As we've learned from his last big screen effort, Sacha Baron Cohen employs a wide variety of low-tech tricks to sell his comedy illusions. For example, to create those Borat Polaroids in which his face grazed his teenage son's exposed manhood, a gay porn star was hired who looked young enough to be the Kazakh's spawn. But with follow-up Bruno, the stakes and degree of technical difficulty have upped considerably.No longer will audiences be satisfied with the suggestive flopping around of a fist-shaped dildo and post-gay-pride-parade communal showers. A movie about a gay Austrian fashionista simply demands unobstructed man-on-man-on-man penetration—and Cohen is determined to deliver on every front. And back. And daisychaining where necessary. NY Daily News reports, using our fake title yet again:

Video has surfaced of Sacha Baron Cohen's storming of a Yes on Prop 8 rally outside City Hall over the weekend, posted by an irate Third Rail Media who claim the British comedian's crew physically pushed their cameras out of the way. As it's hard for us to get too swept up in the struggles of guerrilla videographers attending a rally protesting basic human rights for gays, we'll instead focus on the antics of the Austrian fashionista: Yet again, Bruno risks his own bodily safety in the name of his higher prank-comedy calling, and in the process secures some mildly amusing footage in which he explains to an angry religious zealot that his sign, "ASHERS ARE FOR SCHEISSING, NOT FOR SHTUPPING," actually places both men safely on the same side of the Gays Are Sinning Sodomites Who Must Be Stopped At All Costs debate.

Bruno's Straight Man? A report this morning suggests Sacha Baron Cohen did not visit yesterday's Yes on 8 rally as the flamboyant firebrand Bruno, but rather as the comic's newer, closeted character Straight Dave. While that would no doubt explain his mall-refugee threads, confusion persists about the language barrier that would influence Straight Dave's placard to reject gay marriage "even zough zey're nice." And that is Bruno's Milan-crashing coiffure. Yes? No? Make your voice heard — the issues can wait. [Filmdrunk via Spout Blog]

In Pershing Square yesterday, Defamer stood alongside fellow Californians waging war against the evil Prop 8, hoisting placards and cheering wildly as passing vehicles (including city buses and cop cars) honked their support for equal civil rights for all. Meanwhile, at a Yes on 8 rally outside City Hall, none other than Austrian fashion journalist and trendspotter Brüno had infiltrated the scene. (Amazingly, The Sun once again reports he was there to shoot footage for "Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt," our own parody title that simply refuses to die.) People reports that once Sacha Baron Cohen was discovered, his "own camera crew worked to shield him. Eventually, he was escorted away inside a van"—the suspiciously swishy hunter became the hunted! We salute what must have been an incredibly difficult decision for Bruno to wear Dockers, a Men's Warehouse shirt, and no hair product in order to blend with the unfabulous crowd more efficiently. More photos after the jump:

After a lull in Bruno sightings that felt like an unfabulous forever, Universal's $42-million dollar man leapt back onto the publicity hamster wheel Thursday with an appearance at Fashion Week in Milan. From the looks of the accompanying news video, things probably could have gone better with the police (have you ever spent the night in a squalid, rapey Italian jail?), but from the looks of the wire photos snapped before security shot out the lights, Sacha Baron Cohen's trailblazing German model clearly outmatched any of the dingy frocks in Agatha Ruiz de la Prada's spring collection. All the evidence is after the jump. And for the last time, Associated Press: Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male is the title we made up. Or half of it, anyway. You're welcome!

· Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno exploits took him from Israel to Arkansas; his Sherlock Holmes adventures to come may or may not include the missus.
· AFTRA ratified its new contract, but SAG didn't let that spoil its appetite for destruction.
· Harvey Weinstein is now officially going door-to-door to finance his films. Psst! Buddy! Wanna buy a Tarantino?
· The TV Critics Association Press Tour is dead. Long live the TCA Press Tour!
· Lest major Dark Knight spoilers aren't up your alley, there's always Michael Bay's unproduced Awesome Knight screenplay to hold you over another week.
· After a long string of compatibility issues, Drew Barrymore is on the market for a Mac huckster upgrade.
· This Week In Magazine Cover Hell: Blake Lively gets the blown-out Skeletor treatment, while the pasty youths of Twilight make EW safe for chest hair.
· Here's the story of a lovely lady, who was bringing up three very lovely RRRAAALLLLPPPHHHHH
· Defamer's readers joined Matthew McConaughey in welcoming a bouncing Bongo Romcom to the world.
· Meanwhile in France, stinky, salmon-devouring, "high-maintenance beetch" Angelina Jolie prepared her post-twinbirth conditioning regimen. Two words: Hula hoop.
· Pick your reality TV poison for 2009: America's Greatest Dog or The Ashley Dupre Governor Boink Variety Hour.
· We wished a healthy recovery (literally) to the rat-friendly Newsroom Cafe, and bid a fond farewell to J-Lo's slice of Pasadena paradise, Madre's.
· Have you yet greeted Tricia Romano, Defamer newcomer and social observer extraordinaire? Well? That's more like it.
· Molls ate spinach. That is all.

