Picking on the Porn Star

MSNBC has a piece on Zack and Miri Make a Porno up now and, among other things, it elaborates on which scene nearly earned the film an NC-17.

Smith nipped and tucked the key objectionable segment, a comically over-the-top sex scene between Mewes and Morgan. But the ratings board held to the NC-17 designation, which Smith later got knocked down to an R rating after stating his case to the MPAA appeals board.

So, it was the Mewes-Morgan scene, huh? Remember Kevin joking about how “believable” that scene turned out to be? I don’t think we should be surprised that the scene featuring the active porn star was the one the MPAA chose to pick on. Regardless of whether it’s a cartoonish sequence or not, the guys in the screening room must’ve known that Morgan did this stuff for real in her day job and that must’ve come into play. Don’t you think?

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Warren Cheswick Makes a Porno?

Photo from Silent Bob Speaks

Justin Long, the Mac to John Hodgman’s PC in Apple’s (in)famous “Get a Mac” advertising campaign, apparently has a role in the new Kevin Smith film Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and while I am just as much an Apple fan as I am a View Askew fan, I am not sure that this is a good thing.

I first heard about Long’s cameo during the flurry of news coming out of this year’s San Diego Comic Con, and back then it didn’t bother me. But seeing this picture, the one I’ve embedded above, seeing Justin do the same thing he’s been doing since his Warren Cheswick days on Ed (I loved me some Ed by the way… anyone else?), it has me a bit worried. Much as I love Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, it’s cameo/in-joke -ridden sense of humor isn’t the sort of thing I’m hoping for from this new film.

In Kevin I Trust, and all that. But this photo has me scared. How about you?

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“We’re not really showing any penis.” - Elizabeth Banks on Zack and Miri

Following up on his interview with Seth Rogen (previously mentioned here), Capone from Ain’t It Cool News has an interview with Elizabeth Banks, the other half of the titular dynamic duo from Kevin Smith’s next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

My favorite quote from the piece once again brings up the asinine nature of the MPAA ratings board’s decision-making process:

Capone: This film smells a bit like a romance under all this flesh peddling.

EB: It’s very romantic. I mean, it’s uber-romantic, this movie. It’s what sold me on the movie. It’s why I can’t believe the MPAA is giving us so much shit, because really the movie has so much heart. Meanwhile Saw 2 is about people cutting off each other’s limbs and blood gushing everywhere is an R. We make this big, heartfelt movie where people happen to fuck each other, and we get an NC-17. I mean, we don’t even show dick. We’re not really showing any penis.

As you may recall, Zack and Miri won an appeal recently and will be rated R, after all. But that doesn’t make Banks’s point any less valid. We, in this country, are way too sensitive about sex and sexual imagery, and way too desensitized to violence. We are nation in love with war and gore and scared to death of love and lovemaking. What a sad state of affairs…

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“Zack and Miri” Will Be Rated R

Kevin Smith’s next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, will be rated R after all, according to the Associated Press. As you may recall, the film was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA. It was only on appeal that this porno was granted clemency.

Kevin explains the controversy to the AP:

“They felt it was rather sexually graphic. My point is, it was comically graphic. All the sex in the movie with the exception of one scene is very cartoonish, very campy,” Smith said. “It wasn’t designed to titillate.”

I’d like to echo the sentiments of the guys over at News Askew and congratulation Kev and Mosier on the win. The fact that they didn’t have to make any additional cuts to get the rating that they wanted is huge. I’m sure the fact that they’ve got one of the biggest stars in the industry right now (Rogen) as their lead didn’t hurt—After all, the MPAA wants a healthy industry first and foremost, right? And how would limiting the audience of a Seth Rogen movie with an NC-17 help business?—but I’m sure that the View Askew team put together an excellent case for the appeals board, as well.

Meanwhile, Seth Rogen is chatting about Zack and Miri (among other things) in this new interview with Ain’t It Cool News’s Capone (conducted at this year’s San Diego Comic Con). Check out this choice quote:

Capone: This might be a stupid question, but is there a lot of nudity in it?

SR: Yeah, there’s nudity in it. Katie Morgan is in it. She doesn’t own clothes [laughs].

Me and a friend were talking about Rogen not sounding very excited about the film recently, but this interview certainly disproves that theory. Maybe he’s just been so wrapped up in promoting Pineapple Express, which comes out today, that he hasn’t had time to even really think about Zack and Miri. Here’s hoping that his enthusiasm for the project continues to shine through in future interviews. Kevin and company need an excited and publicly visible star out there for them on this one. It’s going to take a lot to convince America to go watch Porno in a public place (we know they’ll do it in a private place, but that’s not the issue) and we need Rogen out there promoting the hell out of this one as we near the release.

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Worth Your Consideration 013 - A GF5 Linkdump

• The official Website for Nine Inch Nails is getting updated far more frequently these days, now that the band is on tour again. Only trouble is: there is no official archive of the front-page articles that are coming fast and furious. Enter the NIN Blog & Media Archive. It is simply a must-bookmark for any serious Nine Inch Nails fan.
• In other NIN news, Rolling Stone has a full set-list from and a nice write-up of the private rehearsal show I mentioned last Thursday. The setlist that Rolling Stone has up says that the Ghosts songs played were 1, 25, 19, and 31.
• DarkUFO, Ain’t It Cool News, and the Lostpedia Blog have write-ups of the Lost panel held at the San Diego Comic-Con. Among the many teases provided by executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse was a tidbit about the apparently ageless Richard Alpert. It turns out that the number of toes on Richard’s feet may have some significance. You do remember the statue with four toes at the end of season 2, right? There was also a new Marvin Candle/Mark Wickmund/Edgar Halliwax video shown, which was available on YouTube for a short while. That was really interesting, and I encourage you to check it out if you can find it. Apparently, Marvin/Mark/Edgar is actually a guy named Pierre Cheng. And he seems to have a bit of knowledge about his future that maybe he shouldn’t have.
• Also at Comic-Con: the one and only Kevin Smith. Kev was there pimping a bunch of things, but primarily his upcoming film Zack and Miri Make a Porno. News Askew has you covered on that front. The thing that piqued my interest the most was that the clip shown at the convention featured Justin “I’m a Mac” Long and Brandon “I’m Superman” Routh as a gay couple. The casting news on this just keeps getting better, doesn’t it?
• Lastly, AICN gets its second mention in today’s linkdump for providing the trailer to Oliver Stone’s George Bush biopic W. The accents don’t seem right, but the casting seems superb.

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