• Fametracker (The self-dubbed “Farmers Almanac of Celebrity Worth”) lists Kevin in their “Galaxy Of Fame” this week.
• Jason Lee‘s still untitled Cameron Crowe picture has been given an “R” rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.
• The Advocate with the Kevin Smith interview is on stands now. (G. W. Bush is on the cover.)
• Here’s a fairly new interview with Kevin from the Dr. Drew website that we missed somehow. Check it out for some funny Q&A with the man himself.
• Jay’s a busy guy this Friday night. He’s also appearing on Nightraven Radio (during “The Ultraviolet”) this Friday night. Surf over for times and more information.
• So, Claire Forlani kisses another chick in “Boys And Girls”? We hear the movie sucks, but still, that’s gotta help with the box office at least SOMEWHAT. Two please.

• Hey peoples. We’re back. Still not a whole heckuva lot going on but we do have a couple tidbits today. Big news is of course more new items on eJay, but we’ve also got some other NewsBites, including a humorous parody on the Clerks cartoon, some Dogma tidbits, and more.

Brad says: Thanks to everyone who sent in some advice on fishkeeping — My girlfriend and I spent a good part of the last 3 days reading up on stuff and browsing around pet stores and aquariums. Not being one who shys away from a challenge, I decided to set up a salt water tank with a few fish for starters. Most fish folks think it’s impossible to run a tank like that wthout professional assistance or a TON of spare time, but I’m gonna give it a try. Thanks for all your advice and suggestions.

Okay then, let’s get on with the news!

• As usual, the gang’s put up some very unique and rare items up for your bids on eJay this week, including a big surprise item — The pilot for the terrible LIVE ACTION Clerks TV pilot (a true rarity, and one we’d love to see ourselves), original art used in Mallrats, some one-of-a-kind Dogma props, and more. Get out those checkbooks or credit cards, and best of luck to ya. Here’s a rundown of the items (eJay has much more detail, and scanned photos of each item, of course):

• A really fun item today (and our most popular submission) comes from the Modern Humorist website.They’ve done a sort of tongue-in-cheek “what if” scenario on other possible indie flick spinoffs into cartoons, had Clerks succeeded. Parodies include cartoon stills from “The Sweet Hereafter”, “Buena Vista Social Club”, “The Blair Witch Project”, and more. Very clever and funny, be sure and check ‘em out.
• Dogma’s hitting pay per view starting later this week on DirecTV Direct Ticket and other cable provider packages. If you’d like to watch it at home again (especially those of you without DVD players), now’s a great chance to catch it again.
• Speaking of Dogma, it’s due for release on video in Australia on AUGUST 8TH. Mark your calendar, mate. Oh and while you’re at it, can you try and talk Paul Hogan out of making “Crocodile Dundee III”? Thanks.
• Oh, and even MORE good Dogma news for folks in the UK — VCI is planning to release the Special Edition DVD in Novemeber, containing all the extras from the region 1 Special Edition “and more” (quoted). We’re not sure what the “more” part is at this point, but as soon as we know, you’ll know. Frankly, we can’t possibly think of anything else to include that won’t already be on the region 1 US disc this fall.
• Here’s another Chasing Amy DVD review online if you’d care to check it out.It’s incredibly detailed, just like we like ‘em, so if you’d like a second opinion to our own review of the disc, it’s definitely a worthy read.
• Finally today, an unproven scoop but an interesting one — A source says that Clerks’ Marilyn Ghigliotti‘s appearing in a new “erotic thriller” titled “Jacker 2”. Again, we’ve yet to confirm this one, but hey, if someone wants to send in a screener copy…There’d be no objections. 😉

Anyway, folks, thanks for stopping in as always, and we’ll see ya next time.

• Alright, I’ll take full responsibility for this one — In haste reading Vincent’s post yesterday, I mistakenly misread that the Cannes print would be used for the Dogma Special Edition DVD. This isn’t true. Kevin prefers the theatrical print, so the exact same transfer of the film on the current DVD will be on the SE DVD as well. All the extra scenes, including the stuff from the Cannes version of the film, will be in the 100-minute deleted scenes supplement. Sorry for misleading anyone, it was just careless reading on my part.

