So anyways, this news story states that Issac Hayes didn’t announce his resignation from South Park. Rather, that he had a stroke two months ago and that a spokeman made that terse, bitter, hypocritical announcement for him?! It goes on to reference this interview Hayes did for the AV Club on The Onion where he states clearly that he wasn’t that upset about the Scientology episode.
And now I read that the 10th season premiere episode of SP is entitled Chef is Back! and involves his triumphant return!?!
Have Parker & Stone pulled off their biggest mind-fuck ever?!? :eek:
I cannot locate the source again, so take this with a grain of salt, but I read yesterday that Hayes had a stroke a couple of months ago, and while not completely debilitating, he has been cooped up at home now going through rehab for a few months. In addition, the article mentioned that because of this, it is unlikely that Hayes himself quit, but a Scientologist representative quit for him and that Hayes still enjoys the show and had no plans to leave.
Don’t get your hopes up too high. If rumors are to be believed, Cruise is not going to let the show air prior to the release of MI:III, which has the same parent as Comedy Central. He’s holding promotional appearances for the new movie as hostage to get what he wants.
[/rumor mill]
If I held the reins at Viacom, I’d run the episode and wouldn’t give a rusy rat’s ass if Cruise chose not to do publicity for the film. The guy’s such a wingnut that everyone’s better off when he’s not out there giving unscripted interviews. The only appealing Tom Cruise (assuming there is one) is when he’s in character in a film. Left to his own devices, he’s a moronic drone and I reckon that if he chose not to promote the film, it wouldn’t suffer in the least.
How much do these promotional appearances really affect the success of the movie? It’s already a successful franchise; you’d think they could get away with some merchandising, ads, and having the other actors make the talk show rounds. Would it actually matter? (I’m genuinely curious.)
If War of the Worlds had bombed I would agree with you. But it was the biggest hit of Cruise’s career and it came on the tail of couch jumping and Matt Lauer bashing.
If there’s enough controversy surrounding the whole thing, might it be better just to air the episode and let the chips fall where they may? So then Cruise doesn’t promote the film, and there’s huge media coverage of him being a douche about it, and him and his wacko Scientology friends look even more lame. Also, the movie’s right on the heels of the Tom/Katie baby birth, right? Let the controversy fly and MI3 will probably promote itself.
I was thinking the same as CNN reported this. I’m sure if Mr. Cruise no-showed, it would be a toss-up as to whom benefitted more: the viewers or the lawyers.
