Obviously there’s an outpouring of grief, or at least media attention and coverage, over the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop who died yesterday at the age of 50 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in L.A. And despite years of ridiculing Jackson, now that he has died, it’s apparently verboten to act Un-PC-like and Universal is reacting quickly.
Since we’re in movie world, the first thing we thought when we heard the news of Jackson’s death was an “uh oh,” for Sacha Baron Cohen. We’re all under heavy embargo, so we’ll let the U.K. Guardian explain.
A scene in which Cohen interviews the singer’s sister, LaToya Jackson, was hastily removed from the film. Sources at Universal, the studio behind “Brüno”, said the decision had been made “out of respect for Jackson’s family.”
What happened in the offending scene?
…Cohen, in the guise of Brüno, attempting to find Michael Jackson’s phone number on LaToya’s BlackBerry. After Brüno reads aloud what he claims to be the singer’s number, an apparently enraged LaToya terminates the interview and storms off the set. Reports suggest that the scene will not be restored for its official release.
We confirm we saw this material in the cut we saw. After claims that “Brüno” already underwent “gayfriendly reshoots” to appease the potentially-offended gay community, this further self-censorship is probably not a good look for the film (even if those “gayfriendly reshoot” reports feel like a lot of bullshit). “Brüno” hits theaters on 10 July.