Sacha Baron Cohen’s thing is getting way too into character and tricking people into buying into his shtick. Personally I find this tiring, but everyone else on the planet seems to think it’s hysterical, so I’ll admit that the problem must be me. I got massively annoyed with “Borat.” I think I just feel too badly for the people being tricked and don’t enjoy watching good people being made to feel dumb. Or I just have a giant stick up my ass in regards to this. Equally possible.

Baron Cohen has taken on more than a few celebrities, and in his upcoming film goes after Paula Abdul while in his Bruno character. And the sad thing was Paula had no clue then and no clue now – though she presumably is in the know as of this morning, when Page Six let the cat out of the bag.

PAULA Abdul is about to be ridiculed at a theater near you — and she doesn’t even know it. A source tells us Sacha Baron Cohen, playing a wildly gay Austrian TV reporter in “Bruno,” conducted a wacky interview with the “American Idol” judge. “Paula was totally fooled. She bought into his character and to this day isn’t aware she was fooled,” the insider said. Abdul’s rep had no immediate comment. Universal, which releases the flick July 10, also had no comment. Texas Rep. Ron Paul has already admitted being tricked into a hotel room by Cohen’s character.

[From Page Six]

I wouldn’t think it’d be all that hard to conduct a wacky interview with Paula Abdul. You wouldn’t even need to get into another character to fool her. While I feel badly for a lot of the people Sacha Baron Cohen deals with, Paula’s not really one of them. Not because I think she’s deserving of it or anything, but the woman has given so many insane interviews (many of them leading to her having to deny that she was inebriated at the time) that this couldn’t have seemed that different to her. That’s probably why Paula was fooled by the whole thing for so long. A Sacha Baron Cohen interview is mostly the same as the one she gave yesterday and the day before.

Nonetheless I actually do want to see this, and will probably manage to sit through the rest of the film to do it. Loudly complaining, mind you, but I’ll be there.