• Howdy, folks! Had a fine day today at the wonderful Wizard World East convention. Even got us some nice early admission with our spiffy News Askew Press passes (thanks Jim!) and some nice new View Askew swag (thanks Ming!). Check above for a shot (pun VERY intended) of the Dogma barware that was also surprisingly for sale there today (more to come) as well as a new OPEN/CLOSED sign that any View Askew fan will love (we predict they’ll start showing up on comic shop doors everywhere). Looked like they also had an Askew t-shirt made up to celebrate the convention this year.

It was a packed crowd today, with by far the biggest turnout for Kevin, but also a never-ending line for surprise guest Brian O’Halloran, who we stopped to say hello to (I thanked him for getting me drunk in New York last month). He was very generously signing everyone’s exclusive B&W Dante figure, and pretty much anything else they put in front of him…Taking a lot of photos as well. Brian’s got some more appearances that he’ll be filling us in on soon, so watch for that.
Of course there were some other folks drawing a crowd as well: Alex Ross had a HUGE turnout and some beautiful but very pricey artwork for sale — Smallville’s Allison Mack also had quite a crowd but seemed genuinely happy to be meeting with the fans (pretty good show, that Smallville).
Kevin signed yesterday, and appeared for his Q&A at 3:30 in the largest room in the place. The lineup outside was MASSIVE. Now, of course we always learn a few things when Kevin gets in front of an audience. Today’s Q&A ran 2 hours and we did manage to gather a few tidbits of interest for ya:

• Kevin acknowledged that Jersey Girl has indeed been pushed back to 2004, but not as far as we’d thought yesterday. This was mostly due to the holiday competition, namely, Matrix: Revolutions. The film is now currently slated for a release here in FEBRUARY 2004, which should be just perfect.
• He never got around to his rewrites for Scary Movie 3, the film will open this summer but Kevin never touched it.
• The Clerks Animated Movie is still very much on the schedule of projects and still in the front line.
• Also on the front line: Fletch Won, which may very well be the next film, IF Kevin can talk Miramax into using Jason Lee in the lead role.
• The Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD is still in the works, and should be released in October 2004 (just in time for the anniversary iteself).

Kevin also brought two scenes from Jersey Girl to show the audience, very funny scenes from the film which got a HUGE reaction of laughter and applause from the audience (much of it drowning out the lines following the jokes). First up was a clip featuring Ollie (Ben) & Gertie (Jen) getting ready to attend the MTV Video Awards (which has one of the funniest and most Kev-like lines in the film), the second featured Affleck, Rachel, and a playmate of hers in an awkward but hilarious situation. Again, this one’s a highlight from the film, and one that’s best seen, not described. Those of you who’ve seen the film already will know what we’re referring to.
That’s about all we got for now, it was nice meeting some of you at the show — Maybe next time we’ll spend some more time behind the counter at the incredibly busy View Askew booth so we can meet more of you fine folks.

• Being the home of the View Askew Drinking Games that we created and that started what was this site right around this time back in 1997, we’ve been given the honor of announcing a new item soon to be available at the Stash: View Askew shot glasses! That’s right, now you can play the drinking games with the official drinkware of News Askew. All 5 of Kevin’s films will eventually be available in shot glass form, but first up is “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”, which will be available for sale first at Wizard World in Philly THIS WEEKEND! Yep, before you can even buy ‘em at the Stash. So if you’re coming to Philly, make sure you stop at the View Askew booth, so you can be among the first to own one of these beauties. Watch for more promotions and tie-ins with the drinking games and the shot glasses soon.

• They’ll only be available to ya at the Wizardworld show in Philly this weekend, so you know you better start making some east coast friends soon if you don’t have ‘em already — Here’s your first look at the exclusive Black and White Dante and Randal — They’re even colorless down to the packaging, very clever indeed. Don’t walk into the con without an extra $20 to buy ‘em. Just make sure you save us a couple of sets, don’t buy them all up on us!

• Just to set a rumor straight, apparently the Hollywood Stock Exchange website is listing Jersey Girl as having a June 30, 2004 release date. Rest assured that no new release date has been officially set, and that as far as we know, the Fall release is still in the cards. However, the studio has been relatively quiet about when this film will indeed debut, so don’t be surprised to see some release date shuffling on the film. No idea where HSX got that from. We just doubt it’ll be bumped back THAT far, if at all.
• Kevin will appear in an upcoming Comic Book Superheroes special on The History Channel on Monday, June 23 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).
  Here’s details:

• Jay & Bob appear in the latest edition of the Mall Monkeys web comic.

• Amazon.com is giving away a framed, autographed “Evening With Kevin Smith” poster! Get over there and get your entries in! Doesn’t even look like there’s an obligation, just a name, email, and zip code.

