• That’s right folks, it’s the time you’ve been waiting for!!! The extras casting call for Jersey Girl has arrived! And because you’re a loyal fan who reads this website, we want YOU to have a shot at seeing your mug in the flick. Here’s the full details on this exciting opportunity:

Get those letters in the mail NOW, folks — We wanna see a TON Of News Askew readers in “Jersey Girl”. We’ve done this a couple of times ourselves, and the experience is always a blast. Good luck to you all.

• We’re in the process of checking out the test pressing DVD of Vulgar — It’s got a nice chunk of 12 deleted scenes on here, and the best transfer of the film we’ve ever seen. One thing to beware — We do have the RATED version (the unrated should be arriving tomorrow) and this one does NOT have the commentary track available (likely because there’d be gaps where the cut stuff was). So, if for some silly reason you were gonna buy the RATED version of the disc, DON’T! You’ll miss out. “Judge Not” is in place, you’ll be happy to hear, and the Dogma doc never looked better. Get those preorders in for VULGAR now at the Stash, and watch for a full review right here very soon.

• This site features a new photo of Kevin visting the Banana Museum in Washington state. We assume this had to take place for one of his recent Roadside Attractions bits for Leno.
• An Australian release of Spiderman on DVD will also include a packaged version of Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters & Marvels (which Kev appears in throughout). It’s a 4-disc gift set, though, so be prepared to pay a hefty price!
• More Linda Fiorentino news, seems that she truly is a tough person to work with. We’d been reading that she opted out of Men In Black II, now Variety reports this news – They didn’t WANT her back!

• The debut feature from director Jeff Anderson, “Now You Know”, has been accepted to its first major film festival — The San Diego Int’l Film Festival (www.sdff.org) screened over 500 films and selected 24 features for the festival (and another 30 or so film shorts), and we’re happy to report that one of the selected was NYK. The majority of screenings will be held at the Pacific Gaslamp 15 Theater, in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego from September 18-22nd. NYK will screen on Friday the 20th of September at 8:00pm. Jeff Anderson will be there as well as several other cast members from the film. Celebrities, filmmakers and festival guests will be staying at the Westgate Hotel, but there are tons of reasonable hotels throughout that area.

The festival has an expected attendance of more than 15,000, so it should be quite an event. There will be several parties every night, and they’d love to see plenty of View Askew fans in attendance. Mark your calendars! We’ll have more info on this as the event gets closer.

• DVD Review has a ballot on their site for the 5th Annual DVD Awards. The “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” DVD is one of the nominees in the “Viewer’s Choice” category. Let’s help Jay & Bob win! You can cast your votes at their website ballot.

• Here’s a scan of that recent Jason Lee appearance in “Jane” magazine — Just a few more candid questions with the guy. We mentioned the piece but this is the first we’ve had a scan. Click above for a nice, readable version of the page.
• Scifi.com also has a piece with Lee where he discusses his role in the upcoming “Dreamcatcher” (watch for some minor spoilers though):

• Check out a fan-made Dogma trailer (created mostly from DVD extra scene material) online HERE.
• DVD File reports that Affleck’s “Sum of All Fears” hits DVD this Fall, October 29th to be exact:

• Speaking of Affleck, seems some Jewish gentlemen had a problem with Affleck’s “Changing Lanes” during a recent flight for some reason. Check out the story HERE.
• Matt Damon will play himself on an episode of “The Bernie Mack Show” next season (FOX). Damon is finishing up his 3 days on the set of the show today.
• And finally today, Neo Monster Island features a small Jay & Bob quote/reference today. Catch ya next time, folks.

• We’d like to thank all of you who are participating and cooperating with the rules of the Jersey Girl walk-on role contest. Hits have picked up slightly due to the contest but this was expected. We have recorded only a few offensive visitors, and don’t worry, so long as you are not EXCESSIVELY hitting the site, we aren’t going to tag you. A few reloads here and there will not hurt your chances, we’re just watching for the worst offenders. Remember, read the official rules of the contest and good luck to all of you. We’ll likely have a winner by week’s end. Thanks for your continued support!

• Dark Horizons and Yahoo Movies both report today that Jason Lee will appear in a small role in “Jersey Girl”. While Jay & Silent Bob may not be returning, it sure will be great to see another familiar face in the mix. Lee revealed in San Diego last week that he’s got a one day shoot on the film, but likely won’t even know the nature of his character or have the script until he arrives on set. If his role turns out to be something spoiler-ish, we likely won’t be sharing all of the details here (gotta leave SOME surprises, ya know). Thanks to all who mailed in about this, the scoopers are too numerous to even begin to list.

• Marilyn Ghigliotti dropped us a line with some really cool news — She’ll be participating in a Charity Celebrity Softball Game this Sunday, August 11th. Tickets will be $10 and can be purchased at the game. Find out all the information at the Showbiz World Series website. Marilyn would love for View Askew fans to come by and enjoy the game.
• A fan listing/registry for Kevin has been started up HERE. You may wanna check it out. That’s it for today, folks.

