him on camera.

The weirdest part about Cohen is that he didn’t stop with the Austrian accent even when he asked Josh if he got everything out of the interview that he wanted. When Cohen steps into one of his characters, he really becomes that person.

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