On Friday, Capone at AICN posted his Comic Con interview with Kevin Smith, wherein Capone shoves his nose up Smith’s ass to see if there are any Jersey Girl chunks left in there, but wherein they also talked about the ratings process for Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The short form is that Smith submitted a 105 minute cut, was given an NC-17, made 12 minutes of cuts, was given another NC-17, made two more tiny edits, and the rating stood. “They still said it was NC-17. I wasn’t frustrated, I wasn’t mad, I was just like “I feel like I’ve gone as far as I’m comfortable going; let’s take it to the next stage,” which is the appeals part of the process.”
In shocking further news, AP today reports that Smith’s appeal was actually successful. Actually, it isn’t terribly shocking news, as this is the third time the guy has won an appeal process against the MPAA. (Clerks and Jersey Girl were the first two.) Zack and Miri will go out as an R-rated film. The lingering NC-17 had been due to a pair of sex scenes between Jason Mewes and Katie Morgan. (Who isn’t identified by the AP article as an actual porn actress. Is that ignorance or admirable restraint?) “They felt it was rather sexually graphic,” says Smith..“My point is, it was comically graphic. All the sex in the movie with the exception of one scene is very cartoonish, very campy. It wasn’t designed to titillate.”