Page Six reports that Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Borat, Ali G and Bruno, didn’t pose for pictures at a pre Golden Globes party. He looks a bit reluctant posing with his Globe at the Paramount after party in these pictures. They say he wants to stay out of the spotlight and it could be so that he can continue pulling the wool over people’s eyes while in character. He’s about to film a new movie as another one of his alter egos, flaming Austrian fashion commentor Bruno, and doesn’t want to be recognized.

Stardom seems to have gone to the head of Sacha Baron Cohen, who attended HBO’s pre-Golden Globes party at the Chateau Marmont, but refused to pose for photos. “He needs to stop being so recognizable,” laughed one spy.

Cohen – who seems more comfortable when he stays in character as Ali G or Borat – is said to be “shunning publicity” to prepare for his next movie, where he’ll star as his third character, the flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter Bruno.

My favorite Bruno bit is when he interviews a Miami club owner and asks him how he makes sure undesirables – like people in wheelchairs – can’t get in. The guy answers all serious-like that he just puts people off to the side and makes them wait. (At least that’s how I remember it.)

I’ve read this before about Cohen, and it seems like he wants to keep his personal life private and is only comfortable being in the spotlight when he’s in character. He’s dedicated to the Jewish faith and keeps the Sabbath, which seems like a wild contrast to the misogynistic Kazakh who sang “throw the Jew down the well” to a room full of cheering yokels.

I wonder what kind of psychological issues that can create in a person. There was a story in mid November about Hugh Laurie saving Cohen from getting beaten up by an angry guy on the street who was the victim of one of Borat’s pranks. Commentors said at that time that Cohen is a lot like Andy Kaufman of Taxi fame. Poor Boopie said “This is a guy who does not like to be out of character and blurs the line between character and reality.” (Andy Kaufman was so good at character-based comedy, that some fans still doubt that Kaufman is dead, calling it an elaborate hoax. Kaufman was said to have died in 1984 of renal failure caused by a rare form of lung cancer. Kaufman was a non-smoker and told people that he waunted to fake his death.)

There seems to be a difference between playing a role for years, like on a long-running soap opera, and pretending you actually are that character when you meet other people IRL. Maybe Cohen just doesn’t want fans to know who he is so they’ll be more convinced by his obnoxious characters. It’s got to affect him, thogh, and his kind of apologetic look here suggests that the “real” Cohen isn’t that comfortable in the spotlight.

Here’s Cohen’s Golden Globe acceptance speech. He seems all serious in the beginning, and then cracks a joke about having his costar sit on his face:

Update: pictures removed due to end of subscription agreement with photo agency.