I Stand Corrected: Let me get one thing straight–I am not a fan of Kevin Smith ‘s films. At the end of Clerks, I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. Lesbians do not turn straight, not even for Ben Affleck. Jay and Silent Bob have never, ever been funny to me. But then I’m not from New Jersey. And I don’t read comic books. Dogma? I can’t even find the words. I do, however, think Smith is a great interview–always amusing and honest to a fault.
For those of you who are new to E! Online or haven’t noticed, this is a column, which by definition means I can express my opinion. I am allowed to like or dislike movies. I can also characterize them as “masturbatory” if I choose. But that does not excuse mistakes when it comes to facts, and last week, when I wrote about Smith’s relationship to the current Superman fiasco, my memory failed me.
Although Smith did write two drafts of a Superman movie, he did not intend to cast Nicolas Cage. That lame idea was Tim Burton’s. Also, reported Variety back in August 1996, Smith was not attached to direct. No, his fanboys wanted him to take the reigns–presumably some of the same fans sending, um, friendly emails to me all week. Go figure. Burton, however, was attached for years and even got a pay-or-play payout that could have been as high as $10 million.
Many of Smith’s rabid fans who have access to email and excess free time wrote–make that flamed–to note those errors after reading about it on Smith’s Website–convenient for spreading your own propaganda. I stopped opening emails after the 465th. (That’s not true. He doesn’t have that many fans.) Smith devotees are passionate, I’ll give them that, but they really should lean a bit more on spellcheck. Douche bag is not spelled phonetically.
Still, as any regular reader of this column will tell you, when I’m wrong, I’m happy to say so.
Alright, he admits to being wrong about the Superman casting and directing remarks. But oddly, he didn’t mention the TWO instances when he incorrectly called “Jersey Girl” an “autobiographical” film.
And since we can never tell when this “columnist” is writing sarcastically or just getting more stuff wrong (stuff that’s easily fact-checkable, mind you), let’s address the 465 fans comment: the official View Askew site, www.viewaskew.com, currently has over 70,000 registered users for the message board – a figure that doesn’t even reflect all the “lurkers” (the folks who don’t register but read the board daily). Our site, News Askew, has had over 12 million hits since we opened our doors. “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back” and “Dogma” have both grossed $30 million. The “Evening with Kevin Smith” DVD has sold over 200,000 units since its release (and as anyone who’s seen the DVD or ever been to one of Kevin’s college gigs can tell you, he always plays to sold out crowds). Kevin’s up to around ten or twelve episodes of his “Roadside Attractions” segments on The Tonight Show – which is usually watched by between five and six million people every night. Can’t imagine they’d keep having him back unless his segments were doing well in the ratings.
In short, Kev probably has more than 465 fans. Again, we’re thinking Jones was being sarcastic. But with his track record, you can’t take anything for granted. Like this next, easily check factoid he got wrong (surprise, surprise).
News Askew is our website, not Kevin’s. It’s owned, created, and maintained by us – Brad Pleyvak and Chris Alley. Kevin’s websites are www.viewaskew.com (home of the web board) and www.moviepoopshoot.com (home of far more accurate entertainment reporting than Andy Jones’ column; if you want to read a well-researched and more entertaining movie column, check out Jeff Welles’ Hollywood Elsewhere over at Movie Poop Shoot, by the way). So his assertion that Kev uses News Askew to “spread your own propaganda” is – surprise, surprise – wrong too. If anyone’s guilty of that, it’s us, the guys who own and run the site (an easily fact-checkable item as well, by the way). Give credit where it’s due.
Who knows what Jones’ beef is? Maybe he’s fueled by jealousy? Maybe he read over at the View Askew board that Kev was sitting down with Tom Cruise for a one-on-one interview for the British magazine Arena, and got pissed because, as our journalist friends have told us, the closest Andy gets to real interviews is the round table, press conference style interviews he’s relegated to at junkets. You’ve gotta wonder if entertainment “journalist” Andy Jones has ever gotten to interview someone like Cruise, one on one. I’m sure we could do a quick fact-check over at E! Online to find out, but as Andy Jones has taught us, best to be lazy about reporting and just make assumptions.
Whatever. As long as he keeps writing ‘em, we’ll keep correcting ‘em. And him.
