He's the mystery figure who sparked a media frenzy when he casually described controversial film Brüno as "vile" in an automated cinema listings message, but Paul Egan says he is "not one bit embarrassed" about the furore.

Tracked down to his writer's club in Navan, Egan declared himself "completely shocked at the obscene level of reaction". In his message, which he recorded for the Diamond Cinema in Navan, he launched into an impromptu description of Brüno, which he described as "particularly vile. It leads to a hell of a lot of complaints from people who say: 'We didn't think it was going to be that bad.' It is that bad. It will offend every prejudice in the book, believe me, so don't come after the film and tell us how horrible it was". He added: "One or two people have enjoyed it though."

The voice message has been picked up on entertainment sites around the UK and has featured on the BBC's website. Within 24 hours of being made available on YouTube, there were over 13,000 downloads of the clip. The reaction wasn't as positive when the recording came to the attention of cinema and film bosses.

"On the Wednesday when I first recorded the message the cinema company was screaming blue murder at me," said Egan, whose wife Liz is manager of the cinema. "And yet now they are using it in their posters to advertise the film with my quotes.

"It was put to me that the film company were very upset by the comments after both Ray Foley and Ray Darcy aired the voice-over on radio. I felt a bit like Russell Brand after he insulted Andrew Sachs," he said.

The cinema is now swamp­ed with phone calls from people hoping to hear the message.

"I'm baffled as to why there seems to be more attention put into my throwaway, unscripted remarks than other issues of vital importance such as the Bord Snip report or starving people on the other side of the world," Egan says.

He now plans to dodge the glare of the spotlight and return to his job of book-keeping and writing with local group The Boyne Writers.