Kevin Smith has lost 65 pounds, but as we heard yesterday he’s still wearing the same “Puck U” hockey jersey he’s had on for literally months (and I think I used the term “literally” correctly there) along with the same high water jeans. He gained weight, lost weight yet refused to change his clothes at all because he thought he would be somehow inauthentic. (At least that’s what I took away from his comments.) Smith was super talkative on the Joy Behar show this week, and he was a little more subdued but still very animated on MTV News. He told MTV’s Josh Horowitz that Seth Rogen turned him on to smoking pot about two years ago when they were making “Zach and Miri Make a Porno” and that it was the best thing that has ever happened to him in five years, because it made him more productive. Maybe that’s why he gained all that weight in the first place though. Here’s more:

“One of the most talented people I worked with in my life was Seth Rogen,” Smith explained to MTV News during our live-stream interview on Tuesday. “I got so much from him. He re-energized me in a weird way. I became a stoner because of Seth Rogen.”

Up until that point, Smith said he’d only gotten high a handful of times. But on the “Zack and Miri” set, he marveled at how Rogen — whom he called “a functioning stoner” — could toke up and not only make it to work on time but have “brilliant ideas” and be “constantly writing [and] productive.” So on the last day of shooting, Smith finally gave into Rogen’s request to smoke pot.

“I went up to him and was like, ‘How about we go to the editing room tonight, watch some cut footage, and maybe share a joint?’” Smith recalled. “He goes, ‘Finally!’ And it was awesome. We sat back, watched some footage and sat there smoking. And I loved who I was. I loved how the inhibition dropped away and I loved just being honest.”

Smith said the last two years of his life have been his most productive, including finishing two films and launching a podcast network on the Web, all thanks to the power of the herb.

“That dude gave me the greatest gift I’ve had in the last five years,” Smith said. “The moment I start smoking, I start working. … That way, no one could ever take it away from you. No one could ever say, ‘You fat, lazy piece of sh– stoner!”

[From MTV News via Popeater]

I really hate smoking pot because it makes me overanalyze everything and come up with these pseudo intellectual theories that I realize are complete bullsh*t when I’m sober. Like I doubt I could accomplish anything that was even marginally worthwhile if I was stoned all the time. Some people do ok with it and find that it fuels creativity though. I guess if you tie any habit into working it can make you more productive if you’re not completely blotto.

I realize that I’ve read all this press about Kevin Smith but have no idea what he’s promoting – so I looked it up and he has a horror movie scheduled for wide release in October called Red State with Melissa Leo. He’s doing a tour nationwide with it starting in March, though. He also has a hockey film scheduled for 2012 called Hit Somebody that he says is his final film as a director. It will include cameos from “everybody” he says, and he told MTV that he hopes that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will be in it as well. Why is he hanging up his hat when he just turned 40? He’s had some crap movies but he’s also put out some uniquely funny and enjoyable films. He should keep at it and maybe put the joint down. (I know I sound like a mom!)

Kevin Smith is shown on 7/23/10. (He’s not wearing the hockey shirt) and 8/10/10. (There it is!) Credit: PRPhotos and WENN. Seth Rogen is shown on 1/7/11 on The Today Show.

Director Kevin Smith made headlines last year for allegedly being “too fat to fly,” but he maintains that he was bumped from the flight because it was overbooked and that he was an easy target because he was a very large guy. His weight wasn’t at a level where he would require two seats because he didn’t need a seatbelt extender and the airline has admitted as much. Smith revisited that whole controversy in an appearance on The Joy Behar show last night. He was visibly thinner and said he’s lost 65 pounds but admitted that he’s still wearing the tent-like hockey jersey he always does. (This occurred to me before he even said anything about it because the last time I covered a story on him I noticed that the photo agencies had pictures of him wearing that same shirt on several different occasions.) Smith was kind of apologetic about his weight loss and said that he still self-identified as a heavy person and wasn’t about to change his wardrobe at this point. The dude talked so fast that Joy asked him if he was on amphetamines. He might have just been nervous and hopped up on caffeine.

