“I just felt like it was time to get while the getting was good. Over the course of the last four movies, people have really grown to love the characters,” he says. “Sooner or later, there will be backlash, and I would hate to see that happen to a couple of characters that people seem to dearly love at this point. It just felt like it was right to kind of push back from the table before we overate, so to speak.”

Still, it’s hard to say goodbye, and Mr. Smith says he’ll miss the guys.

“Oh, absolutely. I’ll miss writing for Jay’s character. It’s great to write a creature of the id, a creature that has no filter, somebody that just speaks as they think,” he says. “That’s kind of liberating, because you don’t get to do that much in real life. I’ll definitely miss writing for him, but I won’t miss putting on that coat.”

“Just announced for 12/4, DreamWorks will be releasing the long-awaited extended cut of Cameron Crowe’s rock epic Almost Famous. Entitled Almost Famous Untitled: The Bootleg Cut this 3-disc set includes both the new 159-minute cut of the film on disc one, with the original theatrical cut on disc two. Extras on the first disc also include a new audio commentary with Crowe, a Lester Bangs interview on the BBC; the “Stairway To Heaven” deleted scene with commentary; Stillwater’s Cleveland concert excerpt and the original theatrical trailer. Text extras include Cameron Crowe’s top 10 albums of 1973, the Rolling Stone articles as seen on the original release, and the film’s complete screenplay available to DVD-ROM enabled users. The third disc is a CD with six Stillwater songs from the film, some never before released. Retail for this puppy is only $34.95.”