Bunny, Jim, Gareb, Whoever,

I’m an avid reader of your periodical, but I must air a beef I’ve had of late with WIZARD: There’s far too much coverage of Kevin Smith.

It seems that every time Kevin Smith pinches a loaf, it’s in your pages. There’s far too much ink (or “pub”) on this clearly overrated “writer” or comics and poorly filmed movies. His Daredevil run was too wordy, and in it, he had the audacity to kill of two major characters (***SPOILER ALERT***), Karen Page and Mysterio (although, thank God, Mysterio was back the week after)! This, to me, is the sign of a weak writer. A strong writer doesn’t need such shock-value authoring that truly speaks volumes about how little talent this hack has.

Also, too much is made about his Green Arrow relaunch, when it’s already two years late. DC should fire him.

And I’m tired of hearing about his movies and comic store Who cares? This guy bugs me, and my appreciation of WIZARD dips every time I turn a page and see his stupid face. Please, make it stop.

Kevin Smith
Writer/Director, “Clerks,”, “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy,”, “Dogma”; Writer of Green Arrow

VIEW ASKEW GETS “VULGAR”

“Steve-Dave” does directorial debut

Move over Kevin Smith. There is a new star at View Askew.

Bryan Johnson, the View Askew shipping-and-receiving employee who’s had bit parts as “Steve-Dave” in several Smith films, is going behind the camera.

Johnson has written and directed “Vulgar,” a movie about View Askew’s clown mascot. After the flick was screened at a Toronto film festival, Lion’s Gate quickly snapped it up. A summer 2001 release is planned.

Vulgar, played by Brian O’Halloran (Dante from “Clerks”) is a kids’ party clown who’s down-and-out. “So he starts offering raunchier versions of his service for bachelor parties, frat parties and so on,” Johnson revealed. Trouble hits the first time out of the gate for Vulgar, as a trio of thugs beat him up and leave him for dead. “He contemplates leaving the profession, and even gets suicidal,” Johnson said.

Enter an astute TV executive (Played by Kevin Smith) who sees value in Vulgar. He gives the clown his own TV show, which proves wildly successful. But things go bad when the thug trio returns to blackmail Vulgar, threatening to expose him as the “raunchy clown.”

Johnson is happy with his debut flick, and also happy with View Askew’s UPS scales. “I like it here,” he says. “I’d also like to try more writing and directing. We’ll see.”

BOW SMITH! Kevin Smith is locked and loaded for 12 issues on DC’s Green Arrow. That’s a fact. And the acclaimed filmmaker has hinted he might do a few more in order to persuade DC to turn the 12-issue maxi-series into an ongoing. According to rumors at CD Comics, Smith’s new Green Arrow relaunch will move Ollie Queen from an Olympic level archer to a superpowered one.

BEN’S AT HIS BEST IN ‘BOUNCE’

‘I’VE EXPERIENCED every kind of movie-making at this point. I’ve gone from working on a little indie, ‘Chasing Amy,’ that cost less than $200,000, to a $128 million epic, ‘Pearl Harbor.’ All this puts me in good stead to direct, eventually. I sure know what makes the business tick. I know what everybody does and how they do it. And I’m still learning, too.”

That was Ben Affleck last week, at the post-premiere party for his new romantic drama, “Bounce,” co-starring his friend, Gwyneth Paltrow. Affleck has to be one of the most regular, down to earth, and attractive men in the movie world. He is compellingly likeable, even in the hurly-burly of such a party, where he is passed around like an hor d’oeuvre – or a hooker – to the panting press. Affleck laughed boisterously when we said, “We’re so proud to be the first to get to you. Everybody else has to make do with sloppy seconds!”

Ben gives a remarkably sensitive performance in “Bounce,” bettering even his best work in “Dogma.” Women, in particular will be seduced. Nothing is more appealing than a big, beautiful guy, weeping for his ladylove, and Affleck has some admirably tearful moments here – and one in which, while listening to Paltrow muse affectionately about her dead husband, a single tear glistens at the corner of his eye, but never falls. “I was so moved by the material, and in that scene, I was just completely overcome with the story. I lost myself to Abby” (Gwyneth’s character).

Typically, Ben gives credit to his director, Don Roos, of “The Opposite of Sex” fame. “All Don had to do, at any moment, was just lean in and whisper one or two words to us. His sensitivity, to actors and to his craft and to the art of storytelling is amazing.”

