Earlier this week, we were contacted by Jessica and chatted on the phone a while about the goings-on with Dogma and basically took the time to answer some questions regarding what we knew about the sale and the film as a whole. The quote comes as a result of a dialogue that that she and I got into about what Kevin had said regarding the MoobyBoardroom scene at his Rider Appearance, though I thought it was a bit strange how I was quoted by paraphrasing something that Kevin actually said (without recalling his exact words, of course), and that it could be easily takenout of context. Oh well. The story itself summarizes everything you’ve read about here over the past week or so, andreads:

A Hollywood Dogfight (News + Notes Sidebar)

It’s tempting to say Disney was being dogmatic about the situation. Butyou decide: On April 7, Miramax cochairmen Harvey and Bob Weinstein putup $12 million of their own money to buy all the rights to Kevin Smith’supcoming religious comedy, Dogma. The unusual move was made becauseDisney, Miramax’s parent company, is uncomfortable with the film’scontroversial content, which includes a descendant of Jesus working atan abortion clinic and a discussion of Joseph and Mary’s sex life. TheWeinsteins will now look to sell the film to another distributor.”Disney is an easy target for this kind of protest,” says Harvey. “It’stheir Achilles’ heel.”

This isn’t the first time the odd-fitting Disney-Miramax tandem has hadproblems. In 1995, the companies were blasted by Catholic groups overMiramax’s Priest, about a gay Catholic clergyman. The following year,the Weinsteins were forced to set up an ad hoc company, ShiningExcalibur, to release the NC-17-rated Kids (Disney rules prohibit any ofits divisions from releasing NC-17 films). However, Dogma seemsdifferent. Not only will the film not have a ratings problem, it’s ahighly marketable comedy from a respected indie director (Smith made1997’s hit Chasing Amy for Miramax). And it boasts a boatful of hotyoung stars, including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Alanis Morissette, LindaFiorentino, and Chris Rock. And as Weinstein points out: “This is notPriest. This is a laugh-out-loud satire. Look at There’s Something AboutMary. Was the hair-gel scene funny or offensive?”

So what’s the problem? Although Smith was unavailable for comment,people close to him say he attributes at least part of Disney’sskittishness to a scene in which Damon and Affleck, playing angels, walkinto the board meeting of a Disney-like firm and rattle off lewdpersonal histories of the execs as cartoon music plays in thebackground. Says Brad Plevyak, who coruns a Dogma website and has awalk-on part in the film: “Kevin said ‘I could see why Disney would havehad a hard time with that.'” (Disney has no comment.)

For his part, Harvey Weinstein denies the scene is an attack on Disneyand says he is excited to be shopping Dogma around. “After 20 years, I’mback to being an independent producer again with all my competitors onthe phone promising me the world,” says Weinstein, who says there’salready been heavy interest in Dogma. “I’m going to have breakfast atWarners and dinner at New Line. And I’m going to find out who has thebest commissary and the best fringe benefits.”

–Jessica Shaw

All things considered, it’s nice to see your name in print, but we’d have taken a mention of either of the websites with a URL over that any day. Oh well. Maybe next time. Until then, it’s back to the shadows for us…