Ron Batzdorff/HBOHBO is so unlike TV it can't even limit its drama to the screen.
The pay-cable network was busy Tuesday defending the depiction of a traditional Mormon temple ceremony in an upcoming episode of Big Love, a creative choice the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has interpreted as disrespect.
"Obviously, it was not our intention to do anything disrespectful to the church, but to those who may be offended, we offer our sincere apology," HBO said in a statement today.
Jeanne Tripplehorn's polygamy-favoring Barb is slated to participate in an endowment ceremony, in which church members perform symbolic acts to prepare themselves for admittance to heaven. HBO has deemed it a key plot point.
Big Love creators and executives producers Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer also said that experts on temple ceremonies were consulted to ensure an accurate depiction.
On Monday, church leaders, some of whom are calling for a Big Love boycott, called the scene a clear indication of HBO's insensitivity toward the church's sacred practices. Members are generally discouraged from discussing the details of their activities outside the temple.
"In approaching the dramatization of the endowment ceremony, we knew we had a responsibility to be completely accurate and to show the ceremony in the proper context and with respect," Olsen and Scheffer said in an additional statement issued by HBO today.
"We therefore took great pains to depict the ceremony with the dignity and reverence it is due."
But in dissing Big Love, church members also acknowledged their lack of overall concern, stating that even "extreme misrepresentations" of their religion in the media weren't likely to have a "long term negative effect on the church."