Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno comes out for premiere

Sacha Baron Cohen marched his infamous fashion alter ego 'Bruno' into Leicester Square last night for the London premiere of his new comedy. The controversial comedian arrived in character dressed in a faux-Coldstream Guard’s uniform consisting of a bearskin hat, leather hotpants and a cropped military jacket.

As he minced down the red carpet, the 37-year-old said, in a joke that will not be appreciated by Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: "I'm hoping this will be the biggest movie starring a gay Austrian since Terminator 2."

Cohen was joined by his fiancée, Australian actress Isla Fisher, and attracted a celebrity crowd including Nigella Lawson, Jo Wood, Rachel Stevens and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Bruno is Cohen's first film since the release of Borat in 2006, a film that managed to offend the entire population of Kazakhstan as well as many Americans who were duped into thinking the documentary-style movie was for real.

While 'Borat' was an anti-semitic and sexist Kazakh journalist, 'Bruno' is a gay fashion reporter from an Austrian television network who makes a living interviewing unsuspecting guests on a whole host of contentious topics. The film includes Bruno buying a black baby on eBay, in a blatant dig at Madonna, as well as repeated references to Nazism and the use of real-life Mexican workers as furniture for his US apartment. As a result, the Austrians are no happier than the Kazakhs, calling the film "provocation at the highest level."

One Austrian who isn't taking the film too seriously is Alfons Haider, one of the country's most popular TV presenters, who many think Bruno may be modelled on. "The gay stuff is probably OK but the Nazi stuff - I'm not sure that people would like that," Haider told the BBC in a recent interview. "I personally don't like it that my country is always shown as a fascist, right-wing Nazi country... but Cohen is showing me my hidden Bruno. The guy is a great comedian."

As for the critics, the general line is that Bruno is funny – but not as funny as Borat.