Bruno Offends Way to Top

(NEWSER) - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince conjured up a weekend box-office win with $79.5 million, bringing its 5-day total to $159.7 million, Bloomberg reports. The Hogwarts sequel trailed only Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for the year's best bow. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($17.7 million), Transformers ($13.8 million), Bruno ($8.4 million) and The Hangover filled out the top five. More»

(NEWSER) - Sacha Baron Cohen is box-office gold, but he can’t pull it off again … or can he? Eric Ditzian looks at some possibilities for the Brüno star’s future.

• "A Fourth Wacked-Out Journalist." Some thought Brüno couldn't fly after the exposure Borat brought, but the multiplex says otherwise. "No doubt, Cohen and his mischievous team could make a fourth movie work." (First film Ali G Indahouse didn't make it to US theaters.)

Comedian appears as himself for once to discuss film

(NEWSER) - Sacha Baron Cohen made a rare appearance as himself last night on the Late Show, telling David Letterman about Bruno’s interview with a real terrorist, the Huffington Post reports. “When we were making this film, we thought, what could people see that they’ve never seen before on film?” Cohen said. “And we thought one thing would be a comedian interviewing a terrorist.” More»

(NEWSER) - A sequel-vs.-sequel battle for the box office ended in a tie this weekend, USA Today reports. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen each raked in $42.5 million as July 4th barbecues took a bite out of sales. Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies stole third with $26.1 million, while The Proposal ($12.8 million) and The Hangover ($10.4 million) rounded out the top five. More»

Fox may not be able to escape from this one unscathed

(NEWSER) - If Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno is anything like Borat, yesterday’s lawsuit is the first of many to come. But this one is different, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Unlike the Borat suits, mainly filed by people with gripes about release forms, the case is more serious: This lawsuit concerns a woman who, TMZ reports, says she was attacked by Cohen and his crew during a bingo game and left crippled after hitting her head. More»