? MichaelAusiello: I’m hearing good things about J.J. Abrams’ The Catch from multiple sources, including the show’s leading man, Greg Grunberg. “I’m really proud of it,” he told me via e-mail. “It turned out to be such a fun, great show.

J.J. wrote a killer script, and I kicked ass!” (I swear, the two of us were separated at birth.) There’s also lots of good buzz surrounding the NBC comedy My Name Is Earl, starring Jason Lee. Hey, speaking of Kevin Smith’s go-to guy, here’s a little tidbit free o’ charge: Lee would likely have been the star of Josh Schwartz’s now-dead O.C. spin-off Athens. Actually, forget the free-o’-charge thing. That’s worth at least $2.

Smith, a notorious comic book and ?Star Wars? geek, asked Skywalker to play a temperamental version of himself and somewhat profane variation on Skywalker for his movie ?Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.?

?When I read the script, I laughed and said to my wife, ?There is no way Lucasfilm is going to sanction this movie. This thing is filthy. There are 30 f-words on every page, lesbian sex, pot-smoking. This is just not going to fly.?

?When I called Kevin back I said, ?I?d love to do it, but you?re going to have a problem clearing it with legal.? And he told me he?d already sent the script to Lucasfilm and the only thing they objected to was the color of the light sabers. They wanted the light sabers to be a different color from the ones in the ?Star Wars? movies.

?If that doesn?t give you an idea about what a bunch of nerds they are,? Hamill says, laughing.

Few subjects off-limits for filmmakerPublished in the Asbury Park Press 05/15/05
BY MARK VOGER, STAFF WRITER

For a second there, it looked like Kevin Smith was in real trouble.

The Shore native and filmmaker behind “Clerks” and “Jersey Girl” was on “The Tonight Show” hawking his new book, “Silent Bob Speaks: The Collected Writings of Kevin Smith,” when he launched into a risky bit of banter about how he would have written and directed “The Passion of the Christ.”

As Smith described his fantasy version, in which ninjas swooped down to rescue Jesus, there was nervous laughter from the audience and, worse, a frozen smile on the face of Jay Leno.

Recalls Smith (whose next film will be titled “The Passion of the Clerks”): “That was about the sixth, seventh time I’ve been a panel guest on “The Tonight Show.’ You do this pre-interview process, where you give them an idea of what you want to talk about. So he (Leno) kind of knew I was going to go into “The Passion of the Clerks’ vs. “The Passion of the Christ.’

“But it’s such a conservative period in our country right now that I think for a moment he was just like, “Wow, this could really go badly.’ ”

For a moment, everyone seemed nervous ? that is, except for Smith.

“I had done that story so many times at college gigs and what-not,” he says, “that I knew it would totally work as long as I got to the punchline.”

That punchline had one of the ninjas say of the crucifixion: “Not on my watch!” The result was a roar of audience laughter ? and a relieved Leno.

“So it worked out,” Smith says, “but I think there was a moment where he was kind of like, “Oh, (expletive), this could really go south.’ ”

Smith’s “Passion” bit was tame compared to the contents of “Silent Bob Speaks,” which Smith compiled for Miramax Books at the suggestion of Miramax Films honcho Harvey Weinstein, who has distributed Smith films.

“The contents are a bunch of columns I did for a British magazine called Arena a couple of years back,” Smith says. “After that, I did a column called “Developing the Monkey’ for a movies-comics-TV Web site (www.psycomic.com), basically talking about the casting of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.’ I started doing online (journals) when we were making “Jersey Girl,’ but it didn’t last very long; I just got wrapped up in the picture. The rest were just sundry magazine articles I’ve written over the years, including one for New Jersey Monthly.”

“Silent Bob Speaks” is not for the squeamish. When Smith describes the regrettable side effects of so-called “fat blocker” pills, he spares no unpleasantries. He writes frankly about being diagnosed with morbid obesity; being at the receiving end of a “lap dance”; his disdain for Britney Spears and Reese Witherspoon; his wife posing nude for an oil painting; and, yes, the filmmaking process.

How will screen stud Ben Affleck, a frequent player in Smith’s films, react when he reads about Smith’s “heterosexual crush” on him (along with descriptions of acts that can’t be shared in polite company)?

“He’s seen that before,” Smith says, “so he’s kind of way-familiar with that quote. You know, he’s kind of charmed by it. He realizes that I wouldn’t have a shot in the world with him, even if he was gay and I was gay.”

It begs the question: What is off-limits for Smith?

“Basically, other people’s lives are kind of off-territory for me,” the filmmaker says.

“To me, nothing is out of bounds with the exception of talking about somebody else’s trials and tribulations. Because some of that stuff, I guess, would be private ? that people share with you that really isn’t yours to tell.

“But my stuff? As long as it’s my life, then I’m kind of OK with talking about it. The problem that you run into is that sometimes your life is other people’s life as well, like (Smith’s wife) Jen. But I just don’t know how else to go about it.

“I feel like I could talk about my life and anything that goes on in my life. I’m doing that to an even greater degree at our Web site (www.viewaskew.com) right now than in the book. There’s a section of the Web site called “My Boring-(expletive) Life,’ where I literally do everything that’s happened in my day. That tends to get very detail-oriented.”

For Smith, all of this public confession has yielded a dividend.

Says the filmmaker: “I think I have a much easier time with my own trials or tribulations by expressing them publicly anyway.”

“…They were watching a seven-minute clip assembled from the pilot “My Name Is Earl,” a half-hour comedy starring Jason Lee about a ne’er-do-well who wins a lottery and vows to make amends to everyone he’s ever offended.

Had the producers of the program been there, they would surely have been elated that the three people gathered around an editing console – Kevin Reilly, president of NBC Entertainment; Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, and John D. Miller, chief marketing officer of the television group – were laughing, heartily and continuously.”

CNN

“NBC said Monday that it will introduce six new series in September, including only one comedy: “My Name is Earl,” featuring Jason Lee (”Chasing Amy”) as a downtrodden lottery winner.”

ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH

“…The comedy addition is “My Name Is Earl,” with Jason Lee as a loser who decides to right all his life’s wrongs after winning a fortune in the lottery. Jamie Pressly plays Earl’s wife in the sitcom from Greg Garcia (”Yes, Dear”).”

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER