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News Askew Forums, or NAF as the regulars affectionately call it, now open for business and awaiting your posts. The NAF now runs on the highly intuitive vBulletin platform, and brings with it greater speed, stability, and features. We’re currently experimenting with a fun new “reputation” system which allows uses to award reputation points to other users for doing good deeds, posting good info, and the like. You can also earn reputation points for being a regular visitor. Finally, we’ve added a calendar that’s wide open to the public — So every user can both read AND contribute to it. So far, we’ve got all of the upcoming View Askew stuff on there, as well as some other red letter dates, such as TV premieres. We think you’ll dig it.
All accounts older than 90 days at the NAF have been purged. Some of you might have to re-register your screen name. Browsing is free, though, so you can look around (just not post) without even signing up.
There’s a good group of regulars who have been posting at the NAF for quite a few years now. New users, just introduce yourselves, they’ll make you feel right at home. The NAF features separate forums to discuss the latest News Askew stories, cast members, and upcoming projects. We’ve also got general discussion forums for comics, film, tv, gaming, debating, and the highly popular “anything goes” area, where members like to hang out, chat, and just mess around.
For those of you looking to chat with Kevin himself, you’ll want to visit the View Askew Forums, where Kevin and many other cast and crew regularly hang out, post, and answer your questions. But if you want to try something else, in addition to your daily surf to View Askew’s site, stop on in and take a look around. We think you’ll like what we’ve done with the place.
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“Kevin Smith is holding an online auction on his Web site, http:http://www.ViewAskew.com, with items including a walk-on role in his upcoming movie, “Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks,” and a barbecue at his home. Proceeds will go to the Red Cross. The auction ends Sept. 16.”
USAToday.com, September 8, 2005 – “More stars bring relief” by Karen Thomas
“Kevin Smith. Among items the filmmaker is auctioning on his Web site, viewaskew .com, to benefit the Red Cross: a dinner at his home and a bit part in his new film, Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks.”
Luxist.com, September 8, 2005 – “BBQ With Kevin Smith For Hurricane Relief” by Deidre Woollard
“A few people didn?t find the idea of a Kelly Clarkson concert with Kathy Griffin too appetizing but what about a barbecue with Kevin Smith? The director of Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy is offering up a barbecue at his house along with other items including a walk-on part in Clerks 2. Kevin will provide steaks, beers, and a chance to play poker with him. The auction ends next Friday and bids are are around the $5,000 mark currently. All proceeds benefit the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina relief.”
Cinematical.com, September 8, 2005 – “Kevin Smith: Filmmaker, Humanitarian, BBQ Chef” by Robert Newton
“Relentlessly funny Clerks director Kevin Smith is doing his humanly duty to help out Hurricane Katrina survivors — by putting himself up for auction.”
As you can see they’re mostly similar, but the message here is that word’s getting around, and with AP picking up the blurb, we expect to see similar reports popping up over the weekend and into next week as well.
We’ve also heard that on yesterday’s episode of “Attack of the Show”, on G4TV, one of the featured websites was the View Askew Katrina auction. The caption was “eJay and Silent Bob”. We’re happy that word is spreading around so quickly. Keep up with the bids, folks.
The new story will, however, only appear in a new version of the “Clerks” TPB, from Graphitti. Still, not like Kevin Smith fans are unaccustomed to buying an item a second or third time for new content.
Thanks for stopping in today — It’s been exciting stuff lately, no? See you again real soon. And good luck in that contest!
The following folks are CONFIRMED to be in attendance, waiting to meet you and sign your freshly purchased Mallrats 10th DVD:
Keep it with News Askew for more details on this exciting event, as well as details on a special EVENING event to coincide with this one.
What better way than this to mark the 1 year anniversary of Stash West, eh? Prepare to line up really early, folks — This one’s gonna be BIG.
Winning is simple, really. Well maybe not AS simple as we could have made it, but hey, you gotta work for your supper a LITTLE bit, right? So, here’s what you gotta do. Using our ARCHIVE SEARCH box, answer the following THREE (3) questions from Mallrats history. Be creative and use search terms that make sense, or simply visit our archives and attempt to track down the day that way, month by month. The answers are the DATES (Month, Day, and Year) when the following three events took place:
2. The Mallrats 10th Anniverasry screening and Q&A was held in Los Angeles on this day.
3. MALLRATS premiered on the ABC television Network on this day.
Send your answers, in order, in an email, with the subject line “MALLRATS CONTEST”, to scoops@newsaskew.com. Include your name, first and last, and a valid e-mail address where we can get in touch with you. CONTEST ENDS MIDNIGHT, SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2005, EST. You have from now until the end of next Friday to get your entries to us.
