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It was reported last week that a scene from Bruno in which Sacha Baron Cohen interviewed an unsuspecting (isn’t she always?) Latoya Jackson, was being temporarily cut just hours before the Los Angeles premiere. Oh, sorry, quick bit of background information: Michael Jackson died. R.I.P. Michael Jackson! OK, so, now it looks like the scene will officially be cut from the movie. From RiskyBusinessBlog:
The sudden death of Michael Jackson on Thursday prompted a series of discussions at Universal Pictures that resulted in the studio cutting a Jackson-related sketch from “Bruno” only hours before its Los Angeles premiere.
Uni removed a scene in which Bruno, the flamboyant Austrian journalist played by Sacha Baron Cohen, interviews an unsuspecting LaToya Jackson about a number of topics, including her brother.
Among the gags is a joke about the King of Pop’s high-pitched voice, as well as an attempt to discover his contact info (Baron Cohen grabs LaToya’s phone), as well as a reference to his trademark white glove, etc, all done in Baron Cohen’s characteristically absurdist tone.
The scene played at press screenings earlier in the week, where it did not stand out as unusually outrageous in the context of the pic’s other antics.
Maybe it didn’t stand out as unusually outrageous in the context of the pic’s other antics earlier in the week, but what about now, after Jackson’s death on Thursday?
But after Jackson’s death on Thursday, the studio and filmmakers decided to remove the scene for the premiere screening out of sensitivity to the Jackson family. The film now goes directly from Baron Cohen’s gonzo interview with Paula Abdul to a focus-group for his faux reality show.
“We decided to take it out for tonight, and we’ll reassess before the release whether to keep it out,” said director Larry Charles at the premiere’s afterparty. (Update: Uni now confirms the scene is officially out of the theatrical version, and says removing it won’t be expensive because most of the prints have not yet been made or shipped).
It seems like they could have just pulled a Zoolander and digitally removed the references to Michael Jackson without deleting the scene, TWIN TOWERZ-STYLE. Remember how Zoolander is the single most respectful movie ever made? That movie took us all to Respect School and taught us an important lesson about how Revisionist History Makes Scenes in Graveyards Funnier.
But also, this scene is going to get out, right? It will leak. We will see this. I suppose the longest it will take for this scene to leak is when it “leaks” onto the deleted scenes feature of the DVD. Otherwise it could be any minute now. Wait for it…wait for it…wait for it…
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I can’t believe they’re cutting the Latoya scene and leaving in the three-way with Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett.
Bing Bong.
And the scene where Billy Mays tries to sell him a mail-order bride.
Good thing there were no Billy Mays references, or there would be no movie left.
Aw, I thought clicking on that “wait for it…” link would take me to a video montage of Neil Patrick Harris saying “wait for it…” over and over again. I’m starting to miss you already Lindsay. ::sheds a single tear::
I actually thought the link was going to take me to the scene.
So to recap, I went from just learning of the scene’s existence to finding out I wasn’t going to get to see it to getting my hopes up that I would see it now only to be disappointed.
The banner picture doesn’t make it clear as there is no caption; which one is LaToya?
I noticed there was some Micheal Jackson related audio that got cut out of Bill Maher’s show on Friday too. He was interviewing Billy Bob Thornton and they were talking about how nobody compares to The Beatles and they’re playing with the format so it was recorded earlier in the week before MJ died. MJ’s name came up and then the audio went dead for a few seconds so I guess they were saying negative shit.
Fuck Bill Maher and Billy Bob Thornton. I said it.
I agree with half of that statement. I still like Bill Maher but Billy Bob is a hillbilly fuck mook.
Regardless of your feelings on Billy Bob Thornton, the man is a musical historian and his opinion on popular music deserves to be heard.
Wait… really? (I’m being serious)
I had to look “mook” up, because I seriously thought it was a racial slur.
I was thinking this would be the greatest GOTCHA ever, but a good kind of gotcha. Talk about the clip, refer to earlier movies that got some scrubbing, and at the very end you have a link to the deleted scene. You had it all along, you just teased it out. But nooooooo..
Isn’t it obvious? Michael Jackson conveniently dies hours before Bruno premieres? A movie which would tarnish LaToya Jackson’s reputation? That’s what’s known in the biz as “motive,” my friends. The pieces are all coming together…
A friend of mine saw a sneak preview and said that the scene was hilarious. They had no furniture so they made Latoya sit on mexicans. Then they ate sushi off of a naked mexican’s body.