'South Park' begins 14th season by taking on Tiger

NEW YORK – Golf clubs in hands or not, the kids of "South Park" are ready to take on Tiger Woods.

Creators of the Comedy Central cartoon have long since proven that no subject is sacred to them. So for the opening of its 14th season on Wednesday, the troubled golfer encounters Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman in their animated Colorado town.

"It's such an important issue in America right now — the sex addiction outbreak," Matt Stone, who makes the series with partner Trey Parker, said on Friday. "We're all really concerned about him and hope he gets better."

Sex addiction, the intersection of powerful men and willing women, late-night phone calls to the police and bad public relations gave them so much fodder they could have made an entire Tiger-centric season, Stone said.

Since the Peabody Award-winning show's first episode in 1997, Parker and Stone haven't worried about lines between good taste and bad if they can get a laugh. They mocked the Church of Scientology to the point of annoying Tom Cruise, and depicted Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

"There's a delicacy in talking about (Woods) that we don't have to worry about," Stone said.

He wouldn't give many details about the episode, in part because he and Parker were still writing it on Friday. Stone said he was fascinated and disgusted by Woods' public apology, so it's likely that will be worked in.

"South Park" is airing its 200th episode next month.

"We can't even believe we're still here doing this," he said.

Kanye says 'South Park' put him in check

NEW YORK – "South Park" may have accomplished the impossible — getting Kanye West to check his ego.

The Comedy Central show skewered the famously self-important rapper on its show Wednesday night, painting him as a narcissistic figure so out of touch with reality he couldn't even take a (very politically incorrect) joke.

West's love of himself and his work has been almost as integral to his image as his music: Just last year, he told The Associated Press that he was the "voice of this generation." Also recently, he was quoted as saying his greatest regret was not being able to see himself perform live.

Yet, on his blog Thursday, West appeared chastened, and ready to turn over a new leaf.

In typical all-caps mode, he wrote: "SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER."

West said that he started stroking his ego long ago to build up his self esteem — but he now realizes he needs to "GET PAST MYSELF."

In the self-reflective post, he said that people won't take him seriously if he keeps it up (perhaps referring to his well-documented meltdowns at awards shows when he didn't win what he expected).

"I JUST WANT TO BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM," he said.

And perhaps to show that he's really serious about making that change, he provided a link to one of the most biting moments from the "South Park" show, and thanked the writers as well.

Ford Denies LaBeouf Will Take On Indiana Role

Actor Harrison Ford has denied reports his Indiana Jones sidekick Shia LaBeouf will replace his role as the action hero in a new installment of the franchise film.

LaBeouf starred alongside the 66-year-old actor as the whip-cracker's young friend Mutt Williams.

And the Star Wars actor insists there are no plans for the young star to take on the role he made famous, despite the open ending in summer blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Ford brushed off the rumours, sparked after he passed the archaeologist's trademark hat to LaBeouf's character, alluding to the switch.

He tells Moviefone: "No, that's never been (the idea)... I think it just doesn't work that way. And there's definitely a distinction between passing the fedora and someone picking it up."

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South Park's Spielberg Parody Sparks Controversy At TV Network

An episode of controversial cartoon series South Park has sparked outrage after depicting Hollywood director Steven Spielberg in a rape scene with Harrison Ford.

The show made its season 12 debut on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur on Thursday.

In the opening episode, entitled The China Problem, the show's characters have flashbacks of Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford getting raped by Jewish director Spielberg and his fellow filmmaker George Lucas.

Anti-Defamation League spokesperson Myrna Shinbaum tells the New York Daily News, "South Park has been offensive and has had very anti-Jewish pieces in the past. We understand that the show is trying to satirise, but it may get lost on those who are haters."

According to reports, bosses at Paramount Pictures have scheduled a meeting with executives at its parent company, which produces the Comedy Central series.

Comedy Central's Senior Vice President Steve Albani says, "We don't comment episode by episode on South Park or whether they cross the line, but South Park has a history, and people know what they are getting into when they watch it."

Paramount have declined to comment on the episode.

Outraged, disrespected Canadians go on strike on 'South Park'

Canada-baiting has been a hilarious feature of the popular "South Park" animated show for years, and now Canadians on the weekly series are saying enough is enough.