Please note: Winners DVDs will be shipped on September 20th, provided we have your contact info by then. They will NOT ship early.
Remember, ALL these answers can be found in the News Askew archives — But you might have to dig a little or use some brains to figure them all out. We’ll be selecting 10 entries, at random, from entrants who get all 3 dates correct. If no one does, or less than 10 do, we’ll go to 2 correct entires, and so on. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON IS ALLOWED. OPEN TO US RESIDENTS ONLY. Multiple entries will get you thrown out of the contest. No, if you have 2 different e-mail addresses, you can’t enter from each one. Let’s keep it fair.
So good luck, and thanks again to Universal Studios Home Entertainment for supplying us with the goodies! Good luck, brave readers! And for those of you who don’t win, you can own your very own copy of the incredible Mallrats 10th Anniversary DVD starting September 20th. For more details on why you wanna win or buy one, check out our full review!
Ben Affleck has ditched Hollywood parties for a more serene life since his wife Jennifer Garner became pregnant, according to his director pal Kevin Smith. Daredevil co-stars Affleck and Garner, who wed at the end of June, after expecting the arrival of their first child together this winter. And while Affleck has been notably absent from his beloved poker tables, he’s also become less of a fixture at Tinseltown gatherings. Smith says, “He seems to have settled down, regardless. He hasn’t been a party guy for a little while now. I think it’s phenomenal. I think he’ll be a fantastic dad. When we were working on Jersey Girl, we had! a lot of babies on our set, and he was always really great with them. I think most guys are like me – they tend to shy away from other people’s kids because you never want to be the a*s that drops somebody’s baby. He was fearless. He would scoop them up and throw them into the air.”
Is silver-screen wiseacre Jason Lee done Chasing Amy, living the life of an Almost Famous rocker and hanging with the Mallrats beneath that bizarre Vanilla Sky? Yes… and no. Yes, the affable actor is braving the frontier of episodic TV, but no, his starring role in NBC’s My Name Is Earl (premiering Sept. 20 at 9 pm/ET) does not signal the end of his film career.So why the switch? Are Kevin Smith and Cameron Crowe simply not churning out enough movies for him to appear in? “It’s all due to Mr. Greg Garcia,” he tells TVGuide.com, referring to Earl’s creator. “He and the script [attracted me to the show].”Lee, who is also a producer on Earl, admits to having a few apprehensions about taking on his new gig as a hapless lunk who, after winning (and then incredibly, losing) the lottery, is spurred on by the wisdom of Carson Daly and sets out to correct every bad thing he’s ever done. “It took me a while to decide,” he explains. “I didn’t want to become locked into being known for a character as opposed to as an actor; the schedule is kind of brutal; and being on one thing for so long as opposed to moving around, which I was used to doing, [is tough]. But I couldn’t deny the quality of the material. Good material is good material so, ultimately, it made sense to do it. “Besides, Earl’s half-hour length makes for “nice, long hiatuses,” he says. “There will be breaks for me to do other things, like films. It all weighed out.”While chatting with Lee, we simply had to ask which of his numerous, varied and always-colorful big-screen endeavors is his personal favorite. Interestingly, his was ours. “Vanilla Sky was a movie where I was like, ‘OK, what Chasing Amy did for me, this will do for me, but on an even bigger level,’” he relates. “It was an opportunity for me to show people that I’m not just the goofy or smartass sidekick, that I’ve got some meat here, so I was genuinely excited and thought for sure we were going to be at the Oscars.” Instead, he sighs, “All I could hear were crickets. People either loved it with a passion or hated it.”Perhaps, we suggest, the haters just didn’t “get” it. “You do tend to criticize what you don’t understand,” Lee concurs. “A lot of people would come up to me and say, ‘I didn’t like that movie,’ and I would have to say, ‘Did you understand it?’ Once I realized it was just ignorance [fueling much of the dissent], I just let it go. “I thought that movie would put me on the map,” he says in conclusion. “But I never saw any map!”
