• Okay, I caved. Those new Star Wars banks are just too cool. There’s 3 of them (Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Darth Maul) who all interact with one another. Qui and Obi were fairly easy to find, and I got a good deal on them, but the damned Darth Maul bank is EVADING me!!! Anyway, is there anyone that wants to help me out? The bank should run about $35 (or less). Don’tpay more than that! I’d be happy to repay anyone for the cost of the bank plus shipping (though a polite reminder, my birthday’s coming up in a month…hehehe). But seriously, I gotta have this guy to round out the collection. Plus, if you connect all 3 of them together, THEY FIGHT! If ya find one, please drop me a line before you buy it…I just need one, not ten or anything. Oh, and I know there’s some on e-bay, but I don’t feel like paying auction prices when I know there’s still some to be had out there in stores. Thanks!

• Premiere Magazine has announced their Hundred Most Powerful: On the list, the Weinsteins hit very high with number 16. Affleck and Damon also held on with ranks 91 and 93 respectively.
• “Clerks” will be showing at the State Theater in Detroit on Monday May 17th, to kick off to their 1999 ‘Monday night at the movies’ series.
• Finally today, E! Online‘s been working quite a bit of Dogma into their Cannes coverage online. This piece has kind of a gossipy flair to it, but it’s still nice to see folks are talking:

• Wow, what an exciting Sunday morning it’s been! Around 8:35 AM, with many of you feverishly loading the page in the hopes to see all those zeroes at the top, it happened. News Askew hit the big one million mark. Congratulations to PAUL ROBERTS from the UK on hitting the magic mark! Paul kindly stepped down from the prize and deferred it to the next hitter above the million mark to step forward and claim the prize.

And so, congratulations to our next closest to the big number, and grand prize winner…Jason-Guy! He was the closest over one million to provide the proof on the hit (that could make it to Red Bank) so he’s the one. He’ll be spending an afternoon in Red Bank with Kevin and ourselves…We’ll grab some lunch and then take a personal tour of the new offices & the Stash, administered by Kev himself!

As always, we owe all of our success to you, the fan, who supports this page through your daily, weekly, or monthly visits, as well as your scoops. A special thanks goes out to all of you for making News Askew what it is today, and for allowing us to continue growing all the time! We wish we had prizes for all of ya…Alas, you’ll just hafta settle for our little ‘ol updates.

Now then, let’s get started on that next million, shall we?

• As we’d figured, it didn’t take long to hit the one million milestone once the details of the contest were announced. News on our winner and some bites round out the weekend at News Askew today, along with a brand new poll, this week courtesy of Robby:

• Today brings us even MORE Dogma reviews, all positive this time around. It seems that the film, as with Kevin’s others, just needs to find its audience to get properly appreciated. Also, we’ve FINALLY got all the security measures in place, and are now proud to bring you the details on the MILLIONTH hit contest! See below for details. We think you’ll dig the prize.

By the way, we haven’t heard a peep from Marvel on DareDevil #7, which is scheduled to debut next Wednesday, but AllentownMike writes us to point out that the book ISN’T appearing on any of the release lists for next week. It wouldn’t be a surprise, since the date DID seem very aggressive considering DD #6‘s recent arrival, as well as the busy schedule of all involved with the book as of late. We’ll keep ya posted…But don’t be surprised if the book is delayed a week or two.

• More folks that really enjoyed Dogma have submitted their reviews of the film, and we’ve got ’em!

Dogma LA Screening – Review   Dogma LA Screening – Review
 (Very Positive, NO Spoilers)     (Very Positive, Minor Spoilers)

Dogma LA Screening – Review  
(Positive, NO Spoilers)

• We’ve been teasing ya, and not much more than that, only because we’ve been making some final arrangements to make sure that the contest goes off safely, securely, and that everyone has a fair chance at the prize. As most of you who stop to check the counter at the top of this page once in a while, you realize we’re getting close to quite the milestone, our ONE MILLIONTH HIT. We’re very proud of this, and you should be as well, since readers like yourself have made this possible. For a target audience as specific as the realm of Askew, we’ve racked up an amazing number in under 2 years. And this is ours (and Kevin’s) way of saying thanks for keeping the site going.

So, for that reason, our ONE MILLIONTH visitor (or closest over to claim the prize) will be spending a day in lovely RED BANK, NEW JERSEY, where he or she will have lunch with Kevin Smith (and two lowly News Askew webmasters), as well as be treated to a personal tour of the Stash and the new, improved View Askew Offices, given by Kevin himself!

We’re sure that it’ll be a day full of fun and surprises. The day/time of this will be arranged after we’ve got a winner, and can come to agree on something that fits everyone’s schedule, but will most likely be sometime after Kevin and the gang have returned from Cannes.

All you gotta do is submit a screenshot (just push your PRINT SCREEN KEY and paste the image into a graphic or word processing program), or a note claiming that you were indeed the millionth hit along with any other pertinent information (Your IP address, PC type, web browser, etc.) that you can provide as proof. We’ve got a TON of background processes running to verify who indeed hits the magic numbers, and followup questions that we ask you after you submit you claim will make sure that yours is genuine. In short, WE WILL NOT TOLERATE CHEATING. Anyone who sends a fake screenshot or claim in will be disqualified from any further contests or giveaways that take place at this site for as long as we’re around, and we MEAN that. Let’s play fair, folks. We’ll catch you if you cheat, and humiliate you publicly.

Now, the details. Unfortunately, we can’t offer airfare or transportation into town, that’s your responsibility. We also realize that, because of these stipulations, that hit number one million just might not be able to make it. There aren’t any substitutes for prizes here, so if you can’t, we’ll give ya the glory and announce you, but be kind and allow someone else to have the prize. We’ll start at a million and work our way up (1,000,001, 1,000,002, etc…) until we have a winner that’s submitted a screenshot (or similar proof). The closest over ONE MILLION (or AT one million, of course) that can make it to town gets the grand prize.

Good luck to you all, and remember, many will try to win, but THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

• Some of you may be happy to hear (and some may not give a rat’s ass) that I’ve accepted a new job! It’s a webmaster position, which is exactly what I was looking for, and it’s even local…Meaning I won’t have to leave the area — Good thing, too, since I didn’t feel like FLYING in for the Dogma premiere this fall or anything. At any rate, I just wanted to take this time to thank all of you for your support & suggestions over the past month or two. Hopefully you didn’t feel that the stuff about my job search was permeating the site or anything — I was doing my best to keep it to a minimum. Anyway, I’m now planning to enjoy a few weeks of mindless vacation before starting the new position. Again, thanks everyone!!!

As for the realm of Askew, more Dogma reviews are popping up around the net. We’re going to use two from AICN today since we’ve yet to receive any directly from the L.A. folks…But hope to print only reviews submitted directly to us for the flick (at least from fans, not critics). There’s also a couple more tidbits, including an exclusive look at the next Clerks comic cover and some good news from Oni, so read on:

• Dogma gets another nice mention as far as anticipation levels at Cannes go [USA Today]:

• And finally today, it’s always nice to have a little Jason Lee news: In the recent issue of InStyle Magazine, there’s an article on the Independent Spirit Awards. Itls a 4 page spread that includes many attendees’ pictures and their quotes. Jason Lee and his wife Carmen Llywellyn appear with the caption, “I won last year [for Chasing Amy]. I was so suprised I thought the least I could do was come back and present an award, because I admire my trophy so much!” With performances like that, we’re sure Lee’s welcome at the ISA’s any old year.

Have a nice weekend, folks. Drive safe.