In an episode airing Friday night entitled "Canada on Strike," outraged Canadians go on strike when "Canada Appreciation Day" in the U.S. does not bring their native land the respect they think it deserves.

With echoes of the recent Hollywood screenwriters' strike, the head of the World Canadian Bureau leads the country into the protracted strike. They're quickly replaced by Danes - calling themselves the "Canadians of Europe" - who show up to cross picket lines and take their place.

It's up to Cartman and the gang, longtime Canadian sympathizers, to negotiate a settlement for the long-suffering Canucks. In the meantime, flatulent Canadian duo Terrance and Phillip are conflicted about whether to join the strike, instead working to uncover the truth behind the cost of the walkout.

The show airs Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET on the Comedy Network.

"South Park" duo ink lucrative deal

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - An animated series is redrawing the lines of television mega-deals.

The eye-popping $75 million pact announced Monday by Comedy Central and the creators of "South Park" may be the most prominent example of the Internet as a bona fide backend window alongside syndication and DVD. The duo of Matt Stone and Trey Parker will get a 50-50 ad split on digital platforms but not on television.

The new extension will bring three more 14-episode seasons -- the same volume Stone and Parker re-signed for in 2005. "Park" is in place now through 2011, bringing its stint at Comedy Central to 15 seasons going back to 1997.

"Three more years of 'South Park' will give us the opportunity to offend that many more people," Stone said. "And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of 'South Park,' we can offend people on their cell phones, game consoles and computers too."

Stone and Parker already have negotiated a share of the hundreds of millions of dollars "Park" has poured in to the network via the backend, not to mention a robust licensing and merchandising revenue stream.

But this time around, they are poised to haul half of the unknown -- but up to now quite modest -- sum awaiting them on the Internet, where "Park" footage has been a fixture of Comedy Central's dot-com strategy, not to mention illegal file-sharing.

Also part of the deal is the formation of a digital animation studio launched jointly with the Viacom-owned channel, which would participate in any new programming spawned under the venture. South Park Digital Studios would come under the Web site it launched earlier this year, Southparkstudios.com.

The deal represents a coup for Kevin Morris, attorney for Parker and Stone, and Doug Herzog, president of MTV Networks Entertainment Group, who ran Comedy Central when "Park" became the channel's first breakout hit. Parent company Viacom also could use a boost in the digital domain, where the company has been criticized on Wall Street.

Abel Lezcano, a lawyer at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano whose clients include "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry, was less impressed by the ad split than the total value of the pact.

"To me that's not as big a deal as if Comedy Central had given them a share of ad revenue from TV broadcasts, but the total amount is pretty big," he said. "The Big Four networks still won't let you share in any form of advertising (broadcast or Internet) because they sell ads across all platforms and don't want to separate it out, so in that respect, it's different."

Dan Black, partner at Greenberg Traurig in Santa Monica, agrees that this is not a precedent-setting deal.

"I've seen deals like that before with Web site revenue splits," he said. "The paradigm is familiar, but the $75 million is recognition of the success of the show."

But with the ink still drying, speculation already has begun as to what will be the next TV franchise to command a payday of similar scope. Bigger franchises from "The Simpsons" to "Saturday Night Live" also have established online presences that could complicate future negotiations.

Sameer Mithal, consultant for media and content at BusinessEdge Solutions, believes that only A-list content players will get a slice of the digital pie. "A lot of people are going to ask for it, but very few are going to get it," he said. "Someone just starting out doesn't have the leverage of the 'South Park' guys."

Lightning may well strike twice at Comedy Central, which already may be negotiating with another Internet darling: "The Daily Show" anchor Jon Stewart, whose current four-year contract expires at the end of 2008. The current deal for "Park" was also scheduled to elapse late next year.

James Dixon, who manages Stewart, applauded the "Park" pact but said his client is not concerned. "We'll see what happens with his next deal, but 'Daily' is a different animal than an animated series," he said. "A lot more than digital needs to be discussed."

"South Park" creators look back 10 years

LOS ANGELES - Talk about a star-studded arrivals line. There they were: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Steven Spielberg and Paris Hilton. Mel Gibson even showed up.

But this was the launch party for the 10th season of "South Park" and the celebrities were A-List — A for artificial. As in cardboard.

