• The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly features the Hollwood Power 100 – Chris Rock and the pair of Damon and Affleck hit the charts as numbers 77 and 87, repsectively. Click HERE and HERE for their full write-ups.
• iF (Independent Film) Magazine is giving away Nuns ‘O Plenty in honor of Dogma. Surf over to their site HERE. and write “your own personal Dogma” and information (so they can contact you if you win a boxing nun or nunzilla), and you’re ready to go. No purchase necessary. Good luck!
• A small Dogma piece appeared in yesterday’s Daily Record, one of the bigger Scottish newspapers, which was mainly based on the Alanis pics we recently added. This time Kevin’s name was mentioned, and there were also a few lines on the Catholic league’s protests.
• Dogma’s even hitting the auction circuits already, it seems: EBay magazine’s got an article with some pics on Dogma in their latest issue.
• Finally today, a reader of the site checks in with his take on some of the elements brought up in the In Pittsburgh article, as well as some information and direct quotes from it that you may not have heard. We thought it was well written and made some good points, so we’re sharing it with you. It’s a good summary of the piece:

• Wow – It’s amazing that we can even be awake to do this. Someday soon I’m gonna catch up on sleep, really I am. But there’s too…much…to…do! There’s still piles of stuff at the house that has to be put away, but tonight I’m going to finally check out “Fight Club” — Chris is gonna go again and get my opinion on those last 45 minutes, too. Whatever they may entail. So I’m looking forward to seeing it, I’ve heard good things from most of you about it. I’m less enthused about “Bringing Out The Dead” than when it was first mentioned, but it’s probably still got some good moments. That’s on tap for later in the week. Plus tonight’s another new Buffy & Angel, so there won’t be much time for unpacking or getting to bed TOO early. Sure, we don’t HAVE to see all these movies and watch all these TV shows…But we do. So I again apologize to those of you who are still waiting for e-mail replies, or BETTER ones anyway. I’m still playing catch-up.

As most of you know, the Dogma benefit screening happened last night, and it was a rousing success. We’ve got Kevin’s thoughts on that as well as our full report today for your reading enjoyment. And then of course there’s today’s other newsbites, as well. Dogma RC will need to wait another day or two for a full catchup, just due to sheer exhaustion on our part — It won’t be much that hasn’t already appeared here on this front page, though, just maybe an errant article or two that we overlooked, and the Dogma related NewsBites from here.

Alright, let’s get started here:

• Kevin stopped by the board and posted a very kind message regarding last night’s festivities — And he also slipped a little hint of what’s on tap for the next event in 2000 (And boy, it sounds like a biggun’!):

We hope you all enjoyed the flick and had a safe trip home. It was nice seeing such a great turnout, and ya know we’ll be right there with ya at the next one.

• Hey, we may be lagging in some areas, but we did manage to put together another one of our step by step trip reports on last night’s events! As always, we hope that those of you that couldn’t make it can at least feel a little bit more like you were there by reading about some of the experiences we had, stuff we noticed, people we talked to, etc. etc…Last night’s event was a relatively short one compared to the last few trips we’ve made, thus, the summary is also a bit shorter than the usual long-windedness (though still will take a good stretch to read). So settle in, and enjoy our Dogma Benefit Screening Trip Report.

• Well, today’s the day that the first large group of rabid, drooling, honest-to-goodness Kevin Smith fans will sit down and enjoy Dogma together. There’s no way we’re going to miss this, so we WILL be there. We’re hitting the road around 5:00 tonight and should arrive in town a little after 8 PM. We may check the chaos at the Stash or just head right to the theater. If you spot us (shouldn’t be too hard, hopefully), stop us and say hello.

We know that Dogma Rumor Control is behind in updates, and we missed the new poll topic changeover. We’ll have everything squared away ASAP, but probably not for a few days considering the incredibly late night we’ll have tonight (and going to work tomorrow on about 3 hours sleep), as well as the remaining chaos to settle from the move. We’ll get it, though.

In the news today, we’ve of course got full details for those of you heading into Red Bank tonight, and a few other tidbits of note. The Dogma commercials have started to air more widely now, so expect to see the flick’s name plastered all over the place as part of Lions Gate‘s huge marketing campaign. And now, on with the show…

• View Askew’s website posted all you need to know about getting your ticket, your exclusive swag, and your very own cushy, comfy seat for the hometown premiere of Dogma this evening. Read on for all you need to know. By the way, tickets ARE sold out in case you didn’t notice the news a few days back…

Good luck, have a safe trip into town, and we’ll see all of you there!

