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September 12th @ 6:44 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Well, the deadline’s past, and now all there is for those that entered to attend Stash Bash 2 is the waiting. We’ve currently got no idea how many are being let in, or what the process is going to be, but we’ll certainly let you know if we hear any hints of what’s going down. Ming and the gang hope to have perused all the entries by the 17th, at which point the winners will be announced. Until then, enjoy a few newsbites today, and have yourselves a wonderful weekend.
    And on a final note, grab a bunch of your friends and go see CABIN FEVER this weekend! Support R-rated old school horror flicks! See it with a nice big audience, and you’ll have a blast. The film is just a lot of fun, and we’re hoping for it to take in a lot of cash this weekend, ensuring that Lions Gate and other studios might support more like it. See it!

View Askew NewsBites™

September 12th @ 6:43 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Nick O'Shea, Gavin Fisher, Douglas Fir


  • Clerks’ “Veronica”, Marilyn Ghigliotti, now has an official site up, www.marilynghigliotti.com. Surf over for her latest head shots, projects, and appearance information. For anyone in the area of Lake Arrowhead in California, Marilyn will be appearing at the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival which happens on September 26th and 27th. We’re sure she’d love to meet and chat with fans, and sign any of your Clerks stuff. And by the way, thanks for the link, Marilyn!
  • This article from UK magazine GAMEStm discusses the appearance of Sega Hockey in Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Click the pic to check out the piece.
  • And finally today, it looks like Mallrats has joined the ranks of John Hughes movies, according to this latest re-release ad from Universal DVDs. Have a good one!

Deadline For Stash Bash 2 Entries: TONIGHT!

September 11th @ 9:16 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • If you haven’t written your essays yet on why YOU wanna attend Stash Bash 2…Well, you’ve only got a FEW HOURS LEFT! The deadline for entries is 12:01 AM tonight. Winners will be notified by the 17th, and the event is scheduled for the 28th. In case you missed out on this announcement, visit the Stash Bash 2 page for more information. Good luck to all who entered — We’ll see you on the inside.

NJ Roadside Attractions: September 26th!

September 11th @ 9:16 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Confirmed! The New Jersey edition of “Roadside Attractions” will be airing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday, September 26th (yep, just two days before Stash Bash 2). Kevin will be there live to introduce the segment, which features a section in which many readers will appear when Kev visits Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. It’s possible that some clips from “Clerks” will be shown in some capacity as well. Tune it in on Friday night, the 26th!

View Askew NewsBites™

September 11th @ 9:16 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Ryan Kern, John Sagredo, Brian Kulcsar

  • Chris Ryall’s “One Hand Clapping” column at the ‘Shoot has added some new shots of Kevin on stage.
  • Poor Affleck and Lopez are yet again the subjects of ridicule, this time on “Page 2” over at the ESPN.COM site. But hey, at least Jersey Girl gets some plugs.

View Askew NewsBites™

September 10th @ 1:38 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Shana, Lynno, Phil Coley, Maul, Brian Ambrosi

  • Apparently, Kevin stated during Friday’s Mallrats Q&A that the reason the MPAA cited for giving “Jersey Girl” an R rating was the use of the word “masturbation”. This is currently under appeal for a PG-13.
  • Dennis Miller Live reruns the Ben Affleck interview tonight on HBO Comedy. You may recall that Kevin calls in under disguise during the episode. Check your local listings for airtime.
  • Mallrats will be shown on the big screen at GKC University Cinemas in Normal, Illinois on October 10th and 11th, as part of their “rerun”series.
  • Eion Bailey from “A Better Place” was recently featured as a choice on the IMDB poll asking which young actor that readers would like to play “Batman” in the next film. Bailey was rumored a candidate on a short list of 4 or 5 possibilities.
  • And finally today, in humorous news — Someone over at eBay is selling Kevin Smith’s butt. Don’t believe us? See for yourselves. Happy bidding. We’ll catch ya next time!

Friday Night’s Mallrats Q&A With Kev!

September 7th @ 10:03 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Chris Ryall

  • Friday night’s midnight MALLRATS screening at the Nuart theater was the first-ever sellout for a midnight show at the place in the two-plus years they’ve been doing them, and the crowd was fully into it. MPS webmaster Chris Ryall reports that “folks were going ‘Rocky Horror’ and yelling out lines (mostly Brodie’s). Most of the attendees had heard about it on the web, so we’re glad that so many of you came out. A few interesting facts: They had one of the only existing prints of the movie–some fan in Texas sent it to them for this special screening.
    As for Kevin, he introduced the film — said it was his first time watching it since the premiere in 95 — and then, when it ended at 2:00 AM, he did a Q&A that lasted until 4:30 AM, and THEN signed for everyone! Now that’s dedication. Whoa. Hopefully the guy took a nap beforehand.
    The indoor pics we got are pretty dark, but click above for some shots of the crowd outside. Chris Ryall’s “One Hand Clapping” column will discuss the event over at the ‘Shoot tomorrow.
    With the great success, the chance of the Nuart holding future View Askew midnight screenings is very good. We’ll keep ya posted.

News Askew Retro: Empire, November 1995

September 7th @ 9:13 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Kath

  • News Askew Retro returns this week with an Empire Magazine article from back in November of 1995. Kevin had just broke into the scene turning heads with the big success of Clerks at Sundance. There’s a quick chat with Kev and a one page article, and also a nice four star review of “Clerks” there for ya. Enjoy.

View Askew NewsBites™

September 7th @ 9:13 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Starman Matt

  • Here’s another mini-retro for ya, as we missed this when it ran in Variety last month. They’re currently running ads as part of the “Trendsetters Campaign”, and Kevin was featured in this one. Click above for a nice, clear look.
  • Kevin’s featured in a strange, fictional conversation between comic creators in a peice over at 411 Mania.

Andy Jones Strikes Back…

September 5th @ 9:24 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

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.