Scientological Blackmail

Tom's at it again....

After the kerfuffle of Isaac Hayes quitting South Park, Comedy Central was all set to re-air the episode that skewered Scientology, "Trapped In The Closet" this past Wednesday night. I had heard it was a good'un, so I set the DVR only to find out later that the episode had been replaced with one featuring Mr. Hanky.

Hollywood Interrupted reports that Cruise went straight to the top execs at Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, and threatened to not promote his upcoming MI:3 if the episode was shown again. (Viacom also owns Paramount, the studio behind the Mission Impossible flicks.)

Not only is this the first time that the South Park creators have been officially censored in their ten hit seasons with Comedy Central, Viacom officials also reportedly ordered Matt Stone and Trey Parker not to discuss the reason why their episode was cancelled.

This is a still from Viacom's security cameras.

**UPDATE** Robbie sends this link from Sully with Matt and Trey's response.