Tom Cruise vs. South Park

Reports are that Tom Cruise pressured Viacom into forcing Comedy Central not to show a re-run of the South Park episode that skewered Cruise's religious beliefs and sexuality. Supposedly Cruise threatened to boycott making a PR tour for his new Mission Impossible III movie this summer if Comedy Central showed the "Trapped in the Closet" South Park episode again. I tuned in Wednesday night just to see that episode and when it wasn't on I was kinda pissed.

Here's the rub - if I'm Paramount I'm wondering if I want Tom Cruise to do a PR tour for the movie in the first place. When he did the PR tour for War of the Worlds - it was a disaster. You had him turning into a crazy couch monkey on Oprah and then challenging Matt Lauer about who knows what about psychology. If I'm Paramount - I want Cruise to stay home show and so I run the "Trapped in the Closet" episode over and over. Right now you know that every interview for the new movie is going to have questions about Scientology and South Park. Its a lose lose situation for Viacom.

Hail Xenu!!

EDIT: Off Wing Opinion tackled the issue yesterday. Once again I'm a day late nd a buck short.