• Well, you probably thought we’d given up on ya, huh? Actually, we’re been around, it’s just been quite dead for the past couple of days (reminiscent of before the Clerks cartoon showed up) so we thought we’d take it easy for a bit until there was enough to warrant a full update. Still, you’ll see there’s not much going on. We did change the poll topic and manage to dig up some cool stuff on the upcoming Dogma: SE disc, so read on, and enjoy. By the way, I (Brad) turn 27 today, 3 years away from the big 3-0. Happy Birthday to me…I got a cool new fish tank for the house, and am in the process of trying to find some colorful freshwater fish that I can throw in there. If anyone’s a fish expert out there, drop me a line, I’m pretty stupid and could use some pointers before I end up killing a bunch of them. Thanks.

• We’ve been forgetting to mention this for over a week now, but it’s some very cool news that you may have missed unless you regularly surf the View Askew WWWBoard. Vincent Pereira revealed that a second commentary was recorded for inclusion on the already-loaded Dogma Special Edition DVD due sometime this fall (no official release date has yet been announced). This second track was with just he, Kevin, and producer Scott Mosier. It focuses more on the making of the flick itself, rather than the more whimsical track with Affleck, Lee, & others. Both tracks should be worth the time to listen to, for sure. Add those to the brand new documentary, the extended (by 8 minutes) Cannes print of the flick, AND (our favorite) an approximately 100 minutes of deleted scenes, and you’ve got what’s probably going to be the best DVD to hit the market yet. And we’re not just saying that because we’re fans. It’s gonna be damn cool.

• The all-knowing IGN guys reviewed the Chasing Amy DVD, and seemed to like the flick itself, but were fairly harsh on the disc’s audio and video limitations. Read all about it HERE.
• Kevin’s the “Loser Of The Week” (great honor, huh?) in Entertainment Weekly due to the Clerks series being cancelled: “After the first two episodes of clerks failed to register with viewers, ABC has closed shop on the indie’s auteurs’s animated small-screen effort.” The winner? Talk Soup host, Hal Sparks, for landing a new gig in an indie flick. Sure, we’ll see who makes it further, EW. Plus, shouldn’t ABC be the losers of the week for ditching such a fun new show?
• Word has it that Film Four will release Dogma for sale on VHS in the UK sometime this December. Still no US sellthrough date, but we can assume it’ll be much sooner than that, probably this fall.
• Finally today, here’s something that’s quite amusing: The Ninja Hypothesis is a website whose theory is that ANY flick can be made better with the addition of ninjas. Surf over to see what they thought some of the hooded fellas could add to Dogma. (Aside: They thought “Fight Club” almost defeated the entire hypothesis due to it being pretty cool without ninjas. Heh.)

Sorry for the lack of news lately, we’ll be back sooner with more, as long as something happens, anyway.

• Looks like we’ve slipped into a bit of a lull after all the Clerks fuss, but that’s cool, it’s always nice to get a break now and then. Gives everyone a chance to check out their new Chasing Amy DVD or hold their View Askew DVD movie marathons or whatever. By the way, does anyone else think it’s strange that after being totally out of the news, Patrick Swayze is back in it (with his plane crash and subsequent rumors of alchohol on board) the week that the episode of Clerks that lampooned him was scheduled to air? Spooky.

Just got a bunch of NewsBites for ya today, nothing too major storywise developing lately. There’s a few things worth checking out though. Read on, and we’ll be back with more as it happens.

• Will Wilkins has been kind enough to post, in segments, the entire 2 hour call in appearance of Brian O’Halloran that took place on his call-in show earlier this week. If you’ve got some time, it’d certainly be worth your while to listen. Check out all the clips at Will’s site.
• DVDFile’s Cliff Stephenson reviews the Chasing Amy DVD HERE. He takes a couple harsher swipes at the video and audio quality that we do (though he also realizes it’s just a 16mm flick), but all in all gives the disc some good marks.
• If it makes you feel any better, ABC‘s performance slipped even further between 9 and 10 PM last night without its Millionaire lead-in, so it doesn’t look like it was Clerks’ fault, their ratings sucked anyway. Survivor (a damn fun show) is kicking ass in the ratings for CBS from 8-9, and shaking everything else up on Wednesday nights.
• The History Askew website has been updated with the information learned from the Clerks cartoon.
• It’s a blast from the past, but a scooper has posted a fairly in-depth page on an appearance Kev made at his school. Check it out HERE for photos, an appearance summary, and more.

Catch ya later, folks.