'South Park' battle over Scientology heats up

LOS ANGELES, Mar 18 (Reuters) Actor Tom Cruise threatened to boycott promotion of his upcoming Paramount Pictures film unless a sister cable TV network pulled a ''South Park'' rerun lampooning the Church of Scientology, industry sources said.

Representatives for Paramount and Cruise, a prominent Scientologist, denied yesterday that he made any such threats or had anything to do with the Comedy Central network canceling plans to air a repeat of the ''South Park'' episode titled ''Trapped in the Closet,'' on Wednesday.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the crudely animated cartoon hit, issued a quirky statement, filled with references to Scientology and the science-fiction writings of church founder L Ron Hubbard, suggesting Scientology was behind the scheduling change.

''So, Scientology, you have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun,'' the pair wrote.

''Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies.

Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!'' Instead of the Tom Cruise episode, the network aired reruns of two ''South Park'' episodes featuring the character Chef, voiced by veteran soul singer Isaac Hayes, also a Scientologist, who quit the show earlier this week.

Comedy Central, which like Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc., declined comment on the rerun switch, other than to say: ''In light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for.'' CRUISE SPOKESMAN DENIES THREAT Two industry sources familiar with the situation told Reuters Comedy Central pulled the ''Trapped in the Closet'' episode from its ''South Park'' rerun rotation after Cruise threatened to cease promotion of his upcoming Paramount film, ''Mission: Impossible III.'' Cruise spokesman Paul Bloch said neither the actor nor his representatives ''had anything to do'' with the scheduling of ''South Park'' reruns and that Cruise had never said to anyone he would refuse to promote his film. Paramount spokeswoman Janet Hill denied any knowledge of such a threat.

''South Park,'' heading into its 10th season next week as one of Comedy Central's biggest hits, centers on the antics of four foul-mouthed fourth-graders in a small Colorado town.

Outlandish religious satire has been a mainstay of the show since its debut in 1997, poking fun at Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Buddhists and Muslims. One early episode featured a martial-arts duel between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas.

While Hayes cited the show's ridicule of religion generally as his reason for leaving the series, Stone said in a statement on Monday the soul singer was specifically upset about the ''Trapped in the Closet'' episode, which first aired last fall.

In it, the character named Stan scores so high on a Scientology test that church followers think he is the next L.

Ron Hubbard. Cruise is depicted locking himself in Stan's closet and then refusing repeated requests by various characters to ''come out of the closet,'' including John Travolta, who eventually joins Cruise in the closet.

REUTERS VJ RAI0755