• The UK Askew website has been discontinued after 5 months of operation by the webmaster. If any UK based readers are interested, the URL (which includes @ukaskew.co.uk email addresses) is available free to anyone who wishes to have a bash at a UK VA site. He can be contacted at chris@ukaskew.co.uk.
• Don’t forget, Dogma premieres on Comedy Central today and they’ll likely run the heck outta it for the rest of the summer. If you want to check out the TV-edit, be sure to tune in.
• Translations of those other Spanish titles of View Askew films prove pretty intersting: “Clerks – “Behind the Register”, Chasing Amy – “My Wrong Partner” and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was called simply “Jay and Silent Bob”.
• Another slight reference Askew in the second frame of the July 4th edition of Movie Comics has been spotted.
• That does it for the weekend, slow goings as most here were on holiday time — Hope everyone had a good weekend! We’ll see you back here soon with more news.

• Vincent Pereira has reavealed, via the WWWBoard, that an Oscar-winning cinematographer will be the director of photography on JERSEY GIRL. This is big news, as most of us expected that Jay & Silent Bob DP Jamie Anderson would be back. No word on who it is, but looking at some of the more recent winners, perhaps it’ll be John Toll, or John Seale who worked on Miramax’s “The English Patient”, or even Conrad Hall who did “American Beauty” and the recent “Road to Perdition” with director Sam Mendes? We’re sure that an official announcement can’t be far off…

• A duo that appear in the just-released Powerpuff Girls movie is reminding some folks of Jay & Silent Bob – One long haired, chatty fellow and a shorter guy with dark hair that never speaks. Sound familiar? Check out the flick for yourself.
• The latest issue of SPIN magazine (the August Issue) contains a little blurb from Kevin, where he mentioned that about 10 thesis papers are written about him each year — One in particular was brought up, where a student discussed the “two Kevin Smiths” — One that appeals to the critics/studios, and the other that appeals to fans.
• The Comics review section over at AICN recently posted reviews of Green Arrow #14 and Spiderman/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do #1. A quick snippet:

• Finally today, a guy who runs a small Kevin Smith fan site in Mexico sent us the translations of the other Kev flicks released there:

• A flash version of Kevin’s Spidey and Black Cat crossover is up at Marvel’s website. It’s pretty cool, and allows you to actually click your way through the panels of issue #1! If you haven’t seen preview enough, now’s your chance to check out the book for yourself. Enjoy.

• Pop Culture Shock is running video clips of a recent Q&A with Kevin (the one at the Los Angeles Writer’s Guild). The clips are kinda tough to hear, as the mic is in the audience for some reason, not up with Kevin, but you can do your best to tune in to watch the famous Jon Peters Superman story (so please STOP asking to hear it at every damn Q&A people!), some bits of Jersey Girl info, and more. You do hafta register with their site to check them out, but it’s a minor thing to check ‘em out.

• Here’s a scan (best quality we’ve got) of an article that appeared in the New Jersey section of the New York times on June 23rd. As you can see, there’s a couple nice new pieces on what Kevin’s been up to lately. These articles might be on the Times website and much easier to read, but it’s always cool to see Kevin getting this much press in a big paper such as the Times!
• Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez will be on “Live With Regis and Kelly” this Friday. It’s certainly to promote “Gigli”, but perhaps there will be a “Jersey Girl” mention?
• Chasing Amy made Adult Video News’ “Ten Mainstream Movies That Make Great Non-Porn Viewing”.
• The Powerpuff Girls Movie is going up against MIB 2 this weekend and trust us, MIB 2 ain’t that good. James L. Venable (who scored Jay and Silent Bob as well as Clerks the Cartoon) did all the music for the film (minus a few songsduring the end credits). Not to mention, there’s also a new Dexter’s Laboratory short before the film! So go and see it, it’s fun for the whole family!
• Miramax’s video.com website is currently running a poll : “What is your favorite romantic comedy?” Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back is one of your 5 choices.
• Enjoy the 4th of July, folks — We realize that it’s a U.S. only holiday but it’s also a great time to reflect on the freedoms and independence we enjoy around the world.

• This should be a very cool show — Dinner For Five, the show where Jon Favreau sits down with 4 guests to discuss whatever comes to mind, is premiering its second season with an episode featuring Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, and their DareDevil costars Colin Farrell and Jennifer Garner:

The new episodes are being produced this summer. We’ll let ya know as soon as a date for the premiere is announced! Thanks to indieWire, Countingdown and Comics Continuum for the story!

• The latest Arena transcript is now online in text format, for the graphically-challenged of you out there.

• Kevin, Affleck, Damon, and lots of others show up on this chart of Hollywood relationships and friendships that appeared in Empire Magazine. Click above for a better look.

• Amazon reports that the Comic Book Confidential DVD, which is to have a new intro from Kevin, will be released on the 23rd of July — Sooner than we expected! Check above for a cover scan. We hear it’s a true classic, and a great little documentary for comic book fans old and new.
• That BBC documentary with some Kevin stuff is now online for your listening pleasure right HERE.
• View Askew t-shirts were spotted at “Hot Topic” stores in some areas. If you’re looking for something along those lines, you might want to stop in at your local mall.
• This article’s a good read, especially for those of you who attend a college or university that you’d like Kevin to come speak at. It concerns students rallying together to try and raise enough cash to get the man to fly in for one of his famous Q&A’s.
• Madblast ran a small article on the Daredevil flick, which features a couple quotes from Kevin as well as Affleck.
• Finally today, a fun fact — A Mallrats on the region 4 DVD was spotted in Mexico, with the name “Jovenes Modernos”. Roughly translated: “Modern Youngsters”.

• Kevin’s back with the first of another two-parter, this time checking in with some shocking Hollywood rumors, as well as detailing his decision to pack up the family and leave the east coast for the warmer, sunnier, west coast of California. You can click on the scans above to check out each page of the column on your monitor. This column appears monthly in the UK’s “Arena” magazine, in case you’re looking to snag yourself a hard copy.

As always, you can find the entire array of “Arena” right here at News Askew, in our Arena Archives. We’ve got full scanned versions as well as easy-to-read text translations for ya (for most of the months, anyway). Enjoy!

• At the Fletch Won page, Kevin was quoted with a few answers to the status of Fletch Won becoming a movie. Most of it’s been said before, but it’s interesting to see him say that they most certainly NEED Chevy on board:

• We’ll start off today’s newsbites with a couple from the latest “Previews” catalog. First, on page 224, there’s a listing for “Monkey Man: Unleashed” #1 (of 3), by Brian Lynch & D. J. Coffman, published by “Angry Naked Comics.” Sounds like you can expect Lynch’s comic to be in shops nationwide around August/September. But comics retailers order VERY conservatively these days, so if you want the comic, let your local retailer know! Make sure they get some in for ya. Retailers will be placing their orders with Diamond no later than July 13.
• Also, on page 498: Ron Mann’s 1988 documentary “Comic Book Confidential” is being released on DVD — “with an introduction by director Kevin Smith”! This is the first we’ve heard of this — if we find out more, we’ll let ya know.
• Finally today, Movie Poop Shoot is featured in Yahoo’s Picks this week! They say, and we quote:

Amen to that! If you haven’t gotten over there yet, stop on by, and see what you’re missing! Catch you next time.