Paula Abdul recalls ‘Bruno’ dupe 10 years later: ‘I had no idea’

Oct. 10 (UPI) — Paula Abdul says she had “no idea” she was being duped in Bruno.

The 57-year-old singer and television personality recounted during Wednesday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live how Sacha Baron Cohen fooled her into a bizarre interview for the film.

Cohen released Bruno, a mockumentary comedy featuring his character Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion journalist, in July 2009. Abdul said she agreed to the interview because she thought she was receiving an award.

“Some crazy freak answered the door in clear plastic pants with a jock strap, blush on his face and a hat,” Abdul said of Cohen. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is probably like when I go to Japan to do those weird Japanese game shows.’”

Abdul said Cohen kept her hair and makeup people and publicist out of the room for the interview, during which he told her to sit on two kneeling men.

“He was summoning the gardeners for furniture. There was no furniture and he’s saying, ‘Sit!’ I’m like, ‘Oh my god,’” she said. “I was in an Herve Leger dress and I was squatting down. I don’t know, my reaction was I started petting the gardeners. And then he kicked them and [they] fell down, and then I fell down.”

Abdul said she never suspected she was being tricked. She left the interview after Cohen started serving sushi on naked sumo wrestlers.

“When I left, I said, ‘I’ve got to go,’” the star said. “I didn’t care about the award, I just wanted to get out of there. He was chasing after the car and threw the award in the car.”

Abdul said her then-publicist inadvertently signed a release for her appearance because the document was in German. She eventually forgot about the incident before having an “aha” moment a week before the movie’s release.

Abdul previously discussed the dupe on the JohnJay and Rich radio show in 2009.

“It is the most interesting, whacked-out situation that happened to me. I was scarred for life for a year,” she said.

On WWHL, Abdul denied dating actor Keanu Reeves, her co-star in her “Rush, Rush” music video.

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