• Well, we are back. It seems that some log files ran rampantly large here at the site, and grew so big that they did a major number on the server we’re running on. Sorry that the downtime lasted so long this time, but we don’t have direct access to the server for rebooting and stuff, and are at the mercy of the techs in that respect. We’ll be taking some extra precautions to keep our logs purged regularly in order to prevent this problem from happening again.

By the way, could the two folks who won prizes in the contest, Carmen and Chris, PLEASE e-mail us your mailing addresses so we can get those out to ya? Thanks.

By the way, if you sent a scoop or e-mail and have not received a response, you can safely assume that it didn’t make it through, so please resend it. Hopefully it was just a slow e-mail day yesterday and nothing got lost, but ya never know.

• Another Psycomic edition has been posted, so those of you who have been going through the shakes from casting info withdrawal can rest easy today. The title refers to Eliza Dushku, she of “Buffy” fame (where she plays the semi-recurring character Faith) and recently of the cheerleader flick “Bring It On”. You might also recall her as Ah-nuld’s hellion of a daughter in “True Lies”. Soooo, what went down in this meeting of hers with Kev & Scott, and what are her chances for the flick? What about that long awaited Amy Smart meeting? And what’s that clever signature paragraph that ends each story gonna say this week? Here’s a preview:

As always, the latest “Developing The Monkey” can be found exclusively at Psycomic!

• The Independent Film Channel will be running a “Smith Picks Weekend” on January 20th and 21st, showing the following films: “Glengarry Glen Ross” (One of Chris’s personal favorites), “House of Games”, “Clerks”, “The Last Temptation of Christ”, and “Stranger Than Paradise”. The full page ad for this event can be found HERE. Those of you who always ask Kev what flicks he finds enjoyable or influential should definitely tune in as these are films that often come up in discussion.

• Kevin appears in western New York on April 19th for another of his famous Q&A sessions. This isn’t one to miss if you have the means, as we’re sure he’ll have TONS of stories (heck, maybe even some footage) to relate from the set of the new film. We imagine major scoopage coming out of this one, folks. So ya want in? Sure ya do. Here’s how: Tickets will go on sale for the lecture on Monday, April 2nd at the SUNY-Fredonia ticket office. The tickets will be $8 apiece and can be ordered over the phone for an extra 75 cents and then mailed or waiting for you at the door. The ticket office phone number is (716) 673-3501. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9 am until 5 pm and Saturday from 1 pm through 5 pm. Be there!

• Yahoo News recently ran a pretty interesting story written by an actress from “Vulgar”, who discusses what it’s like being a bit player in the acting biz. It’s a recommended read, which you can check out HERE.

• We continue to wonder about the cover of the upcoming Clerks cartoon DVD: Total Movie magazine (highly recommended, by the way, the Maxim of movie mags) ran an ad with some of Chris Bailey’s way cool artwork, but still wasn’t clear on the DVD’s cover. Digital Bits ran a very bland-looking cover with just features the Clerks logo with the word “Uncensored” on a white background. We’re hopeful they go with something more colorful than that, but as of now, no one seems completely sure. Stay tuned.
• There’s a couple of mentions in the latest Wizard (#112), as always…A mention in a little page with pics of folks with word bubbles above them fighting over who would be the best director for the Spiderman flick, as well as a few words from Bryan Johnson on Vulgar in the news section. And then of course there’s the big contest, as we mentioned yesterday. You can get Wizard at your favorite comic shop or newsstand.

• We broke a big scoop with this one early last month, but now the news is official AND appears at the Wizard World web site, www.wizardworld.com. Wizard comics magazine gives away a monthly prize, and January’s a is a really nice one – Yep, it’s your chance to win a non-speaking walk-on part in “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”! We’d love nothing more than to see a loyal News Askew reader win this prize, so get over there and sign up. Best of luck to you, and if you win as a result, let us know. We’ll expect some good souvenirs from California. 🙂

The contest works by referrals, so once you sign up, the more folks you refer to it will get you extra chances at winning. IF you win, you and one of those friends will get airfare, 2 nights at a hotel, $200, and an all-access pass to the set in addition to your walk-on role. How cool is that? Good luck. Now go and win!

• Well folks, we’re still without any good news regarding the Dogma Special Edition DVD’s release. We know that the disc is going to come out, maybe even sooner than we thought. DVD supersite The Digital Bits posted this update:

What this sounds like is something out of Columbia Tristar’s control, so we’re assuming it’s a content issue of some sort. Our guess is that the gang at View Askew want to put out the best product they can, and are trying to come to an agreement to get a disc that will keep everyone happy released. As in the past with content of previous editions, we are HIGHLY hopeful that all the content that they planned to include on this disc will see the light of day, but thinking about which content this might be, we have some ideas. We’re sure you will, too.

Anyway, keep checking with us for more news and a new release date. As of now, no new date has been set, so don’t trust anything until you hear it at News Askew.

• Well, it looks like we’ll hafta wait a long while, or maybe even NEVER hear the concept story that Kevin came up with for a Spawn/Spiderman crossover at Marvel. Sadly, Todd McFarlane turned down Quesada’s offer to pencil the one-shot crossover over at Image:

Thanks to Marvel for the story.

• Soul Asylum tunes “Can’t Even Tell” (from Clerks’ end credits) and “We 3” (Chasing Amy’s end credits) are on a new “Best of” Soul Asylum album entitled “Black Gold: Best of Soul Asylum”, now in stores.
• Kevin got mentioned on this morning’s Howard Stern radio show, when Howard and the gang were discussing Christmas cards they received. Apparently, Kevin sent one in, and Robin went on a tangent (yes, they played her music) about how Affleck should have gotten Kev a nice Christmas gift for making him look good in his flicks. Hopefully Ben will go on the Stern show someday to set everything straight, as the guy really gets a bad rap on there from time to time, even though he really is a cool dude.
• In a recent EW Online article, critic Liane Bonin talks about how Holywood has been using African Americans in the roles of spiritual beings lately, including Will Smith (Bagger Vance), Michael Clark Duncan (Green Mile), and none other than Chris Rock, as Rufus. She seems to have liked our 13th apostle, because she says that with the exception of Rock, the others seem to have been stereotyped to death and are becoming offensive.
• Canadian music channel MuchMusic (which you satellite subscribers should pick up) runs an annual show called Fromage 2000, hosted by the always hilarious Ed The Sock. This year, in between his tirades on Brittany Spears and all boy bands, he mentioned the fake Jay & Silent Bob that appeared when they blasted the “Sunshine” video by Rubber.
• Finally today, from the New York Post‘s “Page Six”:

• We’ll have an update for you later today, folks, but until then, just a little teaser of what’s coming up and what stories we’ve already got in the works to hopefully save you the time of e-mailing in scoops that we’ve already got…To summarize a few things coming up today, as well as a few things we didn’t report on…We have seen the bit on Dark Horizons about O’Halloran’s movie but mentioned that in Newsbites a couple days back, we also caught the mention of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back on AICN (it was very brief), and finally, we’ll have a short report on the Dogma DVD delay and the stories appearing on Digital Bits and other DVD sites.

Again, we remind you to always check the archives from the past couple of days before sending in scoops, as news gets automatically archived now and may drop off the front page before you have the chance to see it if you don’t visit every day or two. We got a ton of notes on the Dogma DVD delay even though it got reported last week. No big deal, really, but it saves you the trouble of sending in scoops when we’ve already got them out there. As always, though, if there’s a doubt, send it in, as we continue to appreciate each and every mail/scoop that comes in. Without you, the site’s nothing!

Thanks, and we’ll see you back here later today with a new poll topic and the latest from the world of Askew.