No matter, the smiling caricatures still loomed large along the red carpet at the Thursday-night affair to celebrate the controversial Emmy- and Peabody-winning animated Comedy Central series. The program first aired Aug. 13, 1997, and begins its new season Oct. 4.

Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone topped the Hollywood back-lot party's real A-List, as in authentic.

"I remember when we started the show, we had an order for six episodes, and we're like, `This is great, because, when we're older, we'll always have these six shows,'" Parker told AP Television.

"And, it was actually Brian Graden (the executive who commissioned the original short film that became "South Park") who told us, `I think some day these will be six of 100.' And we're like, `You're crazy. There's no way.' And we're up to 150-something."

"South Park" spins around four elementary-school boys who slog out their days and nights in the quiet Colorado mountain town of South Park. Over the last decade, the boys have had to grapple with everything from problematic parents to the apocalypse.

Virtually everything and everyone in politics, pop culture and religion have been fair game for Parker and Stone's sharp satire. Tom Cruise and John Travolta got it on the chin in last season's Emmy-nominated "Trapped in the Closet" episode, which took on the Church of Scientology.

"We have not personally heard from any of them," Stone said.

"No, Tom hasn't called," Parker added.

"No, hasn't called us. We used to go over to his house for Friday-night dinners, but not any more," Stone joked.

Yet for all its craziness and cussin', the "South Park" franchise is nothing to laugh at, with top-selling DVDs, CDs, dolls, albums, a movie, reruns in worldwide syndication and soon-to-be 10 years and counting on Comedy Central's prime-time schedule.

Coinciding with next month's 10th-season launch is a DVD of Stone and Parker's 10 favorite "South Park" episodes, "South Park the Hits: Volume 1," which arrives in stores Oct. 3.

"We've said in a lot of interviews, `There's no way we're going to be 35 or 40 doing this show,' and here we are at 35, and we're doing the show," Stone said. "Now we'll say, `There's no way we're going to be 45 to 50 doing this show.'"

"I think when I have kids, it'll be over," Parker added. "Because that'll be the day, we'll have kids, and then one of us will come in the office and be like, `I think we should take the show in a different direction. I think we offended some people last night, and I don't know that that's good.'"

Stone: "Once we have kids, we'll do the George Lucas thing, and we'll go back and change all the old episodes."

Parker: "All the guns out of people's hands and stuff."

Stone: "Get all weird and wimpy."

'South Park' celebrates with best-of DVD

LOS ANGELES - "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker say that choosing their favorite episode would be like choosing between their children. Not that they're above that.

Stone and Parker hand-picked their 10 most beloved episodes of the long-running Comedy Central show to appear on the new "South Park The Hits: Volume 1" DVD, in stores Oct. 3.

The new DVD also includes four bonus episodes and "The Spirit of Christmas," a never-released animated short.

"South Park" first aired Aug. 13, 1997. It begins its tenth season on Comedy Central on Oct. 4.

'South Park' guys plan two films

A high school comedy and giant monster pic are on tap

Subversive animation kings Trey Parker and Matt Stone have a pair of live-action films in development at Paramount.

According to Variety, the "South Park" creators are producing two comedies through their re-named Important Pictures shingle. Up first will be "My All-America," followed by the more excitingly titled "Giant Monsters Attack Japan!"

"My All-American" was written by Jeff Roda, while J.F. Lawton penned "Giant Monsters Attack Japan!" Details about both comedies are scarce, but the industry paper says that Parker will be the credited director on each film, while Stone will produce.

Both films will feature real actors -- a first for the "South Park" guys since "Orgazmo" and "Cannibal: The Musical!" -- though "Giant Monsters" will also feature thespians in big rubber suits.

The plan is to begin shooting on "All-American" next year when Parker and Stone go on "South Park" hiatus.

Since "South Park" launched, Parker and Stone have limited their creative cinematic output to "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" and "Team America: World Police." They also acted together in "BASEketball."

"South Park" duo get animated about censorship

PASADENA, California (Hollywood Reporter) - The creators of "South Park" lambasted Comedy Central Thursday for removing an episode that lampooned Scientology and Tom Cruise from the network's repeat schedule and for blanking out the image of Muhammad during another episode.

"So there are two things we can't do on Comedy Central: show Muhammad or Tom Cruise," Trey Parker said during the MTV Networks portion of the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour.

