Just to add a more fuel to the fire, now it looks like someone may have been speaking for Mr. Hayes.
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frien...188463,00.html
Quote:
Chef's Quitting Controversy
Monday , March 20, 2006
By Roger Friedman
Isaac Hayes did not quit "South Park." My sources say that someone quit it for him.
I can tell you that Hayes is in no position to have quit anything. Contrary to news reports, the great writer, singer and musician suffered a stroke on Jan. 17. At the time it was said that he was hospitalized and suffering from exhaustion.
It’s also absolutely ridiculous to think that Hayes, who loved playing Chef on "South Park," would suddenly turn against the show because they were poking fun at Scientology.
Last November, when the “Trapped in a Closet” episode of the comedy aired, I saw Hayes and spent time with him in Memphis for the annual Blues Ball.
If he hated the show so much, I doubt he would have performed his trademark hit song from the show, “Chocolate Salty Balls.” He tossed the song into the middle of one of his less salacious hits and got the whole audience in the Memphis Pyramid to sing along.
I can tell you, Hayes was very pleased with himself, was in a great mood and, as always, loved his fans' coming up to him and asking him about Chef.
As recently as early January, before his stroke, Hayes defended the "South Park" creators in an interview with “The AV Club,” the serious side of the satirical newspaper, The Onion.
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There's more to the article than I've snipped, but these are the high points. I tried to pull up the interview off the Onion, but I didn't have the patience or time to go wading through the archives once I didn't find it immediately. If the quotes later in the Fox article are accurate, then it's very interesting that he'd be ok with the episode in December/January (depending on when the interview took place) and then not ok with it in March. If someone is speaking for him, I have to wonder if they're working in conjunction with Tom Cruise or someone in his "camp". Regardless, controversy like this really only plays into the hands of Parker and Stone, as seen by their press release last week. If I were them, I'd be tossing around ideas for another Scientologist episode and maybe thinking about distributing closet action figures - not actual people, just closets that don't open.