07/01/2009
School Principal Under Fire for Suggestive Bruno Football Shoot
A photo shoot for GQ in which Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno played football with a Birmingham High School team while wearing shoulder pads and a glittery cup has landed the principal of that L.A.-area school in trouble:
"While parental consent was granted for the April 16 photo shoot, LAUSD Schools chief Ramon Cortines said the forms lacked 'specificity' about the nature of the photos. Cortines said 'appropriate personnel action' would be taken against Birmingham's principal, Marsha Coates, and athletic director, Richard Prizant. But he said personnel matters were confidential and he could not specify the disciplinary actions. 'Rules were broken. The principal is ultimately responsible, but I also hold accountable the athletic director, who is also the school's filming coordinator and was present when the pictures were taken,' Cortines said. 'I also want parents to know that this district will allow no one to take advantage of our students.' District officials said they did not know if Birmingham students will also appear in the "Bruno" film, due out July 10."
In related news. Movieline is reporting that the original ending of Bruno (cut from the final version) was a gay bashing played for laughs.
Posted 12:59 PM EST by Andy Towle in Film, Football (American), News, Sacha Baron-Cohen | Permalink
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Paging Mike Skiff.
Posted by: crispy | Jul 1, 2009 1:15:36 PM
In related news. Movieline is reporting that the original ending of Bruno (cut from the final version) was a gay bashing played for laughs
C'mon you Bruno defenders, let's hear your tired, lame defenses. Wait, I'll save you the trouble:
It's only a movie!
Get a life!
Learn how to laugh at yourself!
Get over yourself, girlfriend!
Still waiting for an announcement that SBC's next "movie" will be a satirical look at Jews entitled "Hymie". ROTFL as Hymie obsesses about money, plots to undermine Christian values and hilariously is unable to play sports!
Yeah, hell will freeze over first.
Posted by: Henry Holland | Jul 1, 2009 1:16:29 PM
Sacha Baron Cohen is either the bravest comedic talent of all time, or he's the craziest fool that ever appeared on a movie screen...maybe both.
I still can't forget how he went to that beach in Florida and got the all-American jocks to moon the camera, and then told the idiots he worked for a Gay TV network. The dumb jocks went ballistic. No matter what you think of his schtick, Sacha is carrying one of the biggest pair in history.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Jul 1, 2009 1:19:25 PM
This man is not a friend of the gay community. Don't be fooled.
Posted by: Gabriel | Jul 1, 2009 1:21:25 PM
These kids knew what they were doing. There is only an uproar because of parents' discomfort with homosexuality.
Posted by: Adam | Jul 1, 2009 1:39:05 PM
Are people that stupid to not know what they are getting into with this guy?
Posted by: Paul | Jul 1, 2009 1:47:14 PM
I'll reserve final comment until I actually see the film, but I'm predicting that the film will be as incredibly anti-homophobia as Borat was anti-racism. If that is the case, I predict some of the older Towleroad readers will still react bitterly.
Posted by: Aaron Rowland | Jul 1, 2009 2:03:37 PM
"some of the older Towleroad readers will still react bitterly"
*Shakes his walker at Arron*
Damn right, now get your crappy taste in movies off my lawn!
Posted by: protogenes | Jul 1, 2009 2:25:58 PM
What, you can get punished for photographing students (practically masked) with a man in a glittery cup and shoulder pads now?
Do principals get punished if some guy shows up shirtless for his school photo as well?
Posted by: Philip Wester | Jul 1, 2009 2:29:39 PM
@ Aaron
Ya damn skippy.Any gay person who plans to see that movie should have the Verizon Yellow pages launched at him.
Talk about Shitty taste in movies.
Goddamn it.
Posted by: Sam | Jul 1, 2009 2:35:53 PM
We wouldn't want the kids to catch fake gayness now!
Posted by: Penetration | Jul 1, 2009 2:40:39 PM
This is ridiculous. I bet the students were excited to be in a GQ spread, and if they weren't I'm sure they could have opted out. Not to mention, these pictures are several weeks old; why the brouhaha now? The atheletic director was present, and Bruno isn't even gay anyway. Cool it.
Posted by: Paul R | Jul 1, 2009 2:49:27 PM
A day without Towleroad would be A day without Bruno.
Again?
Really?
Posted by: Derek Washington | Jul 1, 2009 2:56:32 PM
LOL at Protogenes. That's very funny! I have no desire to even see the film now. I'm sick of Bruno due to his shameless promotions. I can't recall ever feeling this way about any film, even something like Star Wars...burnt out before even seeing the film!