Parker and Matt Stone said they had no doubt that the "Trapped in the Closet" episode was yanked as a result of Cruise's starring this summer in "Mission: Impossible III," the movie from Paramount, Comedy Central's sister company.

However, a Comedy Central spokesman countered that all episodes get rotated in and out of the schedule on a regular basis and indicated that it was always the plan to restore the episode into the schedule. The episode will repeat Wednesday.

Stone added that the duo chose not to grant any media interviews at the height of the controversy several months ago.

"We didn't do any press because we were just going to get in a pissing war with Tom Cruise, and we didn't want to be in the same article as that guy," he said. "But we picked the wrong guy to parody because we're going to be asked about Tom for the next two years."

They added that they have not been contacted by Scientology representatives but did sit down the week after the episode aired with a "very upset" Isaac Hayes, a Scientologist who portrayed the character of Chef. Hayes has since exited the show.

"We didn't want to be hypocrites," Parker said. "We thought it could piss Isaac off, but we had to do it for that very reason" of not being labeled hypocrites.

Regarding the decision not to air the image of Muhammad during the "Cartoon Wars" episode, the pair said it was a corporate decision that could become a slippery slope if other groups begin making threats and affecting content. They also noted that Muhammad seems to be off limits, while it is "open season" on Jesus, who happens to be a "South Park" character. (Depictions of Muhammad are strictly prohibited in Islam.)

Comedy Central president Doug Herzog admitted, "It's tough, but I think I would say we did overreact. ... Matt and Trey enjoy a fair amount of creative freedom. History might show that we overreacted, and we will live with that."

He added that the image probably will not be shown on the DVD version either, but "I look forward to the day when we can uncover it."

Airwaves Again Safe for "South Park" Scientology Spoof

Comedy Central is finally respecting Cartman's authoritay.

One week after South Park's controversial "Trapped in the Closet" episode garnered an Emmy nomination, and nearly four months after it was abruptly pulled from rotation on the cable net, Comedy Central has finally acquiesced and will allow the Scientology-skewering episode back on the air.

And clearly not a moment too soon.

"If they hadn't put this episode back on the air, we'd have had serious issues, and we wouldn't be doing anything else with them," cocreator Matt Stone tells Variety.

The episode reportedly ruffled some high-powered feathers upon its first airing. In addition to an accurate, if cartoon-depicted, primer on Scientology, the show featured a literally closeted Tom Cruise who refuses to come out, only to be joined in his hiding by fellow Scientologist John Travolta and R&B man R. Kelly, whose operatic ballad provided the show's title.

While Comedy Central failed to publicly disclose its reasons for yanking the program (which is also credited for leading Scientologist Isaac Hayes to jump ship as the longtime voice of Chef), creators Stone and Trey Parker didn't shy away from broadcasting what they claimed was the network-sanctioned reason.

As the conspiracy theory goes, the Cruise's camp had a hand in deep-sixing the episode, with the litigious actor reportedly threatening threatened to pull out of promotional duties for Mission: Impossible III. (Viacom is the parent company for both Comedy Central and Paramount, the studio that was releasing Cruise's film.)

Cruise's reps vehemently denied such allegations, but the South Park brain trust stuck by its guns.

"I only know what we were told, that people involved with M:I:III wanted the episode off the air and that is why Comedy Central had to do it," Stone says in Variety. "I don't know why else it would have been pulled."

Now, Cruise's saturation-level publicity tour is over (and proved fairly ineffective, with the sequel grossing a disappointing $133 million domestically) and he is apparently in hiding with his new baby.

As it is, Comedy Central's decision to reintroduce the episode to its rerun schedule seems as arbitrary an action as yanking it in the first place. But the move is putting the network back into the good graces of Stone and Parker, who have said that their relationship with the network has been tenuous since the spring.

"It's true we are not as big as Tom Cruise, but we've done two movies for Viacom and 10 years of South Park episodes, and this has been our home," Stone tells Variety.

Stone explains that the episode's removal was nearly the final straw for the duo, who had been censored by the network on three separate occasions.

"We've been through a trifecta of annoyances," Stone says. "The 'Bloody Mary' episode angered Catholics. And we had a big fight when we wanted to show Muhammad."

