The bill, slated to become law Jan. 1., will give same-sex couples a series of rights enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts, including access to a pension if one partner dies and alimony in the event of a split. It bans the adoption of children or artificial insemination.

“We are living in the 21st century and I’m very glad this step is being taken today,” Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner said during parliamentary debate leading up to the vote.

Christian Hoegl, co-president of the Homosexual Initiative Vienna, Austria’s oldest group of gays and lesbians, agreed.

“It’s a relief, a big success and a reward for two decades of lobbying,” Hoegl said.

Earlier in the day, Hoegl and co-president Jona Solomon passed out pink rum-filled cupcakes to parliamentarians, along with a letter that urged them to vote yes.

But the legislation – considered a compromise between the governing coalition – did not pass unanimously. In the end, of the 174 lawmakers who cast ballots, 110 voted in favor of the bill, while 64 voted against it.

The opposition right-wing Freedom Party rejected it outright, saying it goes to far. The Greens, on the other hand, argued it was too limiting.

Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache said the parliament’s approval went against the will of most Austrians and undermined the institution of marriage.

But Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek, a Social Democrat who is the country’s minister for women’s affairs, said it was “the first step in the right direction.”

After all, the film character boasts that his fame is second only to Hitler’s and says he just wants “to achieve zee Austrian dream – find a job, get a dungeon und raise a family in it.”

Yet rather than recoil at British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s new spoof about a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista, most Viennese are taking Bruno’s own advice: “Get ueber it!”

Judging from a smattering of look-alike contests and Web sites cheerfully hawking skintight T-shirts and short-shorts, some even seem to be embracing their inner Bruno.

“We can all learn a lot from Bruno: style, zest for life, versatility, fearlessness,” Doris Knecht, a columnist for the Kurier newspaper, wrote in her blog ahead of Universal Pictures’ worldwide release Friday.

“This man is proud of his homeland, so we’re proud of him,” she said, proclaiming: “Austria has a new ambassador. Thanks, Bruno!”

Not everyone shares her enthusiasm – least of all a real ambassador: Emil Brix, Austria’s top envoy to Britain.

In an interview with Austrian public broadcaster ORF aired Thursday, Brix denounced “Bruno” as “completely improper and unsuitable.”

He said he found Baron Cohen’s flippant references to Hitler and to Josef Fritzl – convicted in March of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years in a dungeon and fathering her seven children – cheap, crass and offensive.

“Everyone should speak out against such a thing,” he said, warning that it will tarnish Austria’s image.

ORF panned the film in a review. “A lot of expense for a few punch lines,” it said.

Most Austrians, though, seem to be taking “Bruno” in stride.

They’re used to being ridiculed for the country’s past complicity with the Nazis, its flourishing far-right political fringe and the Fritzl affair, which came less than two years after a similar case involving a young woman who escaped after being held captive 8 1/2 years in an underground cell.

They’ve also taken a ribbing over Austria-born Arnold Schwarzenegger, initially for his “Terminator” films and most recently for becoming California governor. Outsiders have made cracks about lederhosen and yodeling ever since “The Sound of Music” – still unseen by the vast majority of Austrians – debuted in 1965.

“Austrians like to laugh at themselves as long as no one gets hurt,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal said Thursday.

Underscoring the mischievous mood, he quipped: “I hope the lederhosen industry gets a boost from ‘Bruno’ in this time of recession.”

Some Austrians already are familiar with Bruno, a character Baron Cohen has channeled on “Da Ali G Show.”

Although Vienna isn’t exactly in the throes of Bruno fever, movie posters depicting him in barely bum-concealing bright yellow lederhosen, a matching alpine cap and an over-the-shoulder pout adorn virtually every bus and tram stop in the Austrian capital.

Fans also have been hawking clothing and merchandise emblazoned with Bruno-isms like “Get ueber it!” “Nicht nicht!” and “Ich don’t think so.”

“Naturally ‘Bruno’ is tasteless and always has one foot planted over the border of decency. But what else can you expect from Sacha Baron Cohen?” said Alex Rechsteiner, a philosophy student.

Austrian media generally have played down suggestions that “Bruno” will do irreversible damage and even discourage tourists from visiting. They note that some Australians feared the same after “Crocodile Dundee” was released, yet if anything, that film may have lured foreigners.

Baron Cohen is used to getting flak for his work.

After the 2006 surprise smash “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” officials and ordinary people in the former Soviet republic took great offense at being mercilessly lampooned as an incestuous and boorish backwater.

In the end, it didn’t seem to inflict any lasting damage: Next year, Kazakhstan will hold the chairmanship of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Alfons Haider, an openly gay Austrian cabaret singer and TV host who some believe helped inspire the Bruno character, has expressed admiration for Baron Cohen while repudiating what he describes as the movie’s far-right and anti-Semitic undertones.

