Wednesday, Comedy Central decided not to rebroadcast the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet," (watch the whole thing here) the now notorious episode lampooning Tom Cruise and Scientology (all the while deftly appropriating R. Kelly’s brilliant new genre of hip-hopera).

After the highly publicized departure of Isaac “Chef” Hayes from the show due to the episode’s Scientology-bashing, there are now rumors going around that Tom Cruise threatened to boycott promotions of an upcoming Paramount Pictures film if it ran again (Paramount is a sister company of Comedy Central and both are subsidiaries of Viacom).

Of course, the Cruise camp has denied any such threats. Whatever the case, it’s obvious that Scientologists have enough pull in the entertainment industry to stop the show from being rebroadcast. (Comedy Central certainly didn’t pull the show out of fear of “offending” any sensitive sub-group of viewers, which is what the show does best)

Andrew Sullivan, in a characteristically principled stand, has called for a boycott and an email campaign:

Email Viacom using the address press@viacom.com. Email Comedy Central using this page. Put "Protect Freedom of Speech" in the contents line. Don't even think about seeing "Mission Impossible: 3". Keep these cowards on their toes.

Yet what really flips my lid is how little outcry there has been within the entertainment industry and the media generally about the amount of power wielded by Scientologists. Were fundamentalist Christians or Islamist theocrats able to leverage their industry clout to censor show critical of their faith, there would be screams of outrage from all corners.

Just take for example how The Passion of the Christ, an admittedly toxic piece of filth, got Hollywood all in a tizzy (Probably having as much to do with its sidestepping of the studio system as with its status as an anti-Semitic snuff film). Such overt religiosity had Hollywood's panties in a bunch. Don’t conservative pundits waste hours of TV time decrying the anti-Christian biases of the film industry?

But, for reasons I don’t understand, Hollywood gives a pass to the religion of Scientology and brain-dead little weenies like Cruise. What happened to the entertainment industry being an anti-faith liberal flesh-fest that ignored the ingrained piety of the rest of the nation?

I guess in Hollywood it’s ok to believe in the fantasy of galactic overlord Xenu but not in the fantasy of the resurrected Christ.