In a statement, Universal, the studio behind the movie, says, “Out of respect for the Jackson family, the filmmakers have decided to remove a small scene involving La Toya Jackson.” Bruno opens on July 10.

After Michael Jackson’s death was reported yesterday, actor Sacha Baron Cohen and the makers Bruno scrambled to delete the scene just before the film’s premiere at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.

The scene, which had previously been seen by journalists, found Baron Cohen’s Bruno — a wildly gay, fame-seeking Austrian fashionista — snagging an interview with La Toya.

During the scene, the character Bruno, played by comic Sacha Baron Cohen, creates a pretext to copy Michael Jackson’s telephone number from Ms. Jackson’s BlackBerry.

The scene ended, as most things in Bruno’s world do, with a moment of raw, funny discomfort.

The scene was in the movie during a Wednesday night screening, but absent at the film’s Hollywood premiere Thursday night.