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La Toya Jackson scene cut from 'Bruno'
2009-07-08
LONDON (AFP) - The makers of the film "Bruno" have cut a scene featuring Michael Jackson's sister La Toya because of fears it was in poor taste following the singer's death, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. The scene in the spoof movie featuring British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as an outrageous gay Austrian fashion reporter was removed "out of respect" for the Jackson family, the spokeswoman said. Baron Cohen's last film, "Borat" enraged many people in Kazakhstan for its portrayal of a hapless Kazazh journalist who described his compatriots as primitive and incestuous. In the offending scene in "Bruno", he jokes about Michael while he and La Toya eat sushi off the naked bodies of workmen at his apartment and he then tries to steal Michael's number from her phone. The scene was removed in time for the US premiere of the film last month, in the immediate aftermath of Jackson's death, but it was unclear at that point whether it was a temporary measure. But a revised version has been submitted to the British Board of Film Classification which has passed the new cut for screening. The film goes on general release on Friday. A spokeswoman for "Bruno" said: "Out of respect for the Jackson family, the filmmakers have decided to remove a small scene involving La Toya Jackson." In a similar move, a scene lampooning Michael Jackson's dance style has been removed from new Bollywood film "Short Kut: The Con Is On" after it was deemed insensitive, according to a report in the Mumbai Mirror on Wednesday. Meanwhile, "Bruno" has already upset Austria's newly appointed ambassador to Britain, Emil Brix, who objects to a scene in which the main character says he wants to be the most famous Austrian since Hitler. Brix told The Sun newspaper: "It's totally inappropriate. Everybody should speak up against that."
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