• Our biggest submission today: In an article on Fox‘s cancellation of their failing series, “Action”, there’s also mention of ABC‘s plans for mid-season, which includes “Clerks”! The good news is that they seem to be excited about the series with mentioning it already, but the bad news is that it’s indeed not premiering until MARCH, not February as an earlier story hinted.

By the by, I caught the last aried episode of Action, and thought the ending was brilliant — Until I heard they’ve got 5 more episodes filmed. Fox, if you’re listening, don’t ever air those episodes. The series really did end perfectly, in fact, the ending of Thursday’s show gave the entire series a different spin, I think. It’s just too bad all of the episodes weren’t as good as the two aired this week.

• Dogma has just shown up in the Internet Movie Database‘s list of top 250 films! At presstime, the flick ranked at #205.Quite an honor, since everyone on the Internet’s eligible to vote. Clerks, by the way, still sits in that list as well,currently at #221.
• If you still didn’t catch that Fresh Air NPR interview with Kevin, it’s now online HERE. Enjoy!
• So, how do you folks think Affleck would look in glass slippers?

• Finally today, Kevin’s mentioned in the latest issue of Details. In their list of 1999 Silly Movie Awards, VERY tonguein cheek…Kevin’s honor is: “Most Likely to Get Bitch-Slapped by The Vatican’s Swiss Guards: Kevin Smith, for casting Alanis Morrisette as God in ‘Dogma’.”.

• The protests continue…On the Disney lot??? That’s right, a source checked from the Animation lot in Burbank, CA, where he noticed a large DOGMA protest going on in front of the Disney Studio Lot in the big building that looks like the Fantasia Sorcerer’s Apprentice hat. Maybe someone should have told these folks that Disney’s no longer involved? Hmmm.
• There is a new very large billboard poster put up by Film Four announcing the coming on the 26th of December featuring all the main characters but in different poses as compared to the US poster. Our scooper spotted it at the main entrance to Wembly Stadium, London – easy to checkout for those going to concerts this Christmas period at Wembly Arena. The smaller pink Matt and Ben posters are all over the London Tube system.
• There’s also a new Kevin Smith UK interview now up on the Film Four UK Dogma site.
• We didn’t realize this, but Dogma is Kev’s first flick released in the UK to get a 15 rating, NOT an 18! That’s pretty darn cool. No cuts or anything.
• As for those of you in Ireland, we hear that Film Four does indeed plan to release Dogma in ALL of Ireland, North and South, on the 26th as well, though a scooper over there has told us that it’s not officially confirmed, as well as the areas or number of screens. Oh, and can we come over and have some Guinness?

• Here’s a nifty little piece on the Clerks DVD commentary, courtesy of the RTC website. Nothing new for those of us who’ve seen the laserdisc or DVD, but for those of you that haven’t, perhaps that final push to get you to go out and buy one (though we think the Dogma DVD alone’s gonna have ALL of you lining up to get DVD units of your own…)

“Donnie, we need a clean-up in Aisle Six” (Clerks)

Dad, Can I Have A DVD Player? Clerks One of the joys of DVD’s is the alternate commentary track, where often the director or some other supreme being shares behind the scenes dirt that provides insight into the art of filmmaking or justifies your hunch that the director was, indeed, a moron. In this column, we share the meaty info for those of you who are “digitally handicapped”. This issue: Kevin Smith’s foul-mouthed opus, Clerks. WHAT WE LEARNED: Kev’s cousin, Walt Flanagan, plays no less than 5 roles, earning him the moniker, “the Lon Chaney of indie film”. The cancer-ridden lung that the cigarette man pulls out is actually a piece of tripe, rubbed in dirt, dabbed with cigarettes. Thirteen minutes of footage was excised between Clerks’ debut at Sundance & its Miramax theatrical release. The character of “Caitlyn” is an homage to Canadian after-school spank-fest, Degrassi Junior High. The dead guy’s erection under the coroner’s blanket is actually a Hershey’s bottle with Kleenex taped to the top. THE HIGHLIGHT: Besides having producers Scott Mosier & Sean Jacks assisting him in commentary, Kevin also brings Jason “Jay” Mewes along for the ride. Unfortunately, Mewes is lit up like a Christmas tree and spends most of the running time on the floor, yelling out the occasional drunken epithets, grunting, and at one classic point, snoring.