When choosing between months of intensive studies spent hunched over a Torah preparing for your kiddushin (that's betrothal for you goyum, which are non-Jews for you...non-Jews), and becoming a big star, it seems Isla Fisher has decided to go with the latter. As the Daily Mail reports, the potential redheaded successor to Lucille Ball's slapstick throne has put off the conversion process in order to complete filming Confessions Of A Shopaholic. And fiance Sacha Baron Cohen's ultra-religious parents just don't see what all this movie stardom fuss is all about. The wedding date has reportedly been postponed, Cohen's gone back to making Israelis cry as Bruno, and the wee Cohen baby is presumably in the hands of the only au pair they could find who hasn't seen Borat. But Fisher isn't the first actress to undergo conversion to Judaism for a guy — from Liz Taylor to Connie Chung, a diverse handful of stars became Jews in the name of love, though not every shattered wine glass led to a happy ending...

Just one day after an Israeli political blogger's account of being ambushed in Jerusalem by Sacha Baron Cohen's voguing/strudel-loving alter ego was devoured by the Bruno-obsessed internets, comes news of strange events going down at a fair grounds in Little Rock that would appear to have the swarthy British prankster's riot-inciting fingerprints all over it. Arriving for what was billed on posters (pictured above) as "Blue Collar Brawlin': Hot Chicks, Cold Beer, Hardcore Fights," local cage-match fans instead got a generous helping of a different kind of man-on-man action:

Prankster, actor, and all-around brave guy Sacha Baron Cohen has once again angered gullible Southerners. This time it was while filming his new movie Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt (title is tentative) which features Cohen's gay fashionista character prancing about the United States. The Borat star held several evenings of "Blue Collar Brawlin'" in two "cities" in Arkansas, advertising with posters like the one above. There was cage wrasslin' and $1 beer, yes, but the night ended with two male combatants kissing each other for all to see. Audience members became furious when confronted with this hideous sight, throwing beer and chairs onto the stage. Click after the jump to see the Craigslist ad that Cohen and his cohorts posted for the events.

Can't wait until May 15, 2009 to learn what Sacha Baron Cohen has cooked up for Bruno, only the latest swarthy foreigner from the comedian's repertoire to star in a feature-length film? The internet is teeming with sightings detailing the fictional Austrian TV personality's exploiten and vëreabouts. Some you may have spotted in our very own PrivacyWatch; but the latest comes to us via The Jewish Daily Forward, where recent dupee Yossi Alpher—an Israeli political blogger—describes his run in with Eurofashion greatness in Jerusalem:

One of the on-the-job hazards of being a composite industry blog/nonsense repository is that occasionally, something we may have intended as a puckish, lightly satirical jab—a joke, if you will—is misinterpreted as fact. One memorable instance had The Australian soberly repeating our take on Mel Gibson's pitch for an ABC Holocaust movie, featuring a "Braveheart-style battle with thousands of Jewish and Nazi combatants rushing at each other across an open field." In that vein, while researching a post on the release date of Universal's upcoming Bruno movie, we were taken aback to find that our proposed mock-title for the summer 2009 release—Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt—had been picked up by a vast array of sources, including:

We now know when to expect an answer to the "Bruno: Borat-level triumph or $42 million Universal folly?" question eating at Hollywood since first learning that the studio had shelled out that unconscionable sum for a feature-length prankumentary starring the heterosexually-threatening Sacha Baron Cohen character. From Variety:

· Who can turn the world on with her adorable The Mary Tyler Moore Show set remembrances on Oprah today? Betty White, that's who! [Oprah]
· The C&Ds are flying fast and furious with these photos of Bruno ambushing fellow Austrian Gov. Schwarzenegger, but /Film seems to still have them up as of post time. [/Film]
· David Archuleta's voice coach explains for Utah's Fox news affiliate how the show's producers have systematically rigged it so that David Cook would trample the little shaved-koala's skull in the voting. Also, disconcertingly bedentured producer Nigel Lythgoe told Ryan Seacrest that the "biggest star in the world" would be performing on the finale. OMG! Jesus! We hope he takes the wheel! (Lolz.) [MyFoxUtah, mjsbigblog.com]
· Didn't spend the heat wave on a beach with Jake and Reese, but wish you had? Now you can! [celebrity-gossip.net]
· Loni Anderson married Bob Fleck, a folk singer who would never get any WKRP airplay, in Bel Air yesterday. [AP]

Sacha "Borat" Baron "Ali G" Cohen is working on his upcoming flick about his character "Bruno," the supergay Austrian fashion reporter. Since everyone on both coasts (except for Ben Affleck) is obviously too familiar with his work to be punked, Bruno has traveled to the heart of flyover land, Wichita, Kansas. Where he was captured on film doing supergay stuff! His act reportedly "almost looked like pornography," at least to Kansas sensibilities. After the jump, video [via Towleroad] of Bruno and his funky pants dance, which brings joy to the dreary confines of the Wichita terminal.

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often—the fate of the universe relies upon it! Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line so we don't lose them) and tell everyone about how the sound of Mickey Rourke's loud snoring prevented you from getting any work done at the Santa Monica Public Library.

Remember Stonie, the gay porn star whose jail-baity looks were capitalized upon by the makers of Borat, casting him as the Kazakh journeyman's naked teenage son in a series of sexually suggestive Polaroids? No? Then the fact that he just got a sex change (but will continue to pursue a career in the adult entertainment field) will probably do nothing for you. Still, makers of Bruno: He's She's one featured role away from earning a SAG card. Think about it. Link NSFW. [WOW Report]

· Sacha Baron Cohen is "firming plans" to star in Bruno (but aren't they already shooting that one? Sneaky!), then will move on to Dinner for Schmucks, a remake of Francis Veber's Le Diner de Cons, a comedy about a dinner guest whose manners would shame even the tableside-feces-proferring Borat. [Variety]
· TBS orders a second season of The Bill Engvall Show, keeping the weakest member of the Blue Collar Comedy family working for an additional ten episodes. [THR]
· Var provides a blow-by-blow of the Whoopi Goldberg's controversial, Vick-defending first day on The View. [Variety]
· TV viewers desperate for the networks' new Fall programming to begin settle for watching CBS placeholders Power of 10 and Big Brother 8 on Tuesday night. [THR]
· Pedro Almodovar pre-casting shocker! The Spanish auteur plans on giving Penelope Cruz the starring role in the film he's currently writing. [Variety]

From virtually the moment Universal threw $42 million at Sacha Baron Cohen for Bruno, his Borat follow-up, questions about whether a far more recognizable troublemaker would be able to hide behind a bleached fauxhawk and mesh shirt and goad homophobic Americans into hilariously intolerant reactions to his subtle, Austrian-accented invitations to sodomy. So how is the Bruno team tackling the problem of Baron Cohen's fame? According to an operative, by waving his bedazzled microphone right under our noses here in L.A.. His report on the star's new faux-documentary shenanigans follows:

The press's recent getting all up in the shady business of Media Rights Capital—the non-Endeavor-controlled, totally independent finance entity whose letterhead only coincidentally bears the motto "Making Endeavor Clients And Agents Extra Stinking Filthy Rich Since 2003"—continues today with a Kim Masters follow-up to her MRCMania-kickstarting Slate story of last week, in which possibly fictional company co-CEO Modi Wiczyk's memo-writing past reveals how a clever agency's treading around conflict-of-interest laws in a vaguely MRC-like fashion just might theoretically/potentially make everyone involved a shitload of money:

If your memory extends all the way back to last October, you may recall a little multistudio bidding war that resulted in Universal shelling out $42.5 million for the rights to Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno, a shocking price considering that at the time, there was at a fair amount of pants-soiling going on about some potentially scary tracking data for Borat, which was yet to prove that naked wrestling and the throwing of wadded up bills at bed-and-breakfast operating roach-Jews would be embraced on a worldwide basis. So how did Baron's people pull off such a great deal in the pre-Kazakhmania era? Slate's Kim Masters reports on speculation that Endeavor is running a puppet regime whose sole mission is to screw the studios while enriching its clients (yeah, that sounds exactly like an "agency," but stick with it):