I have to add a little P.S. here about Ben Affleck. He was just sensational with Diane Sawyer the other night. It’s rare to see such an actor so open, so willing to talk about his feelings, so “real.” He has always been marvelous to chat with in the flesh. But that doesn’t always translate in an interview. But Ben’s charisma – and Diane’s excellent questions – resulted in one of the very best bits of TV I’ve seen in ages.

“Bounce” is indeed the opposite of “The Opposite of Sex.” Roos’ first movie was stepped in cynicism, though in the end, even the hard-bitten anti-heroine, played by Christina Ricci, grudgingly accepted sentimentality. (And the movie has one of the great romantic lines ever, uttered by Lyle Lovett to Lisa Kudrow, “Think of me first, in any crowded room.”) The director’s second effort is a real old-fashioned movie-movie. It’s the sort of thing MGM would have done to a T back in the 1940s – with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in the lead. Sentimentality and high emotion are given full sway, and the leading actors, Ben and Gwyneth, are completely in synch, a perfect pairing. (I suppose their off-screen palship didn’t hurt their on-screen intimacy.)

Director Roos says working with Ben and Gwyneth (”Benneth” as they are now popularly referred) was “the 10 best weeks of my life!” He praised, in particular, Ben’s “sense of reality” in approaching the material, of “staying exactly within the emotional parameters of the story, never going too far, and never, ever holding back.”

Johnny Galecki, who has a supporting role in “Bounce” – he also appeared in “The Opposite of Sex” – says Roos has “the knack for touching upon every human idiosyncrisy. When I first read this script, I couldn’t believe this was the same writer of ‘The Opposite of Sex!’ Galecki says he wouldn’t mind becoming a recurring player in the film ouvre of Don Roos. “But then, I wouldn’t mind going to lunch with him every day, either.” The young actor, who found fame on “Roseanne,” as Sara Gilbert’s sweet, hapless boyfriend, has a role in Cameron Crowe’s upcoming “Vanilla Sky” and soon heads to his hometown of Chicago, for theater work.

The “Bounce” party was held at the Hudson Hotel, which for some reason has become the new party “in” spot. Can’t imagine why. The space is not at all conducive to a crowded fete, there’s no flow. The place was packed, movement restricted, and velvet ropes protected the stars and their handlers from the great unwashed. There were a great many “Gwenabees” in the room -tall slender blondes sporting hairdos of Paltrow past. The Oscar-winning actress, dressed in bare black, therefore probably avoided additional mauling, because people were never sure that night if it was really she or one of her erstaz look-a-likes. Maybe Paltrow herself hires them as decoys? The real-life Miss P. looked radiant.

Her mom, Blythe Danner, and dad, Bruce Paltrow, were there to lend support to their famous child, who exuded both the assured air of a seasoned movie queen and the vivacity of a fresh, vital young actress justifiably pleased by her own, and everybody else’s efforts.

“I had to go get my physical for the movie today. In order to get the picture insured, the director has to get a clean bill of health by a doctor, prior to shooting (because no company will insure a flick if the director’s got one foot in the grave, in case he or she drops dead while shooting).

So I’m sitting in the office, filling out my paperwork, when a guy comes out, just having had his examination for his picture. And this guy says…

“Kevin. Hi. Paul Thomas Anderson.”

I say “Hey, man! How are you?” and ask him why he’s there (duh). He responds that he’s there for the requisite check-up for his flick, we smile at one another for a beat, and then he’s off.

See? No feud at all.”

CLERKS: All Access – Ch 69 IFC – Thu Nov 23 8:00 PM Movies, 95 Mins. ***(Rated R) A 22-year-old clerk takes in a day’s worth of customers at aconvenience store in New Jersey. Adult Situations; Graphic Language. Cast:Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonhauer , JasonMewes, Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier. Director(s): Kevin Smith. Producer(s):Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier. Distribution: Miramax

Airdates:
IFC 69 Thu Nov 23 8:00 PM
IFC 69 Thu Nov 23 10:00 PM
IFC 69 Fri Nov 24 12:00 AM
IFC 69 Mon Nov 27 9:00 PM
IFC 69 Tue Nov 28 2:00 AM