Posted by: Joe | Jul 1, 2009 3:06:03 PM
this movie may try to shed light on homophobia, but you have to remember who will be in the audience: simple minded middle america who loves to laugh at those gays. go and see this in the theater if you dont believe me, you will hear when people actually laugh, and its at us not with us.
its the same with the hit movie "the hangover" first lines of the film, "paging doctor faggot", which ofcourse makes the entire audience errupt in laughter, cause its SO FUNNY.
i am a 26 yo canadian and i am offended. as someone who was called a faggot multiple times a day EVERY single day in highschool, i know these words arent funny, and NOONE here should defend films or people who continue to use them.
maybe once our gay brothers and sisters arent getting beatin and killed all over the planet i can laugh at a bunch of straight guys making money off of making fun of us.
Posted by: Trevor | Jul 1, 2009 3:09:46 PM
Bruno's brilliant twitter response to stuffy gay critics: "Some backbiting guys in ze gayvorld say Bruno's a bad spokesman for us - you don't hear ze astronaut community bitching about Buzz Lightyear"
Posted by: AladinSane | Jul 1, 2009 3:16:06 PM
Aladinsane
is that true?
ROFLMAO
Ok, its official now. If sacha said that in a twitter then I am officaly declaring myself a Bruno cultist
long live sacha/bruno
LOL
Posted by: jimmyboyo | Jul 1, 2009 3:25:19 PM
Jimmy:
Please check out the Movieline article and the comments from Richard Day before declaring your allegiance. Your hero originally ended his movie with the audience laughing at Bruno's lover, brain-damaged and drooling after a gay-bashing. Hilarious.
Posted by: Landon Bryce | Jul 1, 2009 3:34:20 PM
Oh, it gets worse, Landon. The real ending is a fucking Coldplay song. That's the real outrage.
Posted by: crispy | Jul 1, 2009 3:56:36 PM
Yes, Crispy, equating violence against gay people with bad taste in music is also hilarious.
I realize that people do not know who Richard Day is. This is the guy who wrote Girls Will Be Girls, which has a genuinely funny sequence about a woman who deliberately gets pregnant so that she can see her hot abortion doctor again. Later, he rapes her. And it is all genuinely funny.
Jack Plotnik, the other offended gay at the screening, is not only the genius behind Evie Harris but the gay actor willing to voice the mildly homophobic jokes as Xander in Comedy Central's Drawn Together.
John Arovosis these guys ain't. If they were offended by a gay bashing played for laughs, it was offensive.
Posted by: Landon Bryce | Jul 1, 2009 4:42:31 PM
So the post is about LAUSD's "response" to the photo, yet all the comments are just an excuse for more SBC bashing?
Regardless of what you think of the man or his commando comedy, the fact that the head of LAUSD is more concerned "...that this district will allow no one to take advantage of our students..." than actually providing any real education is the real travesty. LAUSD is a disgrace of mismanagement, incompetence, and outright corruption. The big losers are the students that are expected to compete and thrive as adults in society after surviving what is a third-world school system. That is, for the 2/3 that actually make it through.
And they're concerned with Bruno pictures? Please.
Posted by: BradK | Jul 1, 2009 4:48:42 PM
Landon,
I was all set to write a serious response to you about the fact that the alleged scene is not included in the final film. My comment was to include a mindblowing metaphor from the movie Minority Report. Really, it would have been Pulitzer worthy.
But then I clicked on the link to your homepage. WHICH IS A FUCKING PORNO SITE! So I realized your delicate sensibilities aren't worth taking seriously.
Jeezus, gay people are their own worst parody sometimes.
Posted by: crispy | Jul 1, 2009 4:54:38 PM
And, again, your logic is fascinating, Crispy. My site is pornographic (and thanks for the ad, but it's only pornographic in a very dull and arty way), so that means you think I am not entitled to draw attention to the Movieline article, which Andy chose to underplay. I found it upsetting, and I hope others will read it:
http://www.movieline.com/2009/06/exclusive-original-bruno-ending-included-brutal-gay-bashing-played-for-laughs.php
SBC thought the gay bashing ending was funny. I think that gay people should view him with something other than unadulterated adulation.
Posted by: Landon Bryce | Jul 1, 2009 5:11:04 PM
It's not really about whether you're entitled to point something out. It's more a reflection of your level of intelligence.
Because let's face it, satire is for the smarter people in the room.
Posted by: crispy | Jul 1, 2009 5:35:38 PM
if Bruno represent homophobic ideology then I'm the Pope. Give me a break. Did camp die or something?
Posted by: maxx | Jul 1, 2009 5:54:16 PM