10 More Actors Tricked Into Appearing In Movies
6. Paula Abdul Was Told She Was Receiving An Award - Bruno
Though the celebrities who make cameo appearances in Sacha Baron Cohen's films are usually in on the joke beforehand - say, Pamela Anderson in Borat - Paula Abdul's appearance in Brüno was genuinely the result of tricking the singer-actress.
Abdul is memorably interviewed by Brüno, who soon enough scares her away when he serves her sushi on the body of an overweight Mexican man.
But in a 2019 interview with Watch What Happens Live, Abdul revealed precisely how she was coaxed into appearing.
Abdul was lured to Cohen with the promise of receiving an International Artist of the Year award, only to be greeted by "some crazy freak," and once the naked guy covered in sushi was wheeled out, she decided she'd had enough.
That wasn't the end of the matter for Abdul, though. Her publicist signed a waiver allowing Cohen's team to use the footage, prompting Abdul to hire a lawyer to unsuccessfully obtain it, leaving her anxious for months about where the material would end up.
Abdul only found out that she was in Cohen's new film when she began receiving press requests to talk about it on the week of release, at which point she Googled Cohen and saw pictures of him dressed up as Brüno.