Date: 3rd August 2001

Dogma Director In Troble With Gay Group


DOGMA (1999) director KEVIN SMITH has been blasted by a gay rights group over alleged homophobia in his film JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK (2001).

Smith, previously attacked by Catholics over his 1999 religious comedy Dogma, in which ALANIS MORISSETTE played GOD, is under fire from the GAY AND LESBIAN ALLIANCE AGAINST DISCRIMINATION (GLAAD).

The film, which hits cinemas in America on 10 August (01), stars JASON MEWES and Smith himself as Jay and Silent Bob. But Smith's film is rife with oral-sex jokes and gay references and after viewing a screening, GLAAD fired off a letter to Smith.

They complain that the film "reinforces gay men as objects of acceptable ridicule and dehumanization," and condemn Jay's perpetual use of the word "gay" when describing something stupid.

SCOTT SEOMIN, GLAAD's entertainment media director, says, "I know Kevin Smith is not a homophobe. But we feel the movie he wrote and directed is overwhelmingly homophobic, and there's a huge potential for a negative impact on gay people, particularly gay youth. "

Smith has posted his own response to the criticism on the Website for his production company, www. ViewAskew. com. calling it a satire of young male stupidity. He writes, "Neither Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back nor myself are homophobic. If anything, we're overtly gay-friendly. " (MCM/WNWCEY

Source: WENN