The not-so-friendly skies seems to have led to a much healthier Kevin Smith.

In the wake of getting bounced from a Southwest Airlines flight last year for being, to use his term, “a fatty,” the Clerks director thought it might be high time to lose somes LBs.

Sure enough, during a hepped-up appearance on CNN’s Joy Behar Show on Tuesday night, Smith revealed that he has in fact dropped quite a few pounds. If not his wardrobe.

READ NOW: Kevin Smith gets screwed by Virgin?!

“I’ve spent most of my life yo-yoing in terms of weight, so it’s always been easier to wear a hockey jersey because, like, I’ve lost 65 pounds, but I’m still wearing the same jersey I wore before I lost the 65, but you wouldn’t know because it’s all air,” said Smith.

But the filmmaker, who was on to promote his upcoming movie Red State, admits he was a bit hesitant when it came to slimming down.

“I sympathize far more with heavier people than I ever will with thin,” he pointed out. “I’ll never be thin. Let’s be honest. I’ve lost 65 pounds, but nobody’s going ‘I wanna sleep with you!’ They’re just like ‘Keep going, you look better.’”

Smith proceeds to recount the whole Too Fat to Fly controversy in the typical rapid-fire fashion he often incorporates in his Q&A stage shows, which led Behar to jokingly ask: “Are you on amphetamines?”

“No,” Smith answered with a laugh. “I know I’ve got eight minutes…and I believe if you’re going to put me on television, I better be as entertaining as heck and I got to get as much information in as possible.”

[From E! Online]

You could tell that it bothered Smith that people called him “fat” when they reported that story, and he explained that it did hurt his feelings but that the news outlets justified it because he had called himself fat on Twitter.

The part where Behar asked Smith if he was on amphetamines was much funnier than E! explained it. Smith was actually suffering from verbal diarrhea and was about to stick his foot in his mouth. He said that he was always fat and didn’t get a lot of play in high school and college, except from “ladies like yourself who are like ‘you’re handsome,’ because you’ve been around the world and you know sometimes a fat dude has a lot to offer ‘if I can just get past the blubber.’” Joy had just called him handsome, but the way he explained it made it sound like she wasn’t that discriminating.

Smith is pretty damn funny and self deprecating, but it’s clear he’s got some issues around his weight still. I wish him the best and congratulations to him for losing the weight! If I were his wife I would burn that damn hockey jersey though, or just conveniently ruin it in the laundry.

Here’s Smith in that Puck U hockey jersey in June, August, September and November of last year in that order. I’m serious. His daughter is cute! Credit: WENN.com and Fame.

Director Kevin Smith last made headlines when he was kicked off an overbooked Southwest Airlines in February of this year. Southwest initially insisted that he was “too fat to fly,” but it turned out that the decision was based on the fact that he was a larger man on an overbooked flight, and was not technically too big for the seat or seatbelt. As a result of that debacle, Smith avoided flying for months and then gradually went back to flying first class, were he felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb after all the publicity he received over the “too fat to fly” incident. So he booked what’s known as a “concierge” service that specializes in getting VIPs to the gate just before takeoff, essentially avoiding having other passengers file past them while they’re seated in first class. But an employee at Virgin Airlines refused to let Smith or his party board despite the fact that there were ten minutes left before takeoff and the jetway was still attached. They also refused to retrieve their luggage, which contained medication his wife needed.

On Twitter, I’ve been asked this question a few times, so I figured I’d include the response here…

Via @cbalint “Why did you wait until 10 minutes b4 the flight to board?”

One of the only pricey indulgences I’m happy to pay for is First Class air travel. I fly LOTS, and when you’re also big fat-ass, the wider seats are definitely more comfortable. Indeed, with the exception of the Bay Area Southwest flights I used to take, it’s fair to say – since ‘96 – you could always find me at the front of the plane (as a first class passenger, not giving the pilot’s “driver’s courtesy”).