• There’s been a lot of speculation out there as we approach our 10 MILLIONTH visit here at News Askew — What are we going to do to celebrate that milestone? Well, thanks to Kevin Smith, we’re happy to report that we’ve got quite a spiffy little prize for the fan that hits that lucky number — How’s this for a prize?

A featured walk-on role in “Jersey Girl”!

Yep. You read it right.

Now, here’s the one catch — Transportation and lodging WILL be up to you, as this prize is being offered directly from Mr. Kevin Smith himself, and not affiliated with Miramax or related companies. So, if you are the winner, YOU are responsible for getting to the set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (or surrounding area) when the time comes. We’ll do the best we can to get you as much notice as possible on the date, etc. in case you need to make travel arrangements.

For this contest, we’re going to need to list some official rules and disclaimers, as this is a BIG PRIZE. We waited to unveil this contest until now because we’d like the devoted News Askew readers to have a crack at it. So, we suggest that you keep this one amongst yourselves, and play fairly. If this contest does well, you can expect more of the same to come along in the future. So, in other words, let’s all work together, and we’ll have a lot more prize-type stuff to give away in the future. Check out the rules, read them ALL:

• OFFICIAL RULES:
• How to Win: See that counter at the top of the page? The person who hits 10 MILLION is the prize winner. If you are the lucky visitor, send us a screenshot (see below) and you are the GRAND PRIZE WINNER.
• Counter Manipulation: Yes, we ARE tracking this. Running up the counter is UNACCEPTABLE! This consists of an individual sitting in front of their PC and continuously pressing the REFRESH/RELOAD button on the front page of News Askew. From this point on, this information will be logged. If we look back in the logs, and see that you have been driving up the counter with the refresh button, you WILL be disqualified. If this rule is not followed, we reserve the right to end this contest immediately. This procedure starts NOW.

  ONE consecutive hit is allowed on either end of the 10 million mark. In other words, if you have the hit just before or just after 10 million, as well as the winning entry, that is still a valid entry. No more than two consecutivehits are allowed from the winning entry at that point.

• Prize Awarding: The winner of the walk-on role will be the individual that successfully hits number TEN MILLION (10,000,000) at News Askew.com. A screenshot is REQUIRED to claim your prize. So, if you don’t know how to take a screenshot, it’s a good time to learn. All computers offer screenshot methods, we know for a fact a screenshot on a PC is as easy as hitting the “PRINT SCREEN” key and then pasting into a Microsoft Word document or otherwise. Get some practice.

  There is ONE (1) “Grand Prize Winner” for this contest. No further prizes are offered at this time. If you do not accept the prize for any reason, News Askew reserves the right to fall back on a “runner-up” and offer the prize to them. In other words, if you come close, take a screenshot anyway, you might still be the winner.

• Screenshots & Disqualification: We have methods in place to detect genuine screenshots. If you attempt to send in a forged screnshot, you will be disqualified from this and any future News Askew or View Askew contest offerings. In other words, don’t be stupid — If you don’t win, just accept it.

  DISCLAIMERS:

  News Askew and View Askew shall have the right, at their sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the sweepstakes at any time without notice. Please note that by submitting a screenshot that you are also submitting your name as an entrant to this contest. You will be agreeing to abide by the official rules and regulations as stated here. You further agree that all information can and will be published on the close of the contest, including the name you provided. Addresses, phone numbers, and emails will not be published without the further consent of the entrants.

  There are also no guarantees with this prize, as the producers of “Jersey Girl” reserve the right to make changes to or relinquish this offering at any time during production. In other words, no promises! If you are filmed for the movie, your part may or make not make the final cut (though, as we know, the last contest winner did earn his very own “Deleted Scene” chapter on the Jay and Bob disc, quite a feat in itself).

These rules will be viewable by clicking the special graphic at the top of News Askew at any time in case you need to refresh your memory. If you have any questions regarding this contest, ask them here in the TALKBACK AREA, we will address them as quickly as possible.

Good luck to all of you. Thanks to Kevin Smith for this excellent prize and thanks to you, the fans, for helping News Askew reach our 10 million mark. Best of luck to you all!

• A Philadelphia Inquirer article today discusses the popularity of Philadelphia for film shoots lately. With M. Night Shyamalan shooting all his stuff in the area, and “Jersey Girl” starting up soon, the city’s got a lot of Hollywood type activity going on. The piece reveals that JG may need up to 3,000 extras (could be YOU!) and discusses why Philly got chosen over Toronto. Here’s a few tidbits:

• A feature film can have 45 speaking roles and more than a thousand extras. Unbreakable used 6,000 extras; Jersey Girl’s people have indicated they may need 3,000.
• Jersey Girl’s $35 million budget is deceptive because nearly half goes to pay Lopez and Affleck. But the film will spend up to $15 million on hotels, cars, food, building materials, fuel, phones and other requisites.
• Kevin Smith, the director of Jersey Girl, faced a similar dilemma. “Miramax was pushing ‘Toronto, Toronto, Toronto, where you can get 50 cents on the U.S. dollar,’ ” he said. “What pushed Philadelphia over the top for us was the proximity to New Jersey, the experienced crew base, and the film office, which sweetened the deal with incentives like helping us outfit a soundstage.”

Read it all right HERE!