La Toya Jackson scene cut from Bruno film

Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of the gay Austrian fashionista Bruno, is hardly known for his sensitivity when dealing with celebrities. But even he appears to have been affected by the death of Michael Jackson and has a cut a scene featuring the dead singer's sister La Toya from his new film.

In the offending scene, Bruno, played by Baron Cohen, forces La Toya to eat sushi off the naked body of a Mexican workman at his apartment and then tries to steal Michael's phone number from her phone.

The minute-long scene was removed after Jackson's death last month and will not be seen by audiences when Bruno hits screens worldwide later this week. Universal Pictures said the footage had been cut "out of respect" for the Jackson family.

The concession is surprising given Baron Cohen's track record and the take-no-prisoners style of his previous incarnations Ali G and Borat. The Borat film in which Baron Cohen played a bigoted reporter from Kazakhstan enraged many from that country, and led to the threat of legal action from many of those caught up in the film.

Bruno has been no stranger to controversy either. Perhaps his most spectacular moment came when he subjected Eminem to a humiliating 'bum-rub' at the MTV Movie Awards after he was lowered face-first into the rapper's lap while wearing a pair of angel wings and little else, prompting the hip-hop artist to storm out of the show.