After Southwest did it’s level-headed best to alienate large passengers everywhere, I was off flying for awhile, sticking strictly to my beloved bus – the last refuge of the oversized traveler with a Jay-and-Silent-Bob-lined bank account. But in order to attend the Walter Gretzky street hockey tournament in Brandtford this summer, I HAD to fly again (we couldn’t make it in time driving, due to a previous engagement).

So I bit the bullet and got on another plane, for the first time in months. And when I sat down, the fella next to me smiled and asked “They gonna throw you off this plane too?”

And the next three flights I took, it was the same. Even worse: when you fly first, you board first, sit down… and then EVERYONE files past you. And when you’re the Too Fat To Fly guy on a plane? Well, everyone stares. Then the whispering starts. A hundred people look right at you – when you’re not on a stage. It kinda blows.

But Affleck told me that when he flies, he uses a concierge service: a company that works with the airport and each airlines. Their job is to get you to the plane on time, but not when boarding begins; that way, you don’t have to play the Elephant Man for passengers passing you en route to their seats. Essentially, you board last. The entire service is designed to get you to the plane door shortly before the door closes.

We were at the airport and checked-in for over an hour before departure, waiting in the lounge. Dorothy, our concierge, has been doing her job for years; she knows EXACTLY how much time she has to get her clients to the plane before the door closes. This is how she makes her living, so it behooves her to know when to head for the plane; we had time. The plane was not only in sight, it REMAINED in sight for the next 15/20 minutes. Dorothy the concierge was, rightfully, beside herself: the gate agents made HER look bad – even though this is EXACTLY how she does her job every day.

So that’s why I got to the door ten minutes before the flight: because I was told to by a professional who’s been working JFK for years. It didn’t matter; The gate agents made up their minds to lose Virgin some business.

But that’s in the past now. Virgin America did EXACTLY what any corporation/company should do when their customers have issues with their service: they almost instantly self-corrected. I appreciate that they’ve done their best to repair damage and apologize.

Lots have Tweeted that Virgin only corrected because they didn’t want to go through the shit I went through with Air Master Race back in February. I don’t care why they’re trying to amends, I’m just sincerely relieved to know that there’s an airline out there that will listen and seriously try to fix things – not just write a blog that lied about their captain, only to then CHANGE their party line AND blog without denoting or highlighting their deception… Sorry – CORRECTION! Meant correction. Southwest still stands alone as Worst in Customer Service in my book.

But even though the Virgin America JFK gate 25 agents royally f*&%ed my day, someone higher up in the company tried very hard to make it right… And succeeded.

[From SilentBobSpeaks.com]

At least Virgin corrected the situation and made amends, unlike the way that Southwest handled it earlier. A lot of people are going to disagree with me and say this is Smith’s issue, but I don’t blame Smith for making a fuss. They could have let him on the plane and it just sounds like an employee was grandstanding to make a point. This just reminds me how much it truly sucks to fly commercial, even if you go first class and pay big bucks to get some respite from the crap that everyone else has to deal with.

Kevin Smith is shown out with his daughter on 11/27/10. Credit: Beiny/Fu/WENN. They’re also shown at the MTV music awards on 9/12 and at an event on 8/18. He loves that shirt. Credit: WENN.com

In Touch Weekly and People Magazine spoke to Ruby Gettinger, the obese star of Style Network reality show Ruby, to get her thoughts on the Kevin Smith “too fat to fly” debate. To be fair to Kevin, he was never too fat to fly. In an article on his blog, he details how a representative from Southwest airlines admitted to him that he was bumped because they needed the seat. He may have been singled out for his weight, but he met all the criteria to fit in his seat with both armrests down and the seatbelt buckled without an extender. When the media firestorm got too heated, Southwest issued a sort-of half assed apology and kept implying that Smith was too heavy to fly safely, which was not the case according to company criteria. The two women on either side of him told the stewardess that it was no problem and he was primarily asked to leave as the flight was overbooked. (Someone bought two seats, not Smith – he only did that one time in his life contrary to reports – and they had filled all the seats on the plane, having taken Smith on standby.)

