HBO's polygamists-are-people-too drama "Big Love" is going into a Mormon temple on Sunday - and the real-life Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't like it one bit.

An LDS Church statement issued Monday reads in part: "Now comes another series, 'Big Love,' and despite earlier assurances from HBO, it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show's fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints."

The episode shows an LDS endowment ceremony, which is performed in the temple and witnessed only by church members with a temple recommend and in good standing - which would not, presumably, include the polygamist family that is at the series' center.

"We go into the endowment room and the celestial room, and we present what happens in those ceremonies," series co-creator Mark V. Olsen said in an interview with TV Guide. "That's never been shown on television before."

E-mails are circulating among Mormon groups, urging the faithful to cancel their HBO subscriptions and their AOL service in protest. (Why AOL? It, like HBO, is owned by TimeWarner.)

In any event, Olsen and HBO could be gracious and cut a check to the LDS Church - for giving the show all this free publicity.

Labels: Big Love, LDS, television