Update: Ha, yes. We called this one. Looks like The Wrap is just printing random emails with an agenda as their “source”? The same email that Nikki Finke published as well as her “insider”? Jesus Christ . Kudos to Movieline to revealing this one and illustrating the transparency of both sites, “reporting.”
Movieline: “Mystery Emailer Unites Nikki Finke and Sharon Waxman In Bruno Smear”
Previously: Let’s face it, the gay community is very worried about Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Brüno,”; how it’s going to be perceived, how it’s going to be received and if it’s going to be the “minstrel show” they think it’s going to be and sets gay rights back into the stone ages.
Anxiety, suspicion over motivations, fear, all of it. The media is all abuzz about it and not all of it is good, but Universal must be happy that it’s at least getting a lot of attention (they paid Cohen, what $40-something million upfront?).
According to The Wrap, “The filmmaker [Larry Charles] 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.”
Umm, but when? The troubled reactions just started in the last two weeks. “Brüno” screened last night in New York to long-lead media, it’s cut, finished, locked and loaded. Did they know the reaction was going to be that bad, so mid-way through production shot, “gay-friendly” or did they just use their time travel machines?
Ahh, here it is, that scene shot this spring with that included “Elton John, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and other music celebrities, which seems to promote gay marriage in a spoof charity video” is what the Wrap is making a fuss about or pointing to as the culprit of “gay-friendly” scenes. U2’s Bono, Madonna and Sting allegedly participated in the song as well.
Universal refused to comment and said, an “overwhelming majority of the audience would understand that the film seeks to lampoon homophobia.” We’re not sure about middle-America, but sure. The blue states will get it.
We don’t really buy it. Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen love to shoot on-the-fly, last minute stuff like they did with “Borat” and are constantly tweaking and their documentary style comedies with, “Hey, I’ve got a idea, let’s shoot it!” concepts. And the Wrap likes to be heard. Buyer beware and or, don’t worry too much. These scenes were shot a fairly long time ago and with a comedy like this you have to carefully calibrate tone.