Anyway, Ruby talked about her trouble flying and said that while she sometimes buys two seats she once bought just one when she was over 700 pounds. She says she felt bad for the guy next to her. Ruby now weighs around 350 pounds, having lost 400 pounds in the past two years.

“The first time I went on a plane I was close to 700 lbs. and I had no idea how small the seats were,” says Gettinger. “The man sitting next to me was not happy at all! I felt so bad!”

Gettinger, who stars on the Style Network’s Ruby, has lost nearly 400 lbs. since that flight, but flying still isn’t easy, she tells PEOPLE. “After that experience, I never flew without a friend to sit next to me, or I would buy two seats.”

She doesn’t know all the details of director Smith’s recent removal from a Southwest Airlines flight, but the Savannah, Georgia, resident says she can imagine.

“This kind of stuff should be taken care of in private before someone like me or Kevin enters a plane,” she says. “We need to remember that we may have different shells, but we are still the same on the inside.”

[From People]

Ruby also told In Touch “I feel so sad for Kevin! I can only imagine what that must have felt like. We all come in different shapes and sizes, and deserve to be treated with respect. My personal opinion is this kind of stuff should be taken care of in private before someone like me or Kevin enters a plane.” Again, I feel for Kevin because while he’s a big guy he wasn’t technically too fat to fly and the airline was willing to admit that to him personally while they issued another statement that implied he was. He wrote on his blog “Now I’m gonna carry this Too Fat To Fly sh*t around like herpes for the rest of my life, and it was never even true.”

I was watching CNN when this story was all over the news, and they spoke to a passengers’ rights advocate who said that the issue is that the seats are too damn small. It’s true, you’re usually crammed in there like cattle. It’s time that airlines gave us more room on both the sides and in front rather than blaming larger people for the issue.

The third season of Ruby premiered on Sunday and I had the chance to watch it. While she does seem like a kind person I came away with a different impression of her than I had from interviews. She’s sweet and Southern but can be a little catty and was very territorial when she met the girlfriend of her male best friend, who is also her roommate. She’s fun, though, and she seems like the type of person you would love to hang out with. It’s hard enough to lose weight when you’re just overweight. I can’t imagine what she must go through every day.

Yesterday there was a lot of buzz over the fact that director Kevin Smith was bumped from a fully booked flight on Southwest airlines, allegedly for being overweight. Smith tweeted the news and it quickly led to a media debate about airline regulations and the proper way to deal with larger passengers. I was watching CNN last night and they kept bringing up the story and showing Smith’s goofy Twitpic.

The background is that Smith was accepted as a standby passenger on a full flight on Southwest airlines (which doesn’t assign seating and has only coach-level seats), only to be told that his girth was a safety risk and that he had to leave the plane. Smith once bought two seats on a Southwest flight, but has tweeted that the detail that he does it “regularly” was repeated by the news outlets in an attempt to make it seem like Southwest was right to kick him off the flight. Southwest has since apologized for the way they handled this particular case, but it was more of an apology for letting Smith on the plane in the first place, not for bumping him. They also made it seem like Smith needed two seats, which he didn’t.

Smith isn’t accepting Southwest’s half-assed apology and blogs that he was told by a Southwest employee that he was kicked off because the flight was overbooked and it was an arbitrary decision that wasn’t made because he was too big. That same employee later backed down in a follow-up call and tried to claim that it was over his size. He did fit in his seat with both armrests down and the seatbelt buckled. He even tweeted that the two women on either side of him told the stewardess that it was no problem to sit next to him. Southwest refuses to acknowledge that publicly, though, and Smith is upset about it:

According to Linda, with the melee surrounding boarding and finding a second seat for the other passenger, the Pilot called for a quick settlement of any outstanding issues so that they might take off. And even though I was already planted in my arm-rest lowerable, seat-belt-buckleable seat, I got the hook.

So the Pilot DIDN’T bounce me because I couldn’t fit in the seat. In fact, it sounds like the Pilot had very little to do with bouncing me at all. And Linda said she just found this out today, as they gather info from all involved.

