The director, previously dogged by Catholics over his 1999 Alanis-as-God religious comedy Dogma, is now facing heat from GLAAD over what it calls the "overwhelmingly homophobic" tone of his new flick, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
The film, which hits theaters August 22, stars Jason Mewes and Smith as stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob, who set off for Hollywood to sabotage a movie loosely based on their life.
But aside from a string of all-star cameos, Smith's film is also rife with oral-sex jokes, gay references and goofball male humor. After viewing a screening, GLAAD representatives fired off a letter to Smith, complaining that the film "reinforces [gay men] as objects of acceptable ridicule and dehumanization," and condemning Jay's perpetual use of the word "gay" when describing something stupid.
"I know Kevin Smith is not a homophobe," says Scott Seomin, GLAAD's entertainment media director. "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, foreseeing the PR flap that was brewing, posted his own lengthy response Tuesday night on the Website for his production company, www.ViewAskew.com. In a preemptive strike, Smith published GLAAD's letter and defended both himself and his movie, calling it a satire of young male stupidity.
"Neither Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back nor myself are homophobic," he wrote. "If anything, we're overtly gay-friendly.
"I swear, I caught it from the right wing on Dogma, and now I'm catching it from the left wing on this flick," he adds. "Which am I, people, a bleeding heart liberal or Bible-thumping conservative? And when the hell do I get to make a movie in which I don't have to explain myself afterwards?"
As anyone who's seen a Kevin Smith film will point out, the Jay and Silent Bob characters have always had a Batman-and-Robin-style relationship--even occasionally teetering into ambiguously gay territory. Dogma included scenes in which Jay admitted to having sexual fantasies about guys.
Said Smith: "When you have two main characters who've both--at one point or another--hinted at or flat-out copped to homo-erotic escapades, how on earth can that be considered 'gay bashing'? It's more than you get in most 'buddy' flicks. Did Murtaugh and Riggs [of Lethal Weapon] ever cop to getting dreamy over the male anatomy? I think not."
Both Smith and Seomin say they've been cordial in their discussions about the film; Seomin says he was even sitting in Smith's office when the director posted his Web message. To his credit, Seomin says, "Kevin responded. A lot of filmmakers wouldn't."
GLAAD, however, believed there was no possible way for Smith to change his film, and instead suggested that the director make a donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an organization aimed at educating kids about the dangers of homophobia and founded by the mother of the slain gay student from Wyoming. Smith complied, donating $10,000 to the cause.
But the not-so-silent filmmaker insists his donation shouldn't be mistaken for an apology. "I'm not sorry--because I didn't make the jokes at the expense of the gay community," Smith wrote. "I made jokes at the expense of two characters who neither I nor the audience have ever held up to be paragons of intellect. They're idiots."
Still, Seomin believes the satire will be lost on many of Smith's fans.
"GLAAD is steadfast in its belief that this film is dangerous, and Kevin is steadfast in believing it's a satire," he says. "The audience is not going to be separating satire from acceptable behavior when they're bombarded with constant 'fag jokes.'"