Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno may have been No. 1 at the box office this weekend, but it's not at the top of some gay activists' must-see movie lists.
In fact, GLAAD issued a statement from its incoming president, Jarrett Barrios, on Friday, the day of the movie's release, expressing disappointment in Cohen's use of too many gay stereotypes...
"This is about the gay kid in Nebraska who gets pushed around in school and when he goes back to school this September, he's going to be called 'Brüno,' " Barrios explained to me this morning.
GLAAD had hoped its many discussions with the film's studio, Universal Pictures, would convince Cohen & Co. to tone down some of the more offensive scenes in the movie. However, Universal has continually maintained that Bruno's intent is to challenge homophobia.
"We are concerned," Barrios said, "that too often in its attempt to expose homophobia, it ends up opening up gay folks to new discrimination and violence."
Meanwhile, Brüno appears on the August cover of gay magazine Out.
An accompanying Q&A with the flamboyant Austrian fashion journalist (Cohen always does press in character) addresses such topics as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Michelle Obama and Sex and the City.
"Yes, he is puerile, offensive, and utterly inappropriate, but so what?" the magazine's editor in chief, Aaron Hicklin, writes in his Editor's Letter. "The same has been said of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, and Sarah Silverman, comic geniuses all, whose humor rests on having the balls to say 'boo' to the ghost in the room. The ghost in this case is homophobia, although whether it's being lampooned or perpetuated is part of the tension that makes the movie work."
Source: eonline
We may not have the results of the toxicology report yet, but one thing from Michael Jackson's autopsy is certain.
Not only were needle marks found on the star, but they were located on his neck and arms, a source tells E! News. Investigators are hard at work trying to determine whether the marks were from IV needles used to administer the powerful sedative Diprivan.
Sister La Toya Jackson takes this news a step further, allegedly telling a British tab, "He had many needle marks on his neck and on his arms, and more about those will emerge in the next few weeks. But nothing has changed my mind that this was murder."
Given the media circus around M.J.'s death, it's surprising La Toya took three weeks to chime in. According to comments attributed to her in the News of the World article, she's taken one of the theories we've all heard—that people around the star didn't have his best interests at heart—and bumped it up to the conspiracy level. In the article, she continues to suggest her brother's death was an organized group murder and robbery.
Meanwhile, Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist with Jackson at the time of his death, continues to maintain his innocence and his camp has taken issue with La Toya saying Murray didn't identify himself to the family at the hospital the day Jackson died.
"That's kind of odd," attorney spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik, told E! News Monday. "He didn't disappear. He talked to La Toya and Jermaine, helped them break the news to the children.
"She may have thought he disappeared at that point, but he was talking to investigators. He spoke with investigators directly after Michael was pronounced dead, so maybe that's why she couldn't find him."
When E! News spoke with Sevcik, on Friday, she said that stories of police requesting additional documents from Murray were false.
"That's absolutely not true," she told E! News. "We gave everything that the investigators asked for on June 27th when we had that last long interview."
Although Murray issued a statement a week ago saying he never provided Jackson with any life-threatening drugs, Sevcik could not comment on Murray's knowledge of anyone else providing Jackson with medication, nor was she willing to comment on any specific medications.
"Our agreement was to not share any more details of the investigation, so we can't speak to the Diprivan," she said. "This was not our decision. This is what was requested of us by Los Angeles investigators. They thought if we talked about it, it would slow them down."
Sorce: eonline