But if that’s the case, then who made that call to yank me? Someone had to actually point a finger and say “Him. He goes.” And not only that, but they then stood behind a fabrication that I was being ejected because I was too fat for my seat.

Regardless, I thanked Linda and told her she was the nicest Southwestern employee I’d met in the last 43 hrs. And then, I asked when Southwest was going to update their blog, to which she said soon, and we hung-up pleasantly. And as pleasant as Linda was, clearly the notion of me going on Larry King scared the shit out of somebody over there.

I was very nice but very firm/clear with Linda: Southwestern needs to make this right. And “right” is Southwestern falling on their sword over a situation THEY CREATED and continued to mismanage for nearly 48hrs.

So I swore to Linda, up and down “Get me a document to sign, and I’ll swear on my child’s life and penalty of all I own that I’ll never sue your Airlines. But just PUT THE F*CKING TRUTH OUT THERE THAT I’M NOT TOO FAT TO FLY, AND THAT THIS WAS ALL AN UNFORTUNATE ERROR ON SOUTHWESTERN’S PART.”

This is the piece Linda wrote.

She called me a little bit ago to see if I’d read the piece. I put her on hold, quickly read it, then got back on the horn.

“Linda – there’s nothing about me not being Too Fat To Fly,” I said.
“The people around you said they had to lean over to make room for you,” Linda offered.
“Linda, they didn’t! The older lady was leaning against the window like she was gonna nap, and the lady to my left was already leaning toward the aisle. I would never pick a seat that might possibly make me look even fatter because I don’t fit in it or something.”
“That’s the report I have,” she continued, then sighed and added “This is so embarrassing to talk about.”
“Wait – what people around me?” I asked.
“The people seated next to you.”
“You guys went to their houses and interviewed them?”
“No.”
“Then where’d that statement come from?”
“Others people around you.”
“Linda, there was nobody but me, the two ladies, and Suzanne. Are you telling me this is Suzanne’s report?”
“The report we received said the ladies were leaning away from you.”
“They were already leaning when I sat down! They didn’t lean because of me! I even asked them both if I was a problem. But you said you took their statements, and now you’re saying they weren’t interviewed at all. You said we’d get to the bottom of who made the decision to boot me, since it WASN’T the Pilot.”

And Linda apologized and pointed out the blog apologies for putting me on and taking me off the plane, as well as the refunded fares.

“But the last paragraph is still all about your two seat rule. By including it, you guys are still saying I was Too Fat To Fly – or at least NOT correcting it. You even say ‘You’re not here to debate the decision the Employees made.’ But when we spoke, you told me they were wrong, and THAT’S why I was happy and ready to drop all this. I don’t want your money, I just want you to put in print what you told me: that I was grabbed because I was the last guy on, not because I didn’t fit with the arm rests down, or because I couldn’t buckle the seat belt. Because I did. And we both know this.”

I feel like a broken record with that stupid “But I could buckle and fit” sh*t. Pathetic, right? Grasping at any dignity straws. But that’s what you do when you’re kinda stripped of your dignity.

I could hear it in her voice: the sad frustration. Somewhere between the two phone calls, the bounty that was hinted at got a lot smaller. And while the apology is a little deeper now and more sincerely-worded than it was in the initial “apology” blog (thank you, Linda), it still infers that I need two seats to fly on Southwest Airlines.

I begged her to just put the truth in the about me and the seat belt and arm rest – at least admit you guys were wrong: that I wasn’t Too Fat To Fly. And while in phone call #1 it seemed promising, it didn’t happen. There was some standard corp-speak about how they’re going to examine their “Person of Size” policy, and how they know it needs change. I sincerely hope it does. That shit with the Girl on the flight was just heartbreaking and shameful.

But to be honest, I was looking for a little exoneration so I didn’t have to keep exonerating myself. And while Linda was kind and respectful, if they’re gonna stick with this “Well… he needed two seats…” shit, then we’re just back to square one.

