ryan l.

Apple makes a commecial comparing PC to Macs and mentions your name as a reviewer in your important business publication. 

Corporate sucking up or indication of career success? Both?  

This is great. Anyone paying attention to the news over the last week probably caught the news that Isaac Hayes, the voice of “Chef” on South Park, quit the show saying he could no longer tolerate the show’s religious “intolerance and bigotry.” Hayes, of course, is a Scientologist — the religion of choice for quite a few celebrities, including crazyman Tom Cruise.

For the show, Hayes’ departure was just the begining of the Scientology situation. A soon to be aired episode mocking Cruise was quickly pulled from the show schedule this week - a move by Comedy Central that an Internet report claimed was covert warfare by Cruise that led to its departure. Rumor has it that Cruise was threatening to not promote this Summer’s “Mission Impossible 3” if the episode aired.

So, was this Cruise manipulating a media conglomerate? Hell, at this point I can’t put it out of the the question, especially with the fact in mind that Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, as is Paramount, which is putting out the film.

For Cruise and Hayes both, this could prove to be publicity neither of them needed or wanted, nor did the leaders of the Scientology religion I’d imagine. Especially with the creators of South Park defending their show like they have with statement like, “This is 100 percent having to do with his faith in Scientology…He has no problem — and he’s cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians,” about Hayes. And the best part, issuing a press release that declared:

“So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!

Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies… You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!”

Classic.

And, judging by this quick search of Google news, this is getting much bigger really quickly. From the blogosphere to the MSM, they all seem to be talking about Cruise throwing his “weight” around. That’s a lot of power for such a little guy to possess. Someone needs some counsel - Rogers & Cowan, where are you?

This may not be very PR related, unless we analyze it from a national reputation point of view, but what is this country coming to? All political ideology aside, has the entertainment industry run out of ideas to the point where this is necessary? Reality TV in general, despite being highly addictive depending on the show (honestly), is wearing out its welcome. This is just … I don’t know. I’m at a loss.