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There’s layers on how this kind of thing works. Phil’s contract will include some boiler plate language barring bringing bad PR. This would be what got him suspended, frequently that section is referred to as the “morals clause” but that’s only because the most common ways stars bring bad PR involve immoral things like drugs and hookers, the clauses usually focus on the publicity not the behavior.

The other big layer is the interview prep. Whenever somebody gives an interview there’s generally stuff they (or their employer) wants them to discuss and stuff they (or their employer) doesn’t want them to discuss. This all gets negotiated before hand by the agent/ handler/ rep, technically the one being censored is the interviewer, they are being forbidden from “gotcha” questions that distract the reason of the interview. The way it’s enforced is that if the interviews doesn’t obey the rules the interview is over. Now what’s a gotcha question of course varies from person to person but given the state of things pretty much anything related to gays should be on everybody’s banned list because it’s not possible to give an answer to that without making somebody mad, when you’re sending somebody out there to promote the new season of the show spawning boycotts is not the goal.

Now it’s important to understand that just because something is banned from interviews doesn’t mean the person can’t discuss it, but they need to know their setting and audience and be aware of the PR implications. If Phil had (and he probably has) said those things while guest sermoning at a church nobody would care, that’s a limited audience that’s pre-selected to agree with what he’s saying, no bad PR will happen. Totally different than saying that stuff in the magazine that basically invented metro-sexuals and a significant percentage of the subscribers is gay not to mention the whole available free on the web thing. No longer is the audience limited, and a lot of them will not agree, bad PR ensues, next season of the show not properly promoted.