• Kevin informs us that Episode 5 of “Sucks Less with Kevin Smith” is now available in the usual places, the most popular being mtvU.com. There, you can see Episode 5 of the Kevin-hosted, UCLA student-filmed and edited program of fun and odd stuff college kids can do on their weekends. After this week, just one more episode before the semester (and first season) end! By Kevin’s wording, we’re assuming this course/program will return to us in the Spring, with a new crop of young filmmakers getting their feet wet. Fantastic news, as Sucks Less continues to being a fun few minutes to look forward to every week. It’ll certainly be missed over the holiday break.

This week’s episode takes us into the Sucks Less mail bag with Kevin, along with segments on a late night bike riding tradition in LA (and across the country) called the “Midnight Riders”, getting your first tattoo, and last, but certainly not least, how to train your kitty to use your toilet as a litterbox.

And hey, best of all, all 3 segments were journaled by chicks this week. Boo-yah. Enjoy it at the official Sucks Less website!

• Big news for HD-DVD fans — Davis DVD reports that the Clerks II HD-DVD edition, due January 16, 2007, will be a TWO DISC SET. This means that you won’t lose out on any of the special features in purchasing this over the regular definition edition. This isn’t official yet, and we’re unsure if EVERY extra is on there, but we’re assuming that will be the case, judging by the box art. See the box over in their cover art gallery.
• A couple of Clerks references show up in this article on the recent play of the Phoenix Suns basketball team.

• Our scooper Andrew has designed a beautiful new accessory for those of you (like us) who just love having all of our View Askew inaction figures out on a shelf in their full display, out-of-package glory. He’s built a SCALE MODEL backdrop of the famous block of stores in Leonardo, and included a vectorized PDF file that should allow you to print it with any format of software or printer (be creative or take it to a print shop, even!). When printed out in full scale, it measures 39 inches wide, and 15 inches high! We’re anxious to make copies and give it a try.

Grab a local copy HERE or also visit our awesome Files Askew area for our always-expanding library of goodies for you PC.

• More US exclusive scannage for you today, by way of the UK publication “Giant” magazine. In this clipping, Kevin discusses “Evening Harder” and the horror flick he’s penning. Click the thumbnail and say “super size-me”!
• Our pal Albert Ortega informs us that his gallery from the big DVD signing event at the Stash last week is now up for wireImage subscribers. We’ll have some free full resolution shots from that gallery available exclusively here at News Askew for you soon!

• Movieweb has set up their “Catch and Release” page, which includes a nice high resolution photo of the cast in a scene from the film. Left to Right are Timothy Olyphant, Jennifer Garner, Sam Jaeger, Juliette Lewis and, of course, Kevin Smith.
• There’s a lot of these around, and this sounds familiar — But in case it’s new, check it out — This 10 question quiz/survey will help answer “What Kevin Smith Movie Am I?”.
• You can catch “Jersey Girl’s” Raquel Castro in this video for the Ludacris song “Runaway Love”. The video comes to us courtesy of AOL.
• Much like the other UK counterpart we ran last update, the Empire Awards are now taking online ballots for their 2007 Film Awards as well. You may wanna stop by and put some love in for Clerks II in the film and comedy categories, and throw Kevin in the Best Director slot!

• Be sure and pay a visit to Kevin’s Myspace blog for the latest two brief entries! First up, Kevin links to a fun YouTube video taken in Iraq , of all places, which reminds one of the pivotal sequence in Clerks II.

In the second post, Kevin announces his cool, newly pimped-out Myspace layout page! We’ll keep you posted on Kevin’s latest blogging here, but as always you can find various tidbits from him at Myspace, the original Boring-Ass blog, and the View Askew WWWBoards.

• We’re getting a smattering of emails from folks reporting in Easter Eggs from the new “Evening Harder” disc. We did run a full listing of all these eggs earlier in November, but in case you missed it, here’s a refresher:

• One scooper reports seeing the Kevin-filled “Catch and Release” trailer before a sneak preview of “The Holiday”. Release date is getting closer, folks! Those of us at Vulgarthon can attest to Kevin’s rule over this film, the rest of you will love it when you see it early next year. Plan to take your girlfriend or boyfriend (or spouse) along!
• We’re hearing that G4 again featured View Askew on their “Attack of the Show” program, this time on Friday with a segment from Stash Westwood on the signing event. If anyone has a capture for us, we’d love to add it to the archives, so drop us a line.
• Hey UK fans — Did you really like Clerks II? The BBC film 2006 website is running its “Film of the Year” awards, and asking for fans to vote in their choices. Have your say via their simple online ballot.
• And on a final pleasant note today, the folks running the Hero event on Saturday tell us Kevin brought down the house, and that it was a great success. They’ve received dozens of calls and emails with raves about the program, with not a complaint to be heard. Congrats to Kevin, the Hero Initiative, and to all of you who attended the show. If anyone reading our site was there, we’d love to hear about your experience.