Vienna is one of Europe’s most gay- and lesbian-friendly capitals, and its annual Life Ball – a glittery event that draws celebrities from around the world and raises millions for HIV/AIDS research – is a highlight of the social calendar.

“How could mein film be ein PR-disaster for Austria?” the daily newspaper Oesterreich quoted Baron Cohen as saying in characteristic zis-und-zat “Bruno-speak” in an interview published Thursday. “Hitler, Fritzl, Bruno. Zat has to be ein upswing!”

Other celebrities spotted at the Life Ball were actress Fran Drescher, former Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson and model Amber Valletta.

The annual bash, held in and around Vienna’s neo-gothic city hall, each year draws thousands of revelers in quirky and kinky costumes – and sometimes nothing more than G-strings and glitter.

Saturday’s partygoers did their best not to disappoint.

As crowds craned their necks to catch a glimpse, a couple covered in blue body paint kissed for photographers. Another duo, also scantily clad, resembled silver sea urchins.

The party kicked off with an extravagant outdoor opening ceremony that combined music and dance segments with pleas to stay focused on fighting the devastating disease.

Longoria Parker, wearing a strapless gown, told the crowd that in many parts of Asia only a fraction of HIV positive children who need treatment actually receive it.

“There’s a terrible shortage of doctors and other health care workers who are trained to provide the proper treatment and care for those children,” said Longoria Parker, a representative of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of HIV/AIDS research.

Clinton, in a brief speech, urged people not to forget the less fortunate.

“We know we live in an interdependent world where we cannot separate our fates from those a long way away,” he said. “Tonight, you are not just enjoying an extraordinary extravaganza, you are helping children and women and men to live in far away places who would have no money, no medicine, no hope.”

In 2002, Clinton established the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative to facilitate access to lifesaving antiretroviral treatment and improve national health care systems in developing countries.

Once the opening ceremony ended, some 4,000 ticketed guests danced the night away inside city hall – a vast building with a courtyard and multiple floors.

“It’s my first Life Ball and I’m really enjoying it,” said Nicolas Lucas, a teacher dressed up as Neptune, God of the sea.

In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week, Life Ball founder and organizer Gery Keszler said he came up with the idea of the Life Ball almost two decades ago when one of his best friends got sick.

“It was a very risky idea because, at the time, AIDS was an absolutely taboo topic,” Keszler said.

The Vatican earlier this month announced that Pope Benedict XVI had tapped the Rev. Gerhard Wagner, 54, to be auxiliary bishop in Linz, Austria. It made no mention of the reported remarks about Hurricane Katrina.

But Wagner’s extreme views drew fire from liberals within the Austrian Catholic Church.

“Ever since I was nominated, I sensed opposition that often was carried out in a merciless and unkind way,” Wagner told Austrian public radio after handing in his withdrawal.

Wagner has served since 1988 as pastor of a church in the Austrian town of Windischgarsten and received a doctorate in theology from the prestigious Gregorian Pontifical University in Rome, the Vatican said.

In 2005, Wagner was quoted in a parish newsletter as saying that he was convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier that year was “divine retribution” for New Orleans’ tolerance of homosexuals and laid-back sexual attitudes.

“The conditions of immorality in this city are indescribable,” Wagner was quoted as saying.

A group of senior Austrian priests released the 2005 statements to the media calling Wagner’s nomination “unacceptable.” A lay organization called for believers to withhold their church tax, while an above-average number of Catholics reportedly have left the Church in recent weeks.

Stefan Petzner spoke openly about his affair with the late Jorg Haider to reporters from Austria’s national broadcaster and a Vienna newspaper.

Haider died in a high-speed crash earlier this month.  A police investigation revealed that the 58-year-old was killed shortly after leaving a gay bar where he had been seen drinking heavily and being intimate with another male.

Petzer was named party leader a day after Haider died. The party won 11 percent of the vote in national elections last month.

In an emotional interview, Petzner said he and Haider had “a special” relationship that went “far beyond” friendship.

“He was the man of my life.” Petzner, 27, said in the interview. “I only had him. Now I am all alone.”

Last Saturday, Haider was given the equivalent of a state funeral in Klagenfurt, the capital of the Austrian province of Carinthia where he was governor for more than a decade. More than 25,000 people attended.

Haider was married, but Petzner said his wife knew of the affair and did not object. There had been rumors in the Austrian press for nearly a decade that Haider was gay or bisexual but he refused to comment on the speculation.

Petzner dropped out of university five years ago when he met Haider at a party and quickly became Haider’s protege. Always at Haider’s side, Petzner was frequently referred to as “the shadow.”

After Petzner’s interview, he was unceremoniously dumped as leader by the party, even though for more than a year Haider had told party leaders he wished Petzner to eventually succeed him.

Petzner was replaced Thursday by Josef Buchner, 43. The party said that Petzner will serve as his deputy.

Publicly, the Alliance for the Future of Austria has opposed gay rights, called for an end to allowing immigrants and refugees into the country and advocated for dropping out of the European Union.