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

Tom Hanks has apologized for calling Mormons who contributed money to California's Prop. 8 campaign "un-American."

In a statement issued through his publicist, Hanks apologized for a comment he made last week at the premiere of the polygamy-themed HBO drama "Big Love" (which Hanks' company produces). Here's his statement in part:

"I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination.

"But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American. To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are 'un-American' creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use 'un- American' lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have."

Labels: Big Love, LDS, politics

Boy, when an all-American guy like Tom Hanks calls you un-American, you know you're in trouble.

Hanks used that word in connection with the way members of the LDS Church threw their money behind California's Prop. 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, according to this Fox News report.

The occasion was Wednesday night's premiere party for "Big Love," the HBO drama (which Hanks' company produces) about a polygamous family in Utah.

"The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop. 8 happen,” Hanks said. "There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here's what happens now."

Hanks holds out hope that Prop. 8 will be overturned. "Let's have faith in not only the American, but Californian constitutional process,” he said.

Labels: Big Love, LDS, politics