Jay and Silent Bob Clean Up Their Act

With its new R-rated comedy, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” set to hit theaters Friday, Dimension Films faced a unique challenge: how to make commercials for the movie that are suitable for television when they feature Jay, who spouts four-letter words and crude sexual jokes in virtually every scene.

“Jay is a very difficult person to quote in a commercial,” said Bob Weinstein, who heads Dimension, a label within Miramax Films.

The solution? Have Jason Mewes and director Kevin Smith, who portray Jay and Silent Bob (so named because he rarely speaks), film a new series of TV spots, but have them use cleaned-up language.

In the commercials, which augment other spots made for the film, Mewes and Smith are seen standing in front of a New Jersey convenience store, a locale familiar to fans of Smith’s first film, “Clerks.” As the camera rolls, Jay prattles on about their new movie while Silent Bob listens.

“It’s got hot chicks, jokes about getting it on, it’s got cursing,” Jay tells Silent Bob in one commercial. In another, Jay tells his burly friend: “Smoking bleep! Killing bleep! Drinking bleep! I’m censoring myself. We’re on TV.”

But getting commercials on the air isn’t Dimension’s only concern. Weinstein said that MTV won’t allow a video from the soundtrack featuring Afroman to be seen on the cable music network because MTV believes the lyrics promote drugs.

In the video, Afroman raps: “I was gonna clean my room until I got high. I was gonna get up and find the broom, but then I got high.”

“Obviously, [the song] is about all the things this guy didn’t get to do because he got high,” Weinstein asserted. “It’s an anti-drug [recording]. They just don’t get it.”

Officials at MTV could not be reached for comment.

Source Awards: Making Some Changes

Will the brawls that marred last year’s staging of the Source Hip-Hop Awards taint the 2001 edition being taped tonight in Miami, or will they only add punch to the show’s growing ratings?

DMX, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Mary J. Blige, Nelly and Ja Rule are some of the performers lined up for the third annual event, to be seen Aug. 28 on UPN.

The show bills itself as the marquee gala in the rap world, but last August the celebration ended in an ugly melee that sent one man to the hospital and gave vivid visual fodder to critics who say the rap world too often lives the thug life described in so many of its rhymes.

“What happened last year was an embarrassment. I was devastated,” says David Mays, the founder and chief executive of the Source, the U.S. music magazine that enjoys the best newsstand sales and runs the show.

“This is my life’s work here.... To see it just fall apart like that was terrible. But that’s life. You go through life with mistakes and you learn from them.”

The first lesson learned? Mays says his staff worked far more closely with police and city officials this year to put security and safety issues at the forefront. The show was uprooted from last year’s site, the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, and moved across the country to the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami in part because of Florida officials’ enthusiasm to work with the show, Mays says.

This year’s show is also an invitation-only affair, unlike last year when blocs of tickets were sold to music industry companies and were easy to find in the hands of street-corner hawkers. “Any record label that wants tickets this year had to submit a detailed list with every name and who they are,” Mays said. “We will know everybody in the house.”

Candidly, Mays says the specter of last year’s fights may help the show. “People will be curious,” he says. “They will want to see what happens this time.” The show pulled about 5.7 million viewers last year after widespread media coverage of the chaotic taping, topping its debut year audience of 4 million. Mays expects a new high this year--without the negative publicity.

“The music,” he says, “that’s reason to watch.”

Compiled by Times staff writers