You guys screwed up, SWA; why’s it so hard to own up to it? Now I’m gonna carry this Too Fat To Fly shit around like herpes for the rest of my life, and it was never even true.

[From Kevin Smith's blog]

This is typical of airlines and large corporations in general – say you’re “sorry” for the “situation” without admitting you did anything wrong. I’ve only flown on Southwest once, over 10 years ago, and was annoyed by the stupid kind of goofy banter between the stewardesses and the way that everyone was jockeying for seats. I chose never to use them again, although I don’t fly much domestically. I much prefer JetBlue and maybe after that Delta, for the professional way they handle passengers. It sucks to fly no matter what but some airlines are definitely more tolerable than others. When I fly I want to feel like I’m taken care of and like everything is under control, not like I’m having dinner at TGI Fridays. Now that Southwest treated Smith like a second class citizen for being overweight I doubt that I’ll fly with them again, especially considering the way they deflected blame afterwards.

“Hey @SouthwestAir! Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off!”
-Kevin Smith

Okay, the long story short is this: Kevin Smith was already on a plane, he was seated, he was ready for the plane to take off, and then the captain had him ejected from the flight. Because Smith was deemed as a “safety risk” (to which Smith tweeted: “what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?”) and sent off the plane. After which he caught another Southwest flight, and he twit-pic’d the above photo. Actually, the whole catastrophe seemed to go down on Kevin’s Twitter account, where it looks like he’s still engaging in one of the biggest (and most justified) hissy fits ever. Here’s more:

Kevin Smith was delayed getting from Oakland to Burbank Saturday night because he was “too wide for the sky.” According to the ‘Clerks’ and ‘Jay & Silent Bob’ director’s Twitter, Southwest Airlines removed him from a flight after deeming him a safety risk.

“Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?” Smith tweeted.

“I’m way fat… But I’m not THERE just yet,” he continued. “But if I am, why wait til my bag is up, and I’m seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who’d already I.d.ed me as ‘Silent Bob.’”

Smith was given a $100 voucher and put on a different Southwest flight, from which he continued to chronicle his mistreatment:

“The @SouthwestAir Diet. How it works: you’re publicly shamed into a slimmer figure. Crying the weight right off has never been easier!” he continued. “Hey @SouthwestAir! I’ve landed in Burbank. Don’t worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.”

Southwest Airlines has a “customer of size” policy, requiring passengers to buy a second seat if they cannot fit between the arm rests. When extra seats are available these passengers are given refunds or relocated free of charge.

The company has not ignored Smith’s Twitter rant.

“I’ve read the tweets all night from @thatkevinsmith – He’ll be getting a call at home from our Customer Relations VP tonight,” it tweeted. “Again, I’m very sorry for the experience you had tonight. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.”

[From The Huffington Post]

Personally, I do think it was wrong to eject one chubby (not morbidly obese) man from a flight when it was obvious that he fit in the seat and could buckle up and everything. It is discrimination. Of course, there’s enough discrimination going around to all kinds of groups in regards to flying. It’s sad that this one incident is getting and will continue to get so much attention, when there are probably thousands of stories of non-celebrity people out there who get kicked off of flights for little to no reason.

Since the incident, Kevin has been in rare form on Twitter. I was going to try to screencap some of the stuff, but it just goes on and on. Some of my favorites included:

Thank God I don’t embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training).

Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.

You f-cked with the wrong sedentary processed-foods eater!

Via @SouthwestAir “Hopefully you received our voicemail earlier this evening” All lines checked, no voicemail message on any 323. Try again.

Twitpic and screen caps of Kevin Smith’s Twitter, courtesy of Twitter.

