Bruno catwalks into theaters

Three years ago British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, a kind of 21st Century Peter Sellers, simultaneously charmed and confounded comedy audiences with his aloof and naively sexist Afgani reporter comedy Borat (plus all those Ali G YouTube clips that finally caught on stateside after years of keeping the English laughing), and based on the trailer for his new gotcha comedy, Bruno, Cohen has spent the interim disguised as a flamboyant Austrian fashion show host with camera crew in tow. Borat of course was a smash hit, mainly because it allowed us to laugh at ourselves in a self-deprecating way. But after the stock market fall, the billions in bailouts and in the middle of recession woes, it’ll be interesting to see if audiences still want to celebrate people getting tricked, or if the very act hits too close to home. Bruno opens Friday and expect cameos by everyone from Harrison Ford and Snoop Dogg to Elton John, Chris Martin and Bono, as Bruno takes his unconventional fashion reportage to the U.S. Rated R.