Hot Sheet: Week of July 5

Hump Day -- omigod yet ANOTHER movie about straight guys pretending to be gay? What is the fascination straight men have with this theme?

I wouldn't have such disdain for this type of gay portrayal if gays had equal rights for any length of time. Now is not the time to reinforce anti-gay sentiments. We will never know how many people will be persuaded to continue to hate gays just by the advertising. It is sad that this film was made. Those responsible have no consciences. They are only hungry for money at our expense. Gays need to be more angry about the situation that we allow ourselves to be in.

While Cohen and the intelligentsia understand that Bruno is a joke, living, breathing gays will have to support this experiment in minstrelsy and tongue-in-cheek comedy with bottles thrown at them, quiet bias at job interviews, etc. The "us' and 'them' are firmly maintained by the film. Bruno is not the hero he could be. If we are going to have to live with a fantastical gay cinema phenomenon, at least he could end of getting the better of the crowd. Would a gay or more gay friendly comedian have done this character differently? I'd love to see an Ellen or Margaret Cho Bruno. THAT incarnation would have the pride to match the spunk. I think we might end up with a scenario such as Dave Chappelle faced -- someday we will see the crowd of jeering white faces (in this case, straight faces) and realize that they are laughing at us, not with us.

Bruno makes homophobia socially acceptable. It is a cynical silly film that panders to the worst in society. Of course the man himself, will just brush any criticism off as usual, by asserting that it is irony. Getting gay bashed by a group of thugs chanting 'bruno' is NOT ironic. Now, remind we again, you are suggesting this film because.......

How can the Advocate be promoting Bruno at the same time that there are so many gay-bashings occuring? Sacha "gay-basha" Cohen is making it socially acceptable to ridicule gays. Long ago, African-Americans saw that Black-face and minstrel representations in the media hurt the public perception of blacks. Bruno will fuel bashings,bullying in schools, and some voters at the ballot box who will vote against gay issues believing the bad stereotypes. Of course its a free country, yadda yadda yadda, but gays should be the last ones giving free space to "Bruno", since it is a mocking hateful piece which some attempt to saw is really "profound", the critics just "don't get it". Tell that to the car load of teenage males who yelled "Bruno" at the patrons of a DC outdoor cafe in the DuPont Circle (gay) neighborhood last week. From the exccessive promotion, millions who will not even see the movie worldwide are being influenced in a negative way about .