Sacha Baron Cohen returns to terrorize and tantalize moviegoers as a flamboyant fashionista in “Brüno.”

Don’t ask, don’t tell? Don’t bother. Sacha Baron Cohen will be letting it all hang out when “Bruno,” the follow-up to “Borat,” his outrageous 2006 hit about a Kazakh reporter exploring American culture, hits movie theaters July 10. The boorish Borat ticked off everyone from Jews and Arabs to feminists and Pamela Anderson. This time around, the button-pushing comic has set his sights on gays, or at least the rest of the world’s discomfort with them, as flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter Brüno, who travels the world in leather hot pants and animal-print tops on an endless quest to find the next big, trendy thing. His adventures, which take him from the high-fashion runways of Paris and Milan to the sales aisles at Sears, serve as a sociological expedition of sorts as he innocently tests America’s tolerance for anyone who deviates from the “respectable” norm.  Based on a recurring character from Cohen’s 1990s HBO sketch program Da Ali G Show, “Brüno” arrives in timely fashion as America struggles with the issue of gay marriage. Brüno, you see, is very, very, very gay. As a fashion reporter, Brüno’s over-the-top extravagance parodies the mainstream media’s penchant for exploiting the jester-like vibe of male fashion commentators such as Steven Cojocaru, Carson Kressley and Robert Verdi. Brüno is like a hybrid of these high-profile fashionistas topped with a Zac Efron haircut. Cohen cannily raised the stakes even further by making Brüno a Euro fashionista who brings to mind Dieter, the sexually ambiguous German talk-show host played by Mike Myers on Saturday Night Live during the 1990s.   

Most conversations with Brüno wind their way back to the topic of homosexuality, which provides a powder keg for Cohen’s signature confrontational style in scenes where Brüno encounters soldiers, hunters, politicians and salesclerks. To stoke interest in the film, Cohen has carried out a string of publicity stunts in character as Brüno, crashing the fashion shows of designers Stella McCartney and Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, and falling into the lap of rapper Eminem at the MTV Video Awards in May. His appearance on the cover of the July issue of GQ, as Brüno in a nude pose that pays homage to the famous one by Jennifer Anniston from last year, was covered up when displayed at a newsstand at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, a move usually reserved for soft-porn magazines. The incident made national headlines, giving “Brüno” its best exposure yet. When it comes to generating buzz, it appears Cohen has things… covered.