• In an interview with the IESB, director Mark Steven Johnson reveals that he’s hoping Kevin will come on board to direct an episode of his upcoming HBO series based on the “Preacher” comic book. He promises the show will be 100% faithful to the comics. At one point in the development process of Preacher, View Askew was attached to produce a feature film adaptation.
• As we mentioned last update, Chris Gore gave huge props to ALL THREE View Askew releases on DVD last Tuesday during G4’s “Attack of the Show” this week. Gore names Clerks II as one of his favorite comedies of the year. Big props for the Well documentary, too. The segment is now available in full video format at YouTube. Enjoy!

• Movidude74 hooks us up with some shots from the DVD signing earlier this week. Folks lined the street in Westwood to get autographed copies of their new View Askew DVDs from Kevin and special guests Jeff Anderson and Trevor Fehrman.
• Dogma comes in at number four in Progressive U’s countdown of their 10 favorite controversial flicks:

• Catch a reference to Chasing Amy’s male lead characters in a recent edition of web comic “Anywhere But Here”.
• Looks like Brian Lynch has inked a deal with the CW to write a new show, “Dodge”. Here’s his announcement from his blog. The official tag:

You can also peep out this thread from angrynakedpat.com for more info. We’re happy for Brian and hope for big success on this one — It certainly sounds like a show we’d watch, and a great companion piece to the network’s Smallville or Supernatural, especially if one of the two doesn’t come back next year.

• The director of the much loved short film “EARL’S YOUR UNCLE” from the finals of our Movies Askew contest has gone on to shoot a feature film titled RATTLE BASKET. The movie just got out of Post-Production and is currently hitting the festival circuit. Check out the trailer HERE and the flick’s MySpace page as well. It’s great to see folks moving on from the exposure and experience of the contest. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and we’ll catch you later!

• Kevin checks in via the MySpace blog with his thoughts on the big show on Saturday that we’ve been promoting here. Need we again tell you what a cool way to spend a Saturday night this is gonna be? You always get your money’s worth when you see Kevin live, and with two comic icons onstage for the show, it’s a rare opportunity that you just should not miss. Tix still available at an amazingly cheap $20, and all benefitting the Hero Initiative as well. A good show, a good cause. Here’s Kevin:

• As promised, JoBlo finishes up their “10 Reasons We Love Kevin Smith” segment, with items such as his interaction with the fans, his great storytelling ability, and the Askewniverse itself hitting the chart. Click on over to check out the full story.
• Our audio capture wizard Will Wilkins comes in again with Kevin’s 18 minute call to Opie & Anthony earlier this week, in promotion of DVD Tuesday. The clip is MP3 ready, and even has artwork embedded so it’s ipod friendly. Thanks to WW for the hook-up! Enjoy the call.
• A few more DVD tidbits for the interested: The bonus disc that’s available through FYE and Suncoast, does contain 5 Train Wrecks (as well as the uncensored VH-1 special and music video contest winner). We do hear that 2 of the Wrecks are repeats from the main disc: “Day One” and “Cannes 2006” are included on the top 10 on Clerks II. ALSO – We hear there are indeed widescreen copies of Clerks II at Circuit City with the comic book inside. Just dig around the shelves and look for a square green and purple sticker on the shrink-wrap, indicating the bonus book is inside.
• Kevin’s recently revealed ultimate iPod playlist is reviewed on AOL’s online music show, “The DL”. Check around the 1:20 mark for HIGH praise for Kevin’s playlist from the show’s host.

• We ran some hints on Easter Eggs located on the new Clerks II DVD in our review earlier this month. But in case you were too lazy to track them down yourself, here’s a list of what’s been discovered so far. Of course, if you’ve got more to add, let us know: