Director Smith strikes back

These are fighting times for Kevin Smith, the director and star of"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." First the gay and lesbian anti-defamation organization GLAAD had a bone to pick with him. Then TimBurton got into the act.

After getting pummeled by the Catholic League for hiscontroversial "Dogma"--in which God not only was one of us, but aCanadian in the form of Alanis Morissette--Smith says he wanted tomake a light, no-brainer comedy.

"The last thing I wanted was to make anything even remotelycontroversial this time," says Smith, 31, phoning from his New Jerseyhome. "We got so close to the release date without anythinghappening, and then the GLADD thing kind of exploded."

Ah yes. That GLAAD thing. After screening the film, theorganization found it offensive and asked for--and received--a$10,000 donation from Smith to benefit the Matthew ShepardFoundation. Smith also agreed to make reference to GLADD's cause inthe end credits, but he offers no apology for his comedy.

"[GLAAD entertainment media director] Scott Seomin has said,'Kevin isn't homophobic but the movie is,' " says Smith. "I said,'Scott, the movie doesn't get any more personal than this. This issuch a huge part of who I am. How can I not be homophobic but themovie can?' There's more gay content in this movie than in most gay-themed movies. There are a lot of gay jokes, but not at the expenseof the gay community."

He stars in the film and his wife and daughter appear.

"I'm married now to one of you people," he says, referring to hiswife Jennifer, a former journalist for USA Today. "She plays one ofthe members of the girl gang in the movie. Our daughter Harley playsme as a kid. That baby looks exactly like I did as a youth. We havetwo sets of genetics at work. Part of Harley wants to go up, cause mywife is tall and thin. Part of her wants to go out like me, so she'sgot to be careful. Hopefully Jennifer's genetics will win out."

The movie centers around the exploits of Jay and Silent Bob, apair of pot-smoking, butt munches who also were featured in Smith'sprevious films, "Clerks," "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy" and "Dogma." Jay(Jason Mewes) is a pointy faced, foul-mouthed horn-dog whose missionin life is to smoke weed and make it with the ladies. Silent Bob--played by Smith--is, well, silent.

After learning on the Internet that a movie is being made aboutcartoon characters that are based on them and that kids are sayingnegative things about their alter egos, the bumbling duo decides thatthe only thing to stop this negative commentary is to halt productionof the film.

OK, this isn't exactly a plot that'll win an Oscar for bestscreenplay, but Smith doesn't care. He had fun writing and acting init and got to work with friends such as Ben Affleck, who recentlychecked himself into a rehab center for alcohol abuse.

"Affleck is absolutely OK," says Smith. "I just talked to him theother day. He lives for being a movie star and would never letanything derail his career. Ben has always been his own biggest fan,but not in an arrogant, egocentric way. Hes very charming. Mostactors don't like to go watch dailies of the scenes they shot theprevious day. But Affleck would always be there front row center witha big bowl of popcorn loudly appreciating his own performance. Ifyou're watching his dailies and hear someone going, "Mmmm. Genius!"you know it's Affleck. Its so cute."

Unlike his movie star buddy, Smith says his glass is always halfempty. Just turned 31, he's already worried about being nine yearsaway from turning 40--halfway to death in his eyes. And if 99 criticslove his work, he'll obsess about the one who thought it was so-so.

So when Tim Burton slammed him in the press, Smith was hurt. Smithhad jokingly pointed out to the New York Post's Lou Lum-enick thatBurton's surprise ending to "Planet of the Apes" was a rip-off of aplotline in his 1998 comic book miniseries "Chasing Dogma."

"When I saw his movie, I thought it was uncanny and I told Loufacetiously that I felt ripped off," says Smith. "Apparently Tim tookit very seriously. I spoke to Lou about it and he said that Tim'spublicist called to say more about it, including that Tim would neverread anything by me! I want to put that on a book jacket."

On his Web site (www.viewaskew.com), Smith asks that fans notboycott Burton's films over this misunderstanding.

Criticism on the anonymous Internet is another matter.

"Tim Burton can say something nasty about me and I don't reallycare, because I know who he is and what he's done," Smith says. "Idon't know what a guy named Whompa1 on the Internet is, how old he isor what he's all about. I would love to believe the Internet is madeof three 14-year-old boys with just a bunch of different names. Theanonymity is the thing that drives me ape s---."

No offense intended, Tim Burton.