If Sasha Baron Cohen has accomplished anything in the past couple of years, it is popularity through spectacle and controversy rather than his artistic talents. First came Borat in 2006, a comedy shot as a documentary in which the actor leaps to the big screen as Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev. The film was a big financial success for the actor, but also brought many defamation suits from real people who he makes fun of in it.

Now it’s the turn of Bruno , a film which although not to be released until July 10th, has already been generating controversy with the performances the actor has been doing around the world.

In the film, Cohen plays a gay reporter, with an obsession for fashion and body worship, and does a parody on top clothing designers and models. The first controversy came with the famous scene in which the actor performed alongside Eminem at the MTV Movie Awards. What appeared to the public to be a live TV error with Cohen falling on the face of the rapper with his bottom exposed was actually rehearsed and premeditated to generate publicity. Now the US gay community is concerned because this new character encourages "crossing the line and stereotyping the homosexual male".

In the past week, Sasha Baron Cohen has been visiting various European cities and taking his character to extreme. In Paris, the actor posed for the public and photographers almost nude on the Champs-Elysees. In London, he paid tribute to the official guards at Buckingham Palace by dressing up as one of them.

Yesterday was Madrid’s turn: Bruno posed for the media outside the Las Ventas bullring dressed as a bull and exaggerating the “noble parts” of the animal. What will he do next?