HBO's Polygamy Drama "Big Love" Causes Mormon Outrage  3/13/06

A new US TV drama series about a man married to three women at the same time has outraged the Mormon Church.

Big Love stars Bill Paxton as a Salt Lake City, Utah, businessman who satisfies each of his wives on a rota-basis, and with the help of anti-impotence drug Viagra.

The Mormon Church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, outlawed polygamy or 'plural marriage' in 1890, and are appalled by the series, which they insist "reinforces old and long-outdated stereotypes" about the Mormon faith.

The religious body also brands Big Love "lazy and indulgent entertainment".

The show's HBO creators, who were also behind The Sopranos and Sex and the City, have hit back claiming their latest project is not meant to mock Mormon beliefs but to reflect on the 20,000 to 40,000 polygamist marriages still active in Utah and Arizona today.