Kevin Smith

The bearded, heavyset guy who walks into a darkened editing studio and starts shoving the two big couches back into alignment looks like Kevin Smith, the writer-actor-director-cult hero beloved for his vulgar, cockeyed yet sweetly human dissections of life through the eyes of the young and disaffected. There's the oversized Brooklyn baseball jersey he wears over a long-sleeved sweatshirt, the sneakers with gray socks, the baggy below-the-knees jean shorts, the Marlboro Ultra Lights, the cans of Diet Dr. Pepper, even the new make-it-yourself snack discovery he offers you, frozen peanut M&Ms.

After his new movie "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" reaches theaters Friday, Kevin Smith plans to start counting his calories. Since his doctor called him morbidly obese, he's giving up the all-you-can-eat lifestyle and taking a "health sabbatical" intended to shed extra pounds he packed on while filming the raunchy, Seth Rogen-starring romantic comedy in Pittsburgh last year.

THE opening credits of "Clerks II" feature a travelogue montage of suburbia, as a song by Talking Heads gently croons, "Years ago I was an angry young man." The same might be said of writer and director Kevin Smith.

As do many Hollywood stories, this one begins with rejection. MTV Networks asked Kevin Smith to write or produce an award show, but the director of indie favorites "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy" turned the project down. "If you had a gun pointed at my head, I couldn't name a single [video jockey] beyond Kennedy -- who, I'm told, hasn't been a VJ in about a decade," Smith wrote in his blog. The two sides kept talking, and Smith became intrigued by mtvU, a TV channel for college students.

Dwarfed by the cavernous stage of downtown's Orpheum Theatre, indie film icon Kevin Smith held court Saturday night on a black leather couch that looked as if it came straight from 1994. Bathrobe clad, he took questions from faithful fans with an outing that, were it anyone but the affably crude Smith, might be billed as a one-man show. Here it was just "An Evening With Kevin Smith," the latest in a touring series of lengthy Q&A's that the auteur periodically does to sold-out crowds in venues such as New York's Carnegie Hall or Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto.

I would guess if Philip Rivers isn't going to start, you must give the edge to the Chargers. The Patriots and Bill Belichick probably don't have any videotape on Billy Volek. David R. Stern Los Angeles -- Hey T.J., got crow? It couldn't be eaten by a (more) bitter man. Keep up the great prognostication. The Goofs send their warm regards. Mike Kilgore Los Angeles -- Why not acknowledge the Los Angeles Chargers of San Diego and be satisfied all around? Gilbert S. Bahn Moorpark -- Some words of wisdom to the immature Chargers players so filled with confidence heading into this weekend's showdown with the Patriots: Keep your mouth shut, take the high road and act like you've been there before . . . Oh, wait, you haven't been there before, and you won't get there this time, either.

Cornerback Travis Fisher said he won't fly back to Detroit from Green Bay if the Lions somehow manage to find a way to beat the Packers on today. "If we win, I ain't catching the plane back home," he said with a laugh. "I'll walk back to Detroit." Chances are, Fisher won't have to worry about making the 482-mile trek. A loss would install the Lions in their very own NFL Hall of Shame as the league's first team to go 0-16 in a season. They're already the first to go 0-15. A win, of course, would be better, allowing Detroit the dubious distinction of becoming the ninth franchise to finish a season 1-15.

As a beginning hurdler for the track team at Ventura County's Oak Park High School, Brian M. Wolverton fell and hit the ground more than a few times. He would then quietly talk to himself about how to improve his form and technique, his coach said. And he would try again and again. In track competition and in later challenges in his life, Wolverton "demonstrated a determination and persistence to overcome all obstacles," recalled his high school coach, Kevin Smith. Former teammate Gary Fong also remembered Wolverton's positive attitude in a sport with its share of injuries and pain.

Filmmaker and comic book aficionado Kevin Smith will write and direct an adaptation of "The Green Hornet" for the big screen, Miramax Films said Wednesday. "Longtime comics geek gets to make comic-book movie? This is a dream come true," Smith said in a news release. His previous films include "Clerks," "Chasing Amy," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Dogma."

The Ladykillers Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall Touchstone, $30 Though it is sacrilege to remake the classic 1955 Ealing British comedy that starred Alec Guinness as the eccentric head of a group of misfit bank robbers, at least this new version has quite a few things in its favor. Iconoclastic Joel and Ethan Coen direct the comedy with much perverse style and a macabre sense of humor. Hanks seems to be channeling Foghorn Leghorn and Col. Sanders as the con man; Irma P.