Last year, the network declined to rerun the "Bloody Mary" episode after the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights attacked Parker and Stone and protested the program that featured a menstruating statue of the Virgin Mary.

In April, Comedy Central intervened on another episode before another religious group could take umbrage.

"Cartoon Wars," an episode dealing with the worldwide violence ensuing from a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet, was broadcast with a title card reading "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

At the time, the network defended the decision to censor the show to ward off the possibility of violent reactions.

"The mantra has always been everything is fair game," Stone tells Variety. "I love [network president] Doug Herzog, but I think he's dead wrong and made a totally cowardly decision."

South Park's "Trapped in the Closet" returns to Comedy Central's airwaves July 19.

'South Park' Cruise Episode Picked by Emmy Voters

The controversial "Trapped In The Closet" episode of South Park, which poked fun at Tom Cruise, is the cheeky installment which earned creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone an Emmy Awards nomination on Thursday.

The parody, which questioned Cruise's sexuality and mocked his Scientology beliefs, was caught up in controversy when it first aired last November, and reportedly helped lead to South Park regular Isaac Hayes, a fellow Scientologist, quitting the show.

But rather than steer clear of the controversy, brave Emmy voters have embraced it, declaring it worthy of a nod for Outstanding Animated Program.

The controversial episode hasn't been repeated since the initial furore and a planned re-airing in March was scrapped. South Park will compete with The Simpsons, Camp Lazio, Family Guy and Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends when the Emmys are announced next month.

Tom Cruise Loses "South Park" Fight

South Park'ers Matt Stone & Trey Parker have won their free speech battle, after the cartoon episode which mocks actor Tom Cruise was pulled from British TV. According to IMDB.com, the 2005 episode entitled, "Trapped in the Closet," was shown at the National Film Theatre in London on Monday, for free, hampering Cruise's efforts to shut-down the screening. "If we were charging there may have been legal problems," said a spokesman for the unusual event. "But it was a free event, so it should be fine." Stone and Parker were also on-hand for fans, to discuss the show and specifically the 'closet' episode they defend as a display of free speech.

"South Park" Censored

There was something missing in Wednesday night's South Park, as a title card explained: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

It was not a joke.

The scene depicting the Islamic prophet handing a football helmet to a character from Family Guy (at least that's how another of the show's title cards put it) really was nixed by Comedy Central.

A source close to the show said safety concerns were behind the move. Earlier this year, Danish newspapers published cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, sparking deadly riots throughout many Muslim nations. Any rendering of the prophet, even a positive one, is considered blasphemous by Muslims.

"In light of recent events, we feel we made the right decision," Comedy Central said in a statement Thursday.

There was no public response from series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Wednesday's South Park, "Cartoon Wars, Part 2," was the concluding half of a story arc in which Family Guy, yes, the Fox animated series, causes international consternation when, in a familiar-sounding turn of events, it depicts Mohammed. (The story line is better understood if one accepts that, as The South Park Scriptorium explained, "Family Guy=South Park.")

In the South Park version of things, Family Guy makes it to air with the controversial scene, prompting an animated response (literally) from al Qaeda involving Jesus, President Bush, the U.S. flag and bowel movements.

In an interview with the Associated Press, William Donohue of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights attacked Parker and Stone, but not Comedy Central, for the Jesus bit making air. Of the show's creators, Donohue said, "[They're] like little whores...They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus."

South Park has been winning friends of late with its religious-themed episodes. Last year, Comedy Central ran, but later declined to rerun the episode "Bloody Mary" after Donohue's group took umbrage with a menstruating statue of the Virgin Mary. Last month, Isaac Hayes turned in his Chef's hat, saying the show's satire had gone too far. His departure was seen as a belated response to "Trapped in the Closet," a 2005 episode that focused on Scientology, Hayes' religion. Comedy Central pulled a rerun of that episode, too.

An avowed equal opportunity offender, South Park previously depicted Mohammed to little public outcry. In that case, timing might have been everything. The episode, "Super Best Friends," debuted in July 2001, or two months before the arrival of the post-9-11 world.

"South Park" Roasts Chef, Literally

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have buried the hatchet with--sorry, into-- Isaac Hayes.

On Wednesday's South Park 10th season premiere, Hayes' Chef character was struck by lightning, impaled, shot, mauled by a mountain lion, eaten by a grizzly bear, and, oh, yes, accused of being a child molester.

