'Jay and Silent Bob' brings new protests for director

Whatever it is you have to say to Kevin Smith, it's a solid bet he's already heard it.

Protest until the veins in your forehead explode, as the Catholic League did over the New Jersey director's previous film "Dogma," a raunchy tale casting Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as two fallen angels, which explored the nature of Smith's Catholic faith.

Less rabidly, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has decried his latest effort, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," calling its humor anti-gay, a notion he vehemently denies on his Web site. On the ridiculous side, people are also getting worked up about the song "Because I Got High" on the movie's soundtrack.

Smith, 31, has to expect that kind of thing by now, even though he says, "I was thinking I'm going to make as many people laugh as possible. ... After dealing with hundreds of thousands of pieces of hate mail and three death threats (over 'Dogma') I wanted to do something where nobody was going to be upset."

Putting his pothead signature sidemen into the spotlight for a gag-fest should have been the solution. "Jay and Silent Bob" (see review in the Ticket section) is a retirement party for Smith's weed-selling slacker duo, who first stole the show in "Clerks" before appearing in all his other films, a short-lived animated TV series, comic books and in "Scream 3."

Everyone Smith has ever worked with and a few others were invited, including Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Smith's wife, Jennifer Schwalbach (who appears as a member of jewel-thieving girl gang), and his daughter, Harley Quinn (baby Silent Bob).

The GLAAD protests have taken Smith by surprise. Then again, flaps aren't his true concern, especially when it comes to "Jay and Silent Bob."

Cliché as it may seem, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" is for his true fans. Not just the passers-by who liked "Dogma" or "Chasing Amy" ("That one was for the critics," he sniffed). Not even for indie-heads who grooved on the $27,000 black-and-white flick that made him a generational hero, "Clerks." We're talking about the folks who so love Smith they adore his sophomore debacle, "Mallrats."

And what a faithful lot they are. Smith cultivates his fan base by interacting with them through e-mails and day-to-day chatter on his Web site, www.viewaskew.com. He mingles with the masses at comic-book conferences, freely signing autographs and discussing his passions with the average guy.

Therefore, "Jay and Silent Bob" somewhat safely plays bongsaber battles, "Good Will Hunting II: Hunting Season" and an ape-napping for big laughs. "I got away with making a very self-indulgent movie that doesn't feel self-indulgent because it works," he said. "And only if you know me very well do you know, `He got away with making a movie that's all about him and his dopey friends.'"

That emotional proximity also has a downside in that Smith is very sensitive about how ardent fans interpret his movies. "The work is such a personal extension of myself," he said. "So when people go after my work, it's kind of a personal attack. The moment I start divorcing myself from that, the quality of my work will start to sag because suddenly I'm not as personally invested in it."

What he is divorcing himself from are his old creations. For his next personal project, Smith wants to address fatherhood — "It gives you so much, but what they rarely talk about is what it takes away," he said — but first "Fletch Won," a movie version of Gregory McDonald's novel, is on deck. Bidding farewell to Jay means opening Jason Mewes (who plays him) to more roles, Smith hopes.

Smith also acknowledges that putting Jay and Bob away doesn't mean they're done for. "There will always be dudes hanging out, selling weed, not getting a decent job, not really adding much," he said. "They're everywhere, and they'll never go away."