• Film Threat‘s Chris Gore, a well-known antagonist of Kev’s work since Clerks (and one of the few critics out there who vehemently spoke out against Chasing Amy) threw a little diatribe into their weekly newsletter, stating his reservations about Dogma but giving great praise to the soundtrack that features Alanis’ amazing new song along with that brilliant Howard Shore score:

We think Chris is in for even more surprises: Sure, Dogma’s got lots of dialogue, we wouldn’t have it any other way. The flick is ALSO heavy on action, plot developments (incredible amounts of them, actually), and a completely different direction that any of the previous three flicks. And no men feel threatened by women’s sexual activity in this one. We promise.

Oh yeah, by the way, the music IS outstanding, too.

• Updates over at the official Dogma website continue — An exclusive set ofbehind the scenes photos from the lens of producer Scott Mosier have been addedto the photo gallery for your enjoyment. Surf over to the Dogma website tocheck them out, and lots, lots, lots more.
• Pittsburgh Screening Update: In an interview from the recent issue of “In Pittsburgh”, Kevin reveals that he does indeedplan to be in attendance for the Dogma screening at the Three Rivers Film Festival. There ya go! Got your tickets?
• A representative from FilmFour International confirms that Dogma will indeed hit theaters on Boxing Day (Sunday, December26th) in the U.K. The flick’s just 2 months away for our friends over the pond…
• Those Affleck as Batman rumors are back, thanks to AICN. The fifth Batman movie reportedly has two scripts in the running. One is a Batman: Year One style work in which Warner wants Ben Affleck to star, and the other is reportedly isbased on the animated TV show “Batman Beyond” and would star Keanu Reeves. “Hey, Commissioner Gordon. Whoa.”
• Dark Horizons breaks another big story today regarding Ben Affleck’s recently filmed “Reindeer Games” that we’ve beendoing tidbits on here and there. It appears the flick’s undergone a name change and may actually have some MPAA problems.Here’s the story:

Deceptions (aka. ReindeerGames): Miramax’s most expensive movie ever has just undergone a name changeaccording to Entertainment Tonight. Originally entitled “Reindeer Games”,the $60 million thriller with Ben Affleck has now changed to the simpler”Deceptions”. Meanwhile there’s talk that a few seconds of a rather steamysex scene between Affleck and Charlize Theron in the movie may have to becut. While the obligatory T&A shots of the two leads will likely make it in,there’s one scene of simulated sex on a floor which some think the MPAAwon’t approve of. Will it be spared? Lets hope so, and I’ll keep you abreastof the issue (just had to slip a pun in somewhere).

They can cut the Affleck stuff if they want, but leave Charlize in there, darn it! Like there’s anything she can hideafter “Devil’s Advocate”, anyways. And hey, call us crazy, but we liked the old title better. MUCH better. It sounds likea Shannon Tweed direct-to-video flick now. It’ll still be a good movie, though.

• A scooper in St. Louis slips us a rumor that the Archdiocese of the church there sees Dogma as “Apocryphal” and mayattempt to ban the movie from playing in that town. It’ll be fun to watch them try, anyway.
• And finally today, we always like to have a little bit of Jason Lee news: In the new “Skateboarder” Nov/Dec 1999 magazine there was a small article called “Popular Misconception” and it spoke very highly of Mr. Lee: “When Skateboarding’spopularity began to wane in the late 80’s and early 90’s we were blessed with the birth of shoes designed by skateboarders,jeans that don’t hug your nuts, graphics that go beyond skulls and daggers, Matt Hensley and Jason Lee.”

• Believe it or not, here it is only SUNDAY and we’re writing an update. That’s dedication, huh? The move went incredibly smoothly, thanks to all of our good friends who took time out of their Saturday (and got up horribly early) to carry the heavy stuff — We got 3 people moved to 3 totally different locations in about 7 hours — Not bad, ‘eh? Anyway, I’m actually almost totally unpacked, still lots of stuff to set up the way I want it, but having the last week to spend in the new house helped a lot. Chris, on the other hand, has about 50 boxes piled up at his place from what I hear, and is slowly finding a spot for everything. He’s got his PC set up, though!

Remember, you can still reach us at our newsaskew.com e-mail addresses, even though we’ve moved into new areas.

Now, for the update: There’s some headliners today and the usual newsbites for your enjoyment. Ahhh, it’s nice to be back:

• An anonymous, helpful source tells us that Kevin Smith will be appearing on Late Night With Conan O’Brien on Tuesday, November the 2nd! There are no more tickets available for that show, but, anyone interested in getting standby tickets needs to be at the 49th street side of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, right underneath where it says NBC Studios. The tickets are distributed at 9AM in numbered order. So, if you are #1 at 9am, you will be #1 when you come back at 4:15pm, right before show time. The standby tickets do not guarantee admission, but, depending upon how many regular ticket holders show up, some stand-bys do get in. Have fun, and send us your stories….

Also on the Conan front, Ben Affleck’s listed as a guest during the week of November 9-12, when the show heads out to Los Angeles. We assume he’ll be there to promote Dogma.