• Want to be one of 500 that owns a Brodie Statue? Diamond distributors have the pre-order details (we assume the Stash will soon follow suit, we’ll keep you posted):

• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is to get its UK TV Debut On Sky Movie Max, Thursday, June 12th at 10pm. The film is listed as one of Sky’s “Things to Watch This Summer” in their magazine.
• Another one for UK readers: This site is offering a contest where you can win tickets to screen Jason Lee’s “A Guy Thing”.
• This week’s episode of UPN reality show “America’s Next Top Model” featured a contestant who kept quoting Jay & Bob Strike Back lines, until another one of the girls complained that she needed to stop. We can only hope the quotatious girl kicked her ass.
• The Australian version of the Daredevil DVD streets there 3 weeks earlier than it does here for some reason — So if you have a spiffy region-free PAL player, and really can’t wait, you may wanna order there.
• According to this “Geek” test, Clerks is one of the films that makes you so.
• A rare interview with Walt Flanagan is available from the Town Times, a local newspaper whose reporter traveled to Red Bank to interview the owner of one of the fastest dogs known to cinema.
• Finally today, maybe the most obscure scoop ever — A scooper caught a very small sighting in the latest Sum 41 video – It’s done with all action figures, and in it, an action figure of the rapper Ludacris comes in holding the bong from the Jay & Silent Bob talking action figures. Get those pause buttons ready. Buh-bye!

• Howdy folks! Hope you all had a lovely Memorial Day weekend (those of you stateside, anyway…) — There’s nothing like a nice 3-day weekend to make you not want to go back to work ever again! It’s easy to get used to this not working type of stuff. But tomorrow it’s back to the day job. Things have also been quiet here at News Askew, though we have gathered up a few tidbits for ya, and of course, what many of you have been waiting for, some information on Kevin’s schedule for WizardWorld this weekend. You’ll find that straight away, just below. Look forward to seeing some of you there! Alright then, let’s get rollin’…

• The complete Wizard World East schedule is now available, and has been posted at the Wizard Universe website. Here’s what can be quickly gleaned:

Wizard also suggests that you inquire at the View Askew/Graphitti Designs booth for info on further signings and appearances. See ya there!

• We were just sent a link for the website of “The Philistine”, as the gang behind the book appear in the closing comic con scene of Chasing Amy. Check their site out HERE.
• We missed one more Dogma / Bruce Almighty mention last week — Time Magazine has a mention of Alanis as God in Dogma (along with other people who’ve played God on Film, including George Burns, Ralph Richardson, Val Kilmer, and Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty). Here’s the text:

Bruce, by the way, KICKED BUTT in the 4-day weekend, something like 80 million bucks. Not bad at all.

• Marilyn Ghigliotti (of “Clerks” fame, of course) will appear for a phone interview on a Seattle Channel 77 public access program. Catch her tomorrow (May 27th) at 9 PM, local Seattle time.
  Jason Lee is being considered for a role in “West Memphis Three,” a feature based on the Arkansas murder case that inspired Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s 1996 documentary “Paradise Lost.” The film will star Michael Pitt (”Murder by Numbers”) and Jacob Reynolds (”Gummo”).

• The upcoming release of “Bruce Almighty” has many news outlets running pieces on God in film. Naturally, Dogma’s coming up in a bunch of them. This first blurb comes from an AP article that appeared on CNN and Yahoo today (the CNN version also features a photo of Alanis with a Dogma-related caption):

Also see the Christian Science Monitor for a small mention. Most other sites are just picking up the same AP article we ran the text from above.

• Miramax Films swiftly completed its international sales goals this Cannes market, closing a slew of deals on a host of titles, including Jersey Girl, which is due for an international release sometime in 2004. Read the story HERE.
• Michael’s Review of the Week at Movie Poop Shoot is for the new Marvel Select Black Cat figure. She’s sculpted based on the storyline in KS’s “The Evil That Men Do” and one of her accessories is actually some sheets of paper adorned with the name “Kevin Smith”.
• Thanks to Zentertainment for the recent plug in their newsletter discussing the Mallrats figure voting. ZEN’s gone subscription now, but is still the best e-mail newsletter we’ve ever seen and does an outstanding job at summarizing the daily entertainment news in one easy to read digest.
• Episode #78 of Texas online radio show “Fanboy Radio” features an inteview with Joe Quesada of Marvel Comics, where he spends a good eight minutes talking about Kevin and what he has contributed to comic book industry as a whole, as well as his deleted “make out” scene in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The whole show is quite informative and a lot of fun. You can listen to the entire broadcast right HERE.
• And finally today, here’s a Hollywood Reporter story about “Comic Book: The Movie” in which Kevin is rumored to have a
  show-stealing cameo: