• Kevin’s “My Boring-Ass Life” blog diary continues to fascinate at the View Askew WWWBoard. Kevin’s updating it regularly, with some precise detail on his day-to-day activities. Folks are finding it interesting and quite revealing (all the way down to the bathroom trips). You need to visit the board to read each entry, but here’s a summary of some of the more newsworthy tidbits that have been shared over the past week:

• Get an email from JJ Abrams, who’s in for my guest-hosting episode of “Dinner for Five.” The final, locked five is JJ, Jason Lee, Stan Lee, Mark Hamill, and me. We shoot on Tuesday.
• When I get home, there’s a situation heating up – a situation which could wind up pushing the “Clerks 2” shoot by a month and change. The producer Jenno Topping (who, aside from being a producer is also the main squeeze of Project Greenlight’s Chris Moore) has sent me a script, not to direct (smart lady), but to act in. It’s this movie Susanah Grant (writer of “Erin Brokovich”) wrote and is directing, called “Catch and Release”, which stars Jennifer Garner and Timothy Olyphant. I’d be playing Sam, who’s in the flick quite a bit. Somehow, off of “Evening With Kevin Smith”, Susanah thinks I’m right for the role, and Jenno’s not doing the smart thing and trying to convince her otherwise. So Jeno and I talk about it, and she says that Phil (Raskind, my agent) insists it can’t happen, because we’re due to shoot “C2” in June. However, that schedule’s not set yet, and we’re talking about pushing maybe a month and a half here (maybe two) to do something I’ve never been offered before: a big part in a big movie.

  I call Phil about it, and we hash it out, and talk about whether it’s even a possibility. By call’s end, I decide I should talk to Harvey about it.

  I call Harvey and tell him about the flick. Harvey says that I should probably read the script (I haven’t, at this point; meant to take it with me to NJ and Ill last weekend, but my carry-on was overpacked already). He says “If it’s gonna make you Tom Cruise, then do it.” I tell him it’s not gonna make me Tom Cruise, but that nothing short of a deal with Lucifer is ever gonna do that anyway. He says “My first instinct is to say you should keep your powder dry, because you’ve got ‘The Passion’ coming up. But if they’re gonna pay you a lot to do it…” I tell him I don’t know what I’d be getting paid, and he says to call him back once I’ve read the script – as that’s the key factor in deciding to make/be in any movie. He also tells me that Fox Searchlight might be coming in with New Co. on “Clerks 2” and handling the foreign side. Since Searchlight’s had such a killer few years lately, and since both Harvey and Searchlight previously worked together on (and did so well with their respective releases of) “Garden State”, this is awesome news.

• Two interesting emails: one from Richard Kelly, letting me know that all systems are go on “Southland Tales” and that I’ll be needed for two days in August.
• I pop into the editing room to see what Mosier’s been doing with the “Mallrats” re-cut. We’ve decided that, instead of calling this “The Director’s Cut” that we should call it “The Cut That Should Never Have Been” – as longer doesn’t mean better (certainly in the case of “Rats”).

Other notes from this week’s diary: Mosier has informed Kevin that they’ve got cash coming for Clerks 2 from the new studio. Stash East will be getting some light refurbishment. Kevin and Scott are still working on the Mallrats recut for the X DVD. Kevin may also be joining the Director’s Guild, as they’ve asked him to become a member.

That’s about it for the newsworthy stuff from Kev’s weeklong wrapup. You can read every last detail at the View Askew site.