Bruno movie attacked by Austrian official

Sacha Baron Cohen has been blasted by a top Austrian envoy for his "cheap" jokes about the country in his latest film Bruno.

Emil Brix – who has been named ambassador to Britain – has called for a boycott because of the "cheap" jokes in the controversial film, which follows Cohen as the eponymous gay Austrian fashionista trying to become a celebrity in the US.

During the film, Bruno jokes he wants to become the most famous Austrian "since Hitler" and pokes fun at Josef Fritzl – who repeatedly raped his daughter who he kept a prisoner for 24 years in his cellar.

Brix – who takes up his post next year- said: "It's totally inappropriate. Everybody should speak up against that."

He also thought Austrians would snub Bruno, adding: "The public will know how to react to this film."

Brix also claimed Cohen - who is British - is only controversial to "create as much interest as possible for his film".

The ambassador also bizarrely suggested that directors such as Michael Haneke portray Austrian life much more accurately, although Haneke's most famous film, Funny Games, is about a pair of killers who hold a family hostage and torture them seemingly without motive or emotion.

- BANG! SHOWBIZ