Actor Sacha Baron Cohen holds up a sign during a Yes on Proposition 8 rally Sunday in Los Angeles. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

British actor Sacha Baron Cohen has returned to gate-crashing in the U.S., this time bringing his flamboyant gay fashion reporter character Bruno to a California rally calling for a ban on same-sex marriage.

Cohen, disguised as Bruno, joined marching demonstrators outside Los Angeles City Hall on Sunday and mingled with the crowd. The march was in support of Proposition 8, which seeks to overturn a state Supreme Court ruling that allows gay and lesbians to wed.

Photographers and reporters covering the rally eventually recognized Cohen, the star of the blockbuster faux documentary film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Though they tried to approach the star, members of his film crew attempted to shield him. He was later ushered away in a van.

Cohen has been filming a new mockumentary film starring Bruno, who along with Borat was first introduced in his cable comedy program Da Ali G Show.

In the past few months, the British star has crashed several fashion show catwalks in France and in Italy, dressed as Bruno. In Milan, his stunt briefly landed him in police detention, before a colleague could vouch for him.

Cohen rose to fame for conducting interviews — while disguised as one of his over-the-top characters — with unsuspecting regular people and celebrities. His alter egos typically offered up offensive comments or questions that either left the subjects squirming or provoked them to make surprising statements of their own.

In December, the Los Angeles-based Cohen told a U.K. newspaper that he was retiring Ali G (the dim-witted hip-hop interviewer) and Borat (the uncouth reporter from Kazakhstan) because they have become too well-known and he was increasingly unable to dupe new interviewees.

With files from the Associated Press