Brüno Gets Flamboyant New Pics and a New Rating

We didn't think there was any big deal about the first cut of Brüno getting an NC-17 designation by the MPAA. After all, in a perfect world, Sacha Baron Cohen would probably prefer that. But since this is one of Universal's big movies of the summer (and since the studio forked over $40 million-plus to distribute it), concessions had to be made. There's always the DVD... But now, just a couple weeks after the inital rating was handed down, Cohen's new sociological mockumentary has achieved an R rating, which Slashfilm says is for "pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity, and language." Oh, how the ratings have changed. Remember when you were a kid and the new HBO guide would come out and you'd go through it matching up the codes (N, V, SL, SSC) with the times your parents would be asleep or out of the house? Now you'd have to know what (PSCSC, GN, L) means, plus about 70 other MPAA code words. There are also some new Brüno publicity shots, and unless Cohen's body hair in Borat was glued on, this photoshoot required a hell of a lot of Nair. Brüno comes out...there's a poor choice of words...on July 10th.