Sacha Baron Cohen goes naked and ditches his body hair for magazine shoot (but keeps his kugelsack hidden)
Sacha Baron Cohen isn't afraid to throw himself into a role - even if means getting rid of his body hair and his clothes in the process.
To promote his latest movie, Bruno, the funnyman gets naked and poses in character on the cover of GQ magazine.
With a coy pose keeping his kugelsack from view, he shows off his remarkably smooth-looking skin.
Bare-faced chic: A smooth-looking Sacha Baron Cohen poses for GQ magazine
Hair-raising image: A more hirsute Baron Cohen as Borat in his infamous 'mankini' swimsuit
His sweeping blond fringe and effeminate position instantly suggest the character of flamboyant fashionista Bruno, despite the lack of clothes.
Last month it was reported that Baron Cohen, 37, suffered a burning rash from chemicals used to bleach all his body hair.
It was claimed that he had such a bad reaction to the hydrogen peroxide that he couldn't sit down for three days.
The hairless look is a far cry from Baron Cohen's previous incarnation as Borat, the journalist from Kazakhstan.
A memorable image from that role was of Borat walking along the beach in a 'mankini', a V-shaped swimsuit that left little to the imagination and revealed an abundance of dark hair on the actor's chest and legs.
In the way Baron Cohen typically builds publicity for a movie, Bruno has been collecting headlines and causing controversy for months.
But the big question has always been whether the camp Austrian creation could possibly live up to the astonishing success of his predecessor, Borat.
He of course managed to upset a whole nation - Kazakhstan - but Bruno has managed little more than to vaguely annoy a few folk thus far.
So there was great anticipation on Monday night in Paris as Bruno premiered - and Baron Cohen certainly pulled out all the stops, arriving in glittery gold lederhosen and yellow hat, complete with his freshly waxed legs.
While other wives and girlfriends might have run a mile, stoic Isla Fisher turned up to offer her support.
Dressed in a green patterned chiffon gown, which she accesorised with a silver clutch bag and gray court shoes, the Australian actress opted for a more conservative look than her other half.
An outrageously camp Austrian fashion journalist, Bruno is intended to send up ignorance and bigotry on his jaunt through the United States.
Strike a pose: Sacha Baron Cohen channels his latest creation for the French premiere of Bruno in Paris yesterday
Shaking his stuff: Bruno acts up for the rain-braving crowd
A fresh whiff of controversy was triggered last weekend, however, when gay rights groups in America accused the comedian of reinforcing stereotypes and promoting homophobia.
The furore comes just ten days after a Californian woman sued the comedian, claiming he left her severely injured while making the film.
And in April, Texas congressman Ron Paul accused him of fraud, after being unwittingly tricked into a hotel room with Bruno.
He claimed he was in a studio for an interview about Austrian economics when he was told the interview would take place in a back room.
What would Bruno make of that? Isla Fisher - Baron Cohen's other half - attended in a floaty chiffon gown
'By the time he (Cohen) started pulling his pants down, I was like what on earth is going on here and I ran out of the room,' he said.
But then, it seems Baron Cohen likes to cause a stir.
During the MTV music awards at the beginning of June, he was lowered from the ceiling on wires, wearing angel wings, knee-high boots, and a barely there thong.
In what was later revealed to be an elaborate hoax, he then appeared to lose control, and landed crotch first on a disgusted Eminem.
The rapper then stormed off, yelling: yelling: 'Are you serious? Are you f****** serious?'
Blue steel: Bruno and his muscle men on the red carpet
REVIEW: Bruno (15)
By BAZ BAMIGBOYE
Rating: 
Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie Bruno, about the flamboyant fashion correspondent for Austria's Funkyzeit's desire to become a world famous superstar is shockingly funny, some of the time.
There are scenes in Bruno that that are outrageously hilarious - anal bleaching,anyone? I turned my head away from the screen at that one.
You have to take your hat off, or something like that, to Cohen for having the gumption to put himself, or rather Bruno, through that. Yes, there's a lot of exposure of rear ends, and front ends.
The point is to shock, to make your cringe in your seat, to shake your head and go, 'No, he's not going to do that, is he'?! Oh, yes he is, my God, he did.
Not afraid of controversy: Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen mocks Madonna's adoption of an African child in his new movie Bruno
I emailed a friend in New York after I saw the picture last night and his immediate response was, 'Is it as funny as Borat'?
My reaction was a simple, 'No'. Frankly, they're very different films, channelling very different humour. Different laughs. Both, though, employ the kind of provocative ambush tactics that have made Cohen famous.
An interview with a supermodel Heather Hahn backstage at a fashion show was spot on. It beautifully hammered her without her realising it. Bruno suggested it must be difficult being a supermodel.
'Oh, yes,' Heather replied, 'It's very hard standing in heels all day.'
Bruno struck back, 'Yes, you have to put your left leg in front of your right leg.'
That made me roar. In an instant, he skewered her. It was funny precisely because she had no clue.
Brave: Bruno tells a group of camouflage clad men they're just like the girls off Sex and the City
Bruno soon tires of Europe and heads to Los Angeles where he gets an agent and tries out interviewing D-list celebrities such as Paula Abdul and LaToya Jackson.
Whether they were in on the joke was hard to discern but the scenes worked because they checked into our perception that these D-listers will do anything, almost, for TV exposure.
Bruno has them sit on Mexican workers, yes, real live people bending over to form human chairs because the house Bruno's rented has no furniture.
Bruno then ambushes Harrison Ford as he exits a store. Ford tells him to ,'F**k Off'. Sharp, hilarious.
Sticky situation: Bruno caused mayhem at Milan Fashion week while wearing a Velcro suit
What Cohen wants to do is to use Bruno's stereotypical camp gay persona to expose the intolerance of the typical red-blooded male. These scenes don't work all of the time, some misfire.
The one set in an army recruitment centre works, so does a set-up where Bruno goes camping (ha, ha) with a group of deer-hunting red-necks. He provokes them into running him,and his camera crew, right out of the camp. I laughed. But, later I figured I'd have reacted the same way if some bloke, stark naked, started unzipping my tent and asked if I wanted to play. So, what exactly was I laughing at here?
I thought the film worked best as an expose of our superficial, celebrity culture particularly when Bruno produces an African-American baby, he calls OJ, and takes him around LA.Thirteen pounds of black gold, he calls him.
Bruno meets parents of baby models, pretending he wants to hire the kids for a photographic shoot .'Is your baby comfortable with bees, wasps, and hornets?'
The mother in question agrees that her child is 'comfortable with everything '.
The most shocking encounter (well, it shocked the bejeezus out of me) came when Bruno asks another mother whether her baby daughter could lose ten pounds in one week. 'Yeah', she agrees.
Then Bruno wonders if liposuction could be used. 'Whatever it takes to get the booking', the woman replies.
I thought I had seen, or heard, just about everything in Hollywood, but these parents willing to sell their offspring into anything that would provide them with a living, sickened me.
This was Bruno at its best. The TV appearance on a day-time Dallas talk show that follows is priceless.
Bruno isn't as funny as it thinks it is all of the time, even though I noticed one of its producers sitting in front of me laughing his head off at scenes on-screen that weren't in the least bit amusing to me.
Each to his own, I guess.
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