An estimated 3.5 million people--the most for a season premiere since 2002--were witness to the carnage, the Associated Press reported.

The episode was the capper to Hayes' Mar. 13 resignation. South Park chieftains Parker and Stone cranked out the inaptly named "The Return of Chef!" as an answer to the defection.

In an off-screen twist, doubt has been cast as to whether Hayes really meant to depart the animated series. FoxNews.com columnist Roger Friedman reported Monday the 63-year-old "Shaft" soul great suffered a stroke on Jan. 17 and "is in no condition to quit anything."

"My sources say that someone quit [the show] for him," Friedman wrote.

Previous reports had Hayes hospitalized Jan. 17 in Memphis for what was said to be exhaustion. The reputed stroke diagnosis was said to be news to Comedy Central.

In his headline-making, episode-inspiring statement, Hayes, a Scientologist, said he could no longer support a show that disrespected religion. The move was widely seen as a response to a Scientology-specific South Park episode that first aired last November. (A rerun of the show, "Trapped in the Closet," was abruptly pulled from Comedy Central's schedule last week. Tom Cruise, a Scientologist, and a "Closet" parody target, denied flexing his superstar muscle to keep the episode off the air.)

Thanks to some manipulation of old sound bites ("suck on my chocolate salty balls") and song snippets ("make love..."), Hayes was heard in Wednesday's opener. But Parker and Stone got in the last words.

And for the record, not one of Parker and Stone's words was "Scientology."

In the completely made-up story, Chef is brainwashed by an organization of child molesters called the "Super Adventure Club." In order to cure Chef, Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny take their friend to a psychiatrist, a frowned-upon profession among Scientologists.

In the end, Chef dies a million Kenny deaths, only to live on, sort of, as a Darth Vader version of himself.

At his funeral, Kyle urges South Park residents to remember Chef as he was, before the brainwashing. If there is to be anger, he says, don't direct it at the beloved cafeteria worker.

Rather, says Kyle, "we should be mad at the fruity little club for scrambling his brain."

"South Park" Chef back after Scientology skirmish

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Isaac Hayes may have quit his job as the voice of Chef on "South Park" after a disagreement over religion, but his character will live on when the satiric cable TV cartoon returns to Comedy Central this week, the network said on Monday.

Hayes and his "South Park" alter ego are at the center of an ongoing flap over an episode last November that poked fun at the Church of Scientology and its celebrity adherents, including actor Tom Cruise.

The tenth season of "South Park" will launch on Wednesday with a new episode titled "The Return of Chef!," marking the "triumphant homecoming" of lusty school cafeteria cook James "Chef" McElroy to the show, the network said in a statement.

Hayes, 63, himself a follower of Scientology, surprised producers a week ago by announcing he was leaving the series because he objected to its "inappropriate ridicule" of religion, though he made no reference to the show's spoof of Scientology last fall.

Two days later, Comedy Central abruptly pulled a scheduled repeat of that episode, titled "Trapped in the Closet." Sources close to the show said the rerun was canceled after Cruise threatened to boycott promotion of his upcoming film, "Mission: Impossible III," for sister studio Paramount Pictures.

Representatives for Cruise and the studio denied this. But "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone fed the furor by issuing a statement suggesting the Church of Scientology was behind the decision to scrap the rerun.

The network has also noted that various religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been targets of the show's satire since its inception.

The network statement announcing Chef's return for the "South Park" season premiere this Wednesday was a clear sign that Parker and Stone planned to use the Hayes imbroglio as further grist for their comedy.

"Knowing these guys as I do, I can't imagine that they're not going to do just that," Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox told Reuters. He added that the producers routinely "turn around" new episodes in just six days, leaving them ample time to incorporate last week's dust-up into their season debut.

Fox said he assumed someone besides Hayes would supply Chef's voice. Details of the new episode were vague.

But a network synopsis said the fictional town of South Park, Colorado, is "jolted out of a case of the doldrums when Chef suddenly reappears," leading to new antics by the group of foul-mouthed fourth graders who are the show's stars.

"While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled to have their old friend back, they notice that something about Chef seems different. When Chef's strange behavior starts getting him in trouble, the boys pull out all the stops to save him."