If this report is to be believed, director Kevin Smith had a hard time working with entitled pain-in-ass Bruce Willis. Nice-guy Smith put up with a lot of crap from Willis on the set of his film, A Couple of Dicks, allowing Willis to change scenes and boss people around. At the wrap party Smith is said to have made a toast to the cast and crew, thanking them all but excluding Willis by name, calling him an “F’ing dick”:

When the new Bruce Willis flick, “A Couple of Dicks,” wound up with a wrap party in New York, the only absent member of the cast and crew was Bruce himself – which surprised nobody because the star and director Kevin Smith had clashed nastily. An eyewitness says Bruce high-handedly made “creative” changes to every single one of his scenes, stomping on director Smith – who let him get away with it “because he’s Bruce Willis.” When Smith stood at the wrap party to make a toast, he bellowed: “I want to thank everyone who worked on the film, except for Bruce Willis… who is a F’ing Dick!” Everyone cheered wildly, waving their memento gifts – metallic water bottles featuring Bruce’s kisser with a big “X” drawn through it.

[From the National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Wakler's column, September 7, 2009]

Smith seems like a very upfront person and if he had a problem with Willis he’ll probably be willing to talk about it when he’s doing press for this film next year. (A Couple of Dicks is out in late February.) We don’t hear a lot of complaints from Smith, but in the interviews I’ve seen with him he’s really honest and straightforward and I bet he’ll at least allude to issues with Willis if this is true. Also, Smith once really trashed Reese Witherspoon in 2001 for snubbing his then-girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy) at a casting call. He was pretty blunt about it, and then defended his right to be a gossip, blogging in 2006 “The great irony is, the TalkBack people on the blog/gossip sites are taking me to task for being a gossip. Kettle, I call thee black.” So maybe we’ll hear it straight from Smith if this is true. It’s not like he has to worry about Willis no longer being willing to work with him – the guy’s career has been on a downslide for a while. Also, if these water bottles with Willis’ face x’ed out exist we’ll probably see one at some point.

MSat advises me that the feud between Smith and Willis goes way back, and that Smith titled a 2006 comedy CD An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder.

Director Kevin Smith has a sweet interview with MTV in which he and his daughter talk about the movie Twilight. He said he saw it with her and his wife in the theater and didn’t really get it, and that “I found it as impenetrable as an Israeli film.” Smith explained “I was not who it was made for, I am not a 14 year-old girl.” He then asked his daughter Harley, who turns 10 next month, what she thought of the film and how many times she’d seen it. She came out holding the Twilight book and chewing gum and shyly said she’s seen it ten times. When her dad asked her if the film loses appeal for her after the 10th time she shook her head no. Haley didn’t really explain why she liked it, but when the interviewer mentioned character Edward Cullen she blushed and started smiling wide like she couldn’t help it.

I was over at my neighbors’ house yesterday and two of their boys around Hayley’s age were watching Twilight and talking about how great it was. I have yet to see it although I definitely should as it’s become such a phenomenon. From what I can tell it’s more popular with tweens and teens than adults and doesn’t have the universal appeal of a series like Harry Potter. Do we have any older fans of Twilight here and what do you like about the movie and/or book series?

Kevin Smith is next working on a movie called A Couple of Dicks, which will star Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. It’s the first time he’s directing a movie he didn’t write. He describes it as a “buddy cop flick” that will transcend our expectations and is a throwback to solid guy films like 48 hours.

Beloved director Kevin Smith has decided it’s time to drop some weight. He’s been complaining on his blog for months about how fat he thinks he is, and his desire to be alone, away from the press, and drop some serious poundage. In fact Smith recently admitted to the L.A. Times that he broke a toilet due to his girth.

After his new movie “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” reaches theaters Friday, Kevin Smith plans to start counting his calories. Since his doctor called him morbidly obese, he’s giving up the all-you-can-eat lifestyle and taking a “health sabbatical” intended to shed extra pounds he packed on while filming the raunchy, Seth Rogen-starring romantic comedy in Pittsburgh last year.

“I’m going away for a while,” Smith said, puffing a menthol cigarette on the patio of his Hollywood Hills home, “to concentrate on myself. To save my life.”

At a time when Smith has been heavily promoting “Zack and Miri” — perhaps the most commercially viable movie in his 15-year career as a multi-hyphenate actor-writer-director of crude comedies and art-house bromances — the issue of his weight has remained front of mind. The director has been complaining about being fat in radio interviews and fretting about it on his blog much to the chagrin of Weinstein Co. publicists for the film, who have openly wished the director would “talk about something else.” Like, for instance, how closely in tone and casting the movie resembles something conjured up by comedy rainmaker Judd Apatow?

Adding insult to injury, Smith’s girth contributed to an embarrassing incident last week. “I broke a toilet. That’s how heavy I am,” said Smith. “I can’t take all the credit — that was an old toilet and a very waterlogged wall — but my size took that toilet down. I cannot cognitively reframe it and be like, ‘It wasn’t me — it was the toilet.’ It was definitely me. And that’s a wake-up call!”

[From the L.A. Times]

I checked out Smith’s website “My Boring Ass Life” and he does indeed fret, complain, and obsess about his weight a great deal on there. The most recent entry made me sorta sad.

F*&#, I wish I was still that thin. I’ve porked the f#&$ out, man. I’m really, really fat right now. Fattest I’ve ever been. But as soon as this flick’s out, I’m taking my life back; gonna drop out of sight and drop a bunch of pounds. It’s the deal I’ve made with myself. Just gotta make it through the next two and half weeks of press and running around.

[From My Boring Ass Life]

In other entries Smith comments about his weight and Page Six’s article about it. He sounds quasi-obsessive about pounds, and like he’s not necessarily coming from the best frame of mind. You can sense a panic and desperation, but also this feeling like he’s deeply depressed about it. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, it just made me think that if someone I knew were talking that way, I’d be stressed about them.

Kevin obviously has a lot of weight to lose but it’s not an impossible amount. Once you find a diet that works for you and you can live with, you get in the habit of making certain choices and it really isn’t as hard as it seems. The first month is the toughest, and then it just becomes something you do automatically. If nothing else it sounds like he’s seriously committed to making some much needed changes for the sake of his health. We wish him success.

Kevin Smith and his family at the Los Angeles Premiere of ‘Zack and Miri Make A Porno’ on October 20th. Images thanks to WENN .

It takes a brave man to admit to watching tons of porn these days. Wait, no. It takes an average, normal man to admit to watching tons of porn these days. And that’s pretty much the reputation upon which Seth Rogen has built his career: the average guy who’s funnier than most. Rogen is starring in Kevin Smith’s upcoming film “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.” It’s about two best friends who decide to make a porn film in order to pay down their debts. Rogen says he was into the film from the moment he got an email from Kevin Smith; not just because of the chance to work with his icon, but because… what guy doesn’t love a film about porn?

Smith wrote the script with Rogen in mind, having seen the actor in the acclaimed short-lived TV series “Freaks and Geeks” and later in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” By the time Smith finished the script in spring 2007, Rogen was the cusp of leading-man stardom with “Knocked Up.”

“I started seeing billboards going up with his face on them and I was like, we lost this guy,” Smith said. “This dude was like a supporting actor in `40-Year-Old Virgin’ and he’s just waiting for somebody to give him his own movie.” But Smith said that when he sent an e-mail to Rogen asking if he would read the screenplay, the actor shot back an answer within 2 minutes. Rogen read “Zack and Miri” on the beach in Australia while doing press for “Knocked Up” and was eager to sign on from the start.

The comedic sex depicted in “Zack and Miri” is tame by hardcore pornography standards, and the subject matter never gave Rogen a moment’s pause. “I love porn. I watch tons of porn. The Internet speeds have evolved directly with my sexual drive,” Rogen said. “I almost did it purely based on the title.”

[From the Huffington Post]

Something tells me that if Rogen is anything like most guys his age, he’s been researching this movie role religiously for at least the last ten years. Kevin Smith does movies that you either love or hate; there doesn’t really seem to be much middle ground. But this film seems like it could cross over into a larger audience, if for no other reason than the title alone. I’m pretty sure 99% of the guys that go to see it are going to end up pretty disappointed by the relatively tame sex scenes. Well, tame compared to all the aforementioned porn.

Here’s Seth and costar Elizabeth Banks at Comic Con on July